The Clachaig Gully

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This is an old-fashioned sort of route and not climbed much these days. Also, there have been some rock falls in recent years which have increased the grade in places, and there is a considerable danger from loose stuff being knocked down from the path above the gully. Finally, the descent route is that path which is loose and dangerous in places - a number of people have fallen into the gully from it.

The most amusing account of a climb I have ever read is Allan Austin's story of his adventures on this climb with Dougal Haston, Jimmy and Ronnie Marshall, James Moriarty and Robin Smith. I t was originally published in the SMC Journal in 1970, but I found it in 'Classic Rock', Ken Wilson's compilation of writings about easy but great climbs (ISBN 0-906371-18-X) which I highly recommend. If you ever read this account you should remember that Allan Austin was a great climber who put up many of the then hardest routes in Yorkshire, some of which are classics and many of which are still at the top of the gradings.

Happily my companion was my Glencoe MRT friend, who used to teach climbing for Hamish MacInnes and had been on this route many times previously. The starting point is easy to find - it's the Clachaig Hotel which has a splendid view straight up the gully which delineates the western end of the cauldron which created Glencoe. We took helmets, rope and gear but left the rock boots behind. Once we entered the gully proper it was obvious why - it was a wonderfully green place with vegetation everywhere! This is one place sheep and deer do not venture so it doesn't suffer the effects of their eating. It's full of trees, flowers, mosses, ferns and lichens and would probably have botanists swooning. We, however, were swooning at the problems a rock fall had created.

The original route was no longer there and we had a very interesting scrabble up the east side of the gully, followed by a traverse across thick and easily dislodged mosses. Further on we were moving up a slippery slab when two climbers came down to us. They had had problems higher up and were descending. We continued a little further up and climbed the Great Cave pitch. Here, however, we called it a day. Progress was slow and the pub was beckoning. We abseiled back down and as I followed I realised that my left-handed friend had rigged the pitch so that my right-handed self got rather wet! Since it was a nice day I didn't really mind. At this point is the one easy exit from the gully (another reason we stopped there). We headed back down, had a swift beer and drove back to Fort William.