Curved Ridge
Curved Ridge and Crowberry Tower Grade 2 / 3 under summer conditions Curved Ridge is the most well-known and popular scramble on Buachaille Etive Mor, and arguably the second best in the Glencoe area, after the Aonach Eagach. Park at Altnafeadh and take the path over the footbridge in the direction of Coire na Tulaich (the ‘tourist route’ up the Buachaille).
After a few hundred meters, the path forks; take the left fork, which flanks the complex cliffs of Stob Dearg. Follow this for some way (passing beneath a number of other scrambles such as Broad Buttress), cross a scree and shortly afterwards pass beneath the bottom of the huge Water Slab, with the small stream dropping off a short steep and wet cliff at the bottom.
Cross to the left side (facing) of the slab, and head up until level with the top of it. Ignore the continuation of the flanking path that you’ve been on going off to the left and head steeply, directly upwards, on a well-trodden path through little outcrops, scree and heather. At this point, the lower part of Curved Ridge can be seen well up to the right – the huge vertical face of Rannoch Wall is a good indicator of where it is, if you can identify that. Don’t head up the gully immediately in front (or the ridge to the left, which is a climb) but keep moving diagonally right towards the bottom edge of Rannoch Wall, through some quite steep grade 1 / 2 scrambling moves (harder if wished!)
The route finding looks quite complex from below, but there is a well trodden and scratched way throughout which soon brings you to the bottom of Curved Ridge itself. The first steep rise of Curved Ridge can be identified by a deep gully to its right (Easy Gully), on the other side of which rises Rannoch Wall. Take this head on – grade 2, plenty of holds, and if in doubt just follow the polish! It eases off and there is a less steep and somewhat broken but still intermittently interesting section (grade 1 / 2), then another steeper section. Route finding is easy as the ridge is quite narrow and there is generally nowhere else to go. The views of Rannoch Wall, and over Rannoch Moor itself, are stunning.
After a while a significantly steeper rise in the ridge comes into view, with a deep gully/chimney to its right. This is the crux of the route (grade 3 / mod) and it would be worth considering roping up at this point if you have gear with you. Don’t go into the gully but take the obstacle head-on. There are plenty of good holds, a rightward slanting and rather polished groove being the most demanding bit, after which you top out. There is just a little more easy scrambling to where the ridge peters out beneath the rocks of Crowberry Tower. Straight ahead, to the left of the tower there appears to be an easy walk-off up a grassy gully. However, if you wish to continue scrambling in a similar vein, notice the very narrow and exposed flanking path going right towards the col between the top of Rannoch Wall and the N