[Oonoch Bayk] Gaelic, meaning Small Ridge (despite being higher than Aonach Mòr).
Aonach Beag is a giant of a hill, with three steep, craggy faces of very different characters.
The North Face has ice routes of a quality to rival anything on Ben Nevis, and is fairly accessible from the Nevis Range Ski Centre. The West Face has a succession of shorter schist crags giving excellent steep mixed climbing interspersed with late-season ice-lines. The East Face is a wild, isolated place, almost alpine in scale, with several separate crags that hold great but rarely-climbed winter lines of all types.
The East Face of Aonach Beag is big, complex and remote, more than living up to its Gaelic name An Aghaidh Gharbh or The Rough Face. It collects remarkable amounts of snow in a good winter, to the delight of skiers for whom the major gully-lines of Rough Gully and Calm Gully are the main draw. To the climber, this vast area of 40° snowslopes holds little appeal, but scattered around the face are some substantial crags which are well worth seeking out.
The whole face has an air of seriousness because of the fairly long approaches, the lack of climbers, the large cornices and the sheer scale of the place. However, when conditions are good, there are some brilliant routes, especially in the mid-grades.