UKC

Planning to try Clachaig Gully next weekend, weather permitting, and seeking all the beta I can. I've looked at the forums and log books and, like many of the Scottish classics, feedback is  mixed. . Any (other) tips from anyone who has done it recently? All feedback appreciated.

My tip: you should have done it three months ago during the drought.Forecast wet and cold this week .

I did it long ago as I recall first pitches are the wettest , watch out for routefinding Jericho wall, I went too far left and ended up with long unsatisfactory traverse back . Take great care on descent back to the road. 

I suppose it's an adventure but in character more akin to winter than rock and there are much better rock climbing experiences elsewhere in the Glen at comparable grades.

The best time to do Clachaig gully is on a warm wet day.

You'll get wet but when it's warm it doesn't matter that much.

Don't drink too much in the Clachaig before you start.

I'd say wait for a drought. It's a pretty serious climb as gear is poor and escape would be problematic. It's great fun but I'm glad I didn't do it in very wet conditions. It's also very long! Don't start late!

Graham 

There is a brilliant account in Classic Rock by Allan Austin.

Maybe he should just go to the Clachaig Inn and stay there.(?) Just to read about it over a pint.

I've never done it, as every time I've suggested it, I've been voted down by friends, and we've ended up doing shorter stuff in Glen Nevis.(Polldubh etc.)

Are the midges less of an issue in the gully and now it's cooler?

We did it the a few days after the drought this summer ended and were surprised how much water there was in the gully. Even after only a few days of the rain the red chimney was awfully full!  

If you are doing the integral, start early. If not, then to walk in below the slab pitch you need to go up the normal path a lot further than you think before you drop in.

Good luck and let us know how you get on!  

Take a dry bag?

 Don't drink the water. I got poisoned by a dead sheep that had fallen in.

I described it as trench warfare.

There are more pitches than you think so you will need stamina. Only 3 pitches are genuinely rock climbing the others vary from soggy scrambling to muddy bushwhacking.

The way down to the side of the gulley is steep but is actually steady and not as bad as made out.

When you emerge onto the scree slope look over to the left to spot the path and head for it - stops you from wasting time on the scree.

Good luck. I’m glad we did it but glad I never have to again.

I'd recommend not treating it as a wet weather option - most of those who hate it do it in poor conditions, most who enjoyed it did it in the relative dry. We climbed it on a day with westerly gale force winds, making the more normal crags a poor choice, and found it completely sheltered.

Clachaig Gully, hmmm, snog/marry/avoid...

... AVOID!  

On a wet Saturday afternoon, many many years ago when the pubs shut in the afternoon at 2.30, we emerged from the Clachaig and did the gully as far as the cave pitch before sauntering back down to the boozer in time for 5.00pm opening. On the same theme I remember emerging from the ODG one wet Saturday and doing some diff or Vdiff on the crag behind it fuelled by half a gallon of OP. I have also climbed Spartan slab when there was a waterfall coming over the moustache and Hammer when the crux had water flowing over it, we had not been drinking though.

Climbing in the wet or climbing wet things or climbing wet things in the wet, requires a certain attitude of mind more than anything else.

From the look of the water belting down it today and the fact its due to rain every day between now and the weekend I'm not convinced you could physically force your way up! 

Don't take much rack... there is very, very little gear.

I did it at the end of a 10 day drought and still got 1 wet foot.

It’s an utterly horrible route* but you will get a good story out of it.

*based on a single ascent after weeks of rain and finishing in the dark and snow with a follow through incident in between. 

A chalk bag isn't really necessary either. A machete and crampons could come in handy though.

I have great memories of climbing in the rain, all the misery of winter but with less insecurity and more daylight. 

I went through a phase in Glencoe, did lots of classics (NF route, Agags, Crowberry etc) in pissing rain, full waterproofs, pack and big boots de riguer. My mate had Koflachs with Yetis superglued on, the disadvantage being that when water ran down his sleeves it filled up his boots. No heavier than wet RDs though. He reckoned caving wellies would have been good for Clachaig gully. 

I've climbed many horrible routes in my time for guidebook work and through general madness and plenty of routes in the rain. This was a massive distance from that: it was genuinely a very good sustained climb when nearly dry. I'd say one of the best gullies I've done: much more sustained fun in rock climbing terms than say the classic Great Gully in Snowdonia. It's certainly not for the inexperienced  or those who need good protection on their climbs or who struggle to route find..

Unlike Eric9Points I think climbing in the wet needs ability in hand and experience more than anything else. Everything is harder, colder and more precarious, and to overcome that you need talent and knowledge of what works. Given how bold and compact the route is I'd guess it might be equivalent to a dry E1 4c, when very wet.

I have done it perhaps 12+ times varying from drought to deluge and from a rock boot romp in an hour to a few hours in the wet in boots and even in the dark, though not from choice then. For 38 years went in or up on many occasions for the benighted, stuck or misplaced, injured or even dead. It's a mountaineering adventure and gone from several ascents each weekend back in the 60's and 70's to out of vogue and very few ascents now and so much greener and more overgrown and much looser so be aware of that. It's fine in boots and safer in them if wet. There has been a rockfall lower down but I have climbed this pitch since, and it's not as good as the pitch that's now gone but much, much harder. We would climb the route in its entirety starting from the very bottom or up to the cave between opening and closing time or from the cave up.  It was also a very popular Glencoe Climbing School adventure for course students back in the day. There is some nice climbing needing good footwork in boots, but poorly protected by modern standards. There is a grubby pitch just before the great cave that you go right across a muddy slab followed by another pitch taking a route to the right up to a tree not up the gully.  Above the cave it becomes more austere. You can escape left (west) from below the cave, or from above Jericho wall out over slabs to the East by going a long way over, crossing another subsidiary gully and heading East then down the shoulder.  The "Cave" is not a cave really and you climb up to the right to a tree then step down left and across to the ledge before "the ramp". The technical crux is the short slab just above "the great cave"  and was called "the ramp" and its not got much gear. Its maybe 4b in the dry and 4c in the wet and needs good careful footwork.  Above Jericho wall escape is not easily possible. Many have been stuck at what was called the "red slab". It's more of a chimney climbed on the left then step across right and up if memory serves me well. The rescue team have a couple of hidden pre placed bolts up above on the path as so many have needed pulled out from here. Mainly because they couldn't climb well in boots, faffed about and ran out of daylight.  Above here there are shorter pitches that will take you out onto the final scree slope where you can either labour up, or head left and follow tat (maybe now all rotted away) more directly to the path. It's a fine route but get used to placing your feet, climb fast and be aware you will get hurt if you fall. It's the essence of trad mountaineering and so a roadside crag climber might well find it intimidating and too hard. Take a head torch in case and enjoy a well deserved pint after 37 pitches all in (many are short) if your start from the lowest point.

A wee story of an ascent: http://crankitupgear.blogspot.com/2013/11/a-guides-tale.html

A UKC classic post Davy. Cheers. I tried twice to work out the route to bypass the rockfall. Even maybe got to the tree on the right that you describe but failed to see any line to return to the gully where I could protect a second.

The pitch lower down getting passed the rockfall I did in the wet not long after it happened and it was now many years ago, so my knowledge and advice as above is maybe out of date so "caveat emptor".  I seem to remember grumblings of it it being 5b and very tight ropes to the others and more rock may well have fallen since so its even harder.  I have a picture of it before the fall and it was a nice narrow bridge up the stream bed with a chockstone finish that could be dammed up at the top to be released on an unsuspecting second at the crucial moment. Picture here: 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bbc1hm3auccsd7k/Clachaig%20Gully%201979.jpg?dl=0

I first tried it I think not that long after the rockfall in one of those dry and hot spring seasons, on a club trip, when there was little snow away from the very top of the Ben, so some of us were taking advantage of the rock climbing  After failing to work out the way I remember talking to Cubby and he said you sound to be right but its a lot harder now than it used to be. I just couldn't work out how to protect my second on a precarious looking descending traverse back in from the right, at a small tree. Even back-roping it looked dodgy. I did it with Lynn later in the year by scrambling in higher up on the left.

Don't follow the slings and in situ gear right. Go up the veg to the left.