The slope which leads up to the plateau between the Aonachs went more easily than expected. Although it is very steep, it is much pleasanter to go up than down. It was at this point that Paul dropped his bombshell: "If we leave out Aonach Mor, not a very interesting summit and off our line anyway, we may have time to reach Stob Coire Claurigh!"

Somewhat taken aback, I found myself voicing objections such as: "We may run a bit short of food as I haven't catered for this. If you had mentioned it sooner, I wouldn't have taken so many photos or wasted valuable time stalking ptarmigan; and I bet the 'bad step' at the top of the gully leading down to the col between Aonach Beag and Sgurr Choinnich Beag is full of wet slippery snow."

Somewhat mollified by Paul's assurances that such ambitious thoughts had only just occurred to him, I agreed to give it a go. There mustn't be any more unnecessary loitering though.

The shortish pull up over Aonach Beag summit went well and we stopped for a hasty lunch below the snow line on the south-eastern ridge. At 1.30 pm we continued on down to the turn off point with it's bad step and were relieved to find no snow after all. Negotiating this gully took rather longer than anticipated as the top part is very steep and loose, and could not be hurried. Crossing the flat little plateau at the bottom, however, gave a nice respite before tackling the seriously steep grassy side of Sgurr Choinnich Beag and the less steep pull up to the summit of Sgurr Choinnich Mor, usually referred to amongst ourselves as 'the two green ones'.