UKC

Can you help.

I don't know the name. It was in The Climber in 1994/5

It's not far from Fort William. We got a boat across south west of FW.

Was really popular...everyone seemed to be there...queues of people.

Any idea what it was called please

Cheers

Jacque 

Great Ridge on Garbh Bhienn?

The great ridge of Garbh Bheinn is a 300m diff.  The direct start takes it to severe which could well have been given VD at the time.

Seems like a pretty good shout. I'm just surprised it was so popular!

It leads right to the summit of one of Scotland's finest mountains. Amongst the Corbetts, and with due respect to Suilven and it's neighbours, only Beinn Bhan matches Garbh Bhein for grandeur.

I went to solo the diff variant last year but ended up scrambling up the mod instead.  The start of the diff was an extra 100m and I was getting eaten alive by midges.  I was desperate to gain altitude and find wind by any means necessary and completed the scramble in a matter of a few minutes.

Not that it helped.  It was just as midgy on the top.

It was still VD when we did it in 2004.

The current SMC guide gives it S but I doubt it has changed much.  Maybe they felt under pressure to align with southern grades.

I'm keen to get back up there and actually do the route some time when it's not swarming with demonic insects.

The slab at the very start was hard and bold, so we started in the corner to the side. There were a few other teams around and all but one did the same, the pair who did the slab pronounced it HVS.

After that it seems standard VDiff to me, but then so did the Cioch Nose and Savage Slit so what do I know!

I quite agree! It's not usually popular compared to say, Glen Coe though. Saw no-one all day while climbing on South Wall, but I guess that could happen for just about any Scottish mountain venue.