The weekend of the CMD arrete hike had finally arrived. The hike was planned for Saturday but with glorious weather forecast for Friday, I’d booked the day off work and drove up to Tyndrum on Thursday evening, heading up to Glencoe early on Friday to tackle the two Munros that I had seen nicknamed “Bidean and the Screamer”.

A helicopter was circling overhead as I walked up the lower part of the route – sadly it turned out that it was recovering a body from Stob Coire nan Lochan, of a hiker who had been rteported missing just a few days ago. When I eventually reached the top of Stob Coire nan Lochan, after a long and beautiful hike passing some truly dramatic cliffs, I could completely understand why this route claims so many lives – while there is a clear footpath, the exposure is extreme, and one wrong move could easily see one tumble to one’s death. I took great care on the descent from SCnL to the bealach and on the final semi-scramble up to the top of Bidean.

The view from the top of Bidean, in all directions, is superb – I spent a fair amount of time hanging about at the top resting my tired body and taking lots of photos, before eventually continuing on to Stob Coire Sgreamhach. 

There is an eroded path to the summit of the Screamer, which hugs the edge of the cliff – but I had had enough exposure for the day so opted to walk / scramble up the rocks away from the edge – much safer, with only occasional need for use of hands to reach the summit, with yet more glorious views.

I didn’t spend anywhere near as long on the summit of Stob Coire Sgreamhach as I had on Bidean; having taken my photos I headed back down to the bealach for the final challenge of the day with the steep scree chute leading into the Sacred Valley. Not enjoyable but blessedly brief, before widening into a still steep but less slippery descent – still requiring care on tired legs.

Stopped to dip my feet in the blessedly cool burn near the bottom, and got chatting to a group of lads who were in very high spirits having completed the same route. Back at the car by about 4pm for the drive to Fort William. Overall a very enjoyable day out.