Bidean nan Bian (1150m) is the main summit in the Glencoe area, it’s a beautiful but very secretive summit that peeps out from behind its sisters snow clad aprons.
Our objective was to find an interesting way to traverse the mountains known as the Three Sisters of Glencoe and add something a bit spicy so the itinerary was to ascend Stob Coire nan Beith (SCNB) via the 1500ft NW Gully onto Bidean then descend via Stob Coire nan Lochan (SCNL).
We were staying in the Alex Mac hut in Onich so it was a short drive to park the car at the bridge near the Clachaig, winter conditions prevailed on the hills and another great day dawned weather wise.
This was actually a ‘short day’ option in Glencoe as opposed to a long day option on Ben Nevis. As the hills hereabouts are a 1000ft lower than the Ben and we had no info about snow/ice conditions on SCNB so today was always going to be a bit of a gamble.
By the time we reached the summit of SCNB it was getting late in the day, the summit of Bidean beckoned glowing in the late afternoon sun the views from it were amazing but we still had a long way to go and had to press on.
Tired after several fantastic days in the mountains we reached the summit of the third sister SCNL from here it looked a long haul back to the valley.
We descended the easy Broad Gully then back to the valley by the normal approach route. Our ‘short day’ option had taken 12 hours to complete, the final pitch on the ascent had been several grades harder than the guide book stated but had given us another great mountaineering day.
