The southern side of Glen Coe includes some very well-known mountains and can be split into two groups; the ones you can see from the A82 and the ones you can’t. Included in the former group is Buachaille Etive Mor, Buachaille Etive Beag, the Three Sisters and the Ballachulish Horseshoe, and in the latter, three Munros between Glen Creran and Glen Etive (Sgor na h-Ulaidh, Beinn Fhionnlaidh and Beinn Sgulaird). With huge amounts of climbing and walking in summer and winter, this area is also home to a large cairn built for Queen Victoria, or so the story goes. Includes all major peaks above 600m.
Weather was sunny to start with later turned to overcast and quite windy. I planned a route the night before and found on the day that the chosen route was too dangerous, patches with black ice and the ground conditions were such that you could not use crampons or microspikes (which I carried in by pack) due to the lack of snow cover. I decided to retrace my steps and found another route to the munros I planned to climb. The terrain was very rocky with loose boulders. I practiced my navigating and the interpretation of contours.. The wind picked up half way during the day and if become bitterly cold. I intended to climb another munro but upon assessing the terrain to get to the munro and bearing in mind the hours of daylight left I decided to not climb it and ensure I would decent of the mountain before it turned dark. The descent was very treatherous with black ices in places and big uneven steps down the path. I had a torch in my pack if needed. By the time I was back in the valley it had turned dusk and in the background I could see the light of a group of climbers making the descent of the mountain and came across people going up who looked ill prepared to go up at night wearing not torches
