Walk of the week: Stob Choire Claurigh

WITH MORNING rain forecast to clear, an October Sunday promised a brief gap in the wet and windy weather; an opportunity seized by a number of hillwalkers.

Well, it was very wet, but the afternoon did give one of those magic times – low cloud in the glens and clear peaks above. This was ideal for one of the best high-level, non-scrambling ridges in the country, the Grey Corries, on the north side of upper Glen Nevis.

When viewed from afar, the quartzite-covered peaks tend to look snow-covered. Most easterly of the Grey Corries Munros, and the highest at 1177m/3862ft, is Stob Choire Claurigh - the latter word perhaps deriving from clamhras, a reference to the bellowing of stags in rut. North of the summit, by a 1121m bump, is a small stony plateau; a peculiar area rather like a large inverted saucer and disconcerting in thick mist.

There are three subsidiary Tops. 1105m Stob a’Choire Leith lies to the west; the other two are traversed on today’s route. 958m Stob Coire Gaibhre, lowest of all the Grey Corries Tops, lies a mile distant on the north ridge. By contrast, on a short eastern spur marking the end of the Grey Corries ridge and overlooking the Lairig Leacach, is Stob Coire na Ceannain. At 1123m it is not only the second highest Grey Corries peak, but also the most dramatic.

The popular route to Claurigh, via the long northern ridge, takes two miles to climb 800m and serves better for descent. I prefer to use the Lairig Leacach track, then ascend via Ceannain.