Glencoe | Alexander Scrimgeour

I came for Aonach Eagach. The ridge runs high and narrow above Glen Coe and I had wanted to tick it off before I left. The weather did not care what I wanted. The wind and the rain came and did not stop, so I chose an easier route.

It was a good trip anyway. Twelve Munros in a part of Scotland that is as beautiful as anywhere I have been. Two got away. Stob Dubh and Buachaille Etive Beag stayed hidden in the clag and I turned back before them because the wind told me to. If I am honest, I am not sorry to leave something behind. It gives me a reason to go back.

For a short stretch I walked south on the West Highland Way. Everyone else was walking north. I stopped counting after a hundred. They came in pairs and in groups, heads down under their packs, moving toward Fort William with the faces of people who had not been warned of Scottish weather.