Damp day on North Buttress, Buachaille Etive Mor

After a very wet day on the Onich Slabs yesterday, Arabella and I decided that another big route was in order in preparation for her upcoming trip to Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia. With a similar forecast to the past couple of days, I.e. strong southwesterly wind and rain, we decided to seek shelter on Stob Dearg again and climbed North Buttress all the way to the summit, giving an excellent and varied route.

Needless to say, it was pretty wet, but fortunately, the rock, which is Rhyolite, where clean, doesn't tend to become much more slippery than when dry. For Arabella, the chimneys of North Buttress offered a contrasting style of climbing to what she was used to and so despite being a modest grade, it kept her thoroughly engaged all the way…

With Arabella keen to get in some more training prior to her trip, I suggested that she visited the Costa Blanca in Spain asap, which will be a bit different from our past few days!