The next weather window looked like settling in over Lochaber, so we moved base camp to Craigallan (The Rucksack Club’s hut near Ballachulish, though the word “hut” hardly does justice to this palatial seafront residence). Drizzle early on Wednesday made for a leisurely start, with time to spare to cut the grass, before we headed south towards Oban and the newly-developed sport climbing at Gallanach. Roadside, sunny and quick-drying, it’s a perfect spot to salvage the most from an iffy start.

Since our visit last year there has been further developments, and we made an early repeat of one of Dave Macleod (okay, that sounds more impressive than it is – Dave’s put up a number of routes on these crags including: Mission Creep which weighs in at a modest 6a+, however it’s a great addition and probably the pick of the lines on the Roadside Buttress).

Further left, Nyx Got Zoomies, 6a, is another fine new addition:

… and Helen also made a repeat ascent of Pocket Monster, 6a, surely a future classic.

We also explored the rightmost Towers sector, where Vomitorium has to be a candidate for the best 6b in Scotland (I felt better than Moy Bueno at Moy and Fleet Street at Creag Beag, both of which I’d done the previous week). It’s also in a quite sublime spot!

Thursday was the kind of day usually only found in the Visit Scotland commercials – wall-to-wall sunshine, though not super-toasty. Perfect for a visit to Am Buchaille’s Great Gully Buttress. Set opposite Slime Wall, its easterly aspect means the early bird catches some sunshine. We’d just missed out but at least the rock had been dried and warmed for us.

You might just be able to make out Casper and his friend on August Crack on the edge of the shadow.

The approach is the same as for Slime Wall, and always strikes me as a bit harrowing (and a sandbag at 50mins!)

Talking of Slime Wall we got a couple of pics of Milo and friend on Bludger’s Revelation:

We did June crack, a 3-pitch VS 5a which is the classic and most obvious crack line on the wall. It perhaps harkens back to the days when VS was the top of the grading tree in Scotland, as it is certainly no pushover. Fab climbing though.

… and excuse the wide angle distortion in this pic:

And a couple of shots of the other team topping out on Facade:

… against a distant backdrop of The Ben…

… before heading down.

Another cracking day for a mountain crag had us heading up to the East Face of Aonach Dubh – a beautiful walk in its own right and popular with tourists (or at least the minority who venture beyond the car). When we turned off the main path, towards the crag, we had to explain to the French couple following us: “C’est suellement pour l’escalade”.

We were planning to do The Spider on Weeping Wall (especially as it was dry as a bone). The only problem is that there are two adjacent routes, left and right hand, and we couldn’t remember which one we’d done it few years ago. The only answer was to do both to be sure! Both are excellent, worthy of 3*, and most of a rope length. The righthand one is VS and the left HVS, with a poorly protected traverse around half height, to raise the pulse, and the option of a spicy direct finish to maintain independence from the neighbouring line. For ultimate convenience there’s an abseil descent too.

Glencoe might not be renowned for its glorious weather, but get lucky enough to catch a fine spell and it’s hard to beat!