This was a truly mad hiking opportunity. Originally I had planned to traverse the two mountains over a weekend. But due to lab work needing to be done and looming mid term tests plus catching up, I decided to try these summits in one day from Manchester.

The weather forecast suggested very stormy weather possible for the highlands with the rest of the U.K. guaranteed a storm. This made me feel apprehensive and I checked every single forecast on every day leading up to the hike for discrepancies and suggestions of a better day.

I got off the coach at White Corries and hitched a lift to the Buchaille. It was raining hard and was distinctly colder than in Manchester. The wind was moderate on Rannoch Moor but not too bad, all the snow from the week before had practically melted away. I headed up to Coire nan Tulaich with a sense of awe for the clouds above swirled like mad and the gusts with the head on rain made for hard unpleasant going. I overtook a group going up and a lady coming down said "It’s windy up there!". I questioned how much I could climb today for I didn’t want ten hours being bored in the Kingshouse for the rest of the day. I was now on the final climb up the corrie which was steep and rocky but not quite a proper scramble.

‘This is it’ I thought, I reached the top ‘Oh it’s not too bad up here’ was my second thought. The wind varied from strong to severe gale, pretty normal stuff really. The rain turned to sleet on reaching the summit ridge and this settled as snow above 950m. Away from the bealach the wind almost died down to zero and was pretty quiet. My confidence picked up and I reached the summit in one and a quarter hours from the road which wasn’t bad.

The remaining ridge over Stob na Doire (which I thought was the Munro at the time) proved to be pleasant but not too narrow. The rain stopped for a time and I thought things would pick up from now, it didn’t, the rain was moderate for the remaining day in an ‘on and off’ mood. Lack of wind made the humidity stifling but still I pressed on. The Larig Gartain was reached for lunch but the ascent to Buchaille Etive Beag was very wet underfoot.

I was tiring now and my reserves of water were now running low. However there was enough time and determination to reach the second summit on this ridge. The walk out was extremely boggy for they had had a week of rain and after leaping across the innumerable mud pools I reached the road with five minutes of daylight left. An excellent day, getting on the coach felt like bliss for I was now in the comfortable warmth and the day made me appreciate my bed at the end. The windiest time of the day was in Manchester at Piccadily gardens were it was a struggle just to get from the coach station to the bus stop!