Central Buttress Beinn Eighe

A day off was what I really needed but with last weeks forecast and next weeks forecast there was no way I was going to stay indoors on this prime day.  So a 5.15am departure from Beinn Eighe car park saw Murdoch and I walking the round to the Triple Buttresses.  I cant even remember my last day off so to say I was tired was an underestimate.  I barely said a word on the walk in, I was floating in and out of a dream world all the way in.  At the base of Central Buttress (VI,7) I looked up and saw what we had in hand, for a couple of seconds I had hoped I had forgotten my crampons.  As I had climbed the crux yesterday (and I was shattered) I was happy for Murdoch to have all the harder pitches but it turned out for the first 2 3rds of the route I had all the trickier pitches and Murdoch got the ledge shuffelling pitches.  I had to dig deep.  Fortunately we knew what the crux was so I ran out a small pitch and handed the rack over....and I was glad of it.  Watching Murdoch wedged in a body width crack was both funny and cringe worthy.  I was not looking forward to the effort that I was going to have to put in.  Standing at the next belay was a relief but to be honest I wanted to be back in bed.  The route didn't let up much or maybe I was just very tired on easy ground, I'm not sure but it felt hard.  We topped out onto a white plateau and made the steep descent back down to the comfort of the car where I had a quick drink and shot off to meet my clients for the coming week.  So another 5 days at work then I think I better take a day off!  All great fun though and really pleased I didn't pretend to forget my crampons!  Still not got round to picking up a camera so no pics unfortunately.  The mountain was in great condition, by the looks of things any mixed route would go.  We had a team behind us on the route and a couple of other teams enjoying the great conditions.