On Buachaille Etive Mòr in Glen Coe, Raeburn made the first three ascents of Crowberry Gully, including a wintry 1909 ascent, and the second ascent and first Scottish ascent of Crowberry Ridge Direct (1902), then the hardest rock climb in Scotland. His style of rock climbing was very muscular; he held himself close to the rock, while his particular attention to the exact times of ascents could frequently drive his companions to exasperation. There is a humorous reference to this: when one fellow SMC member climbed a new route left of Raeburn's Arete on Ben Nevis he called it "Newbigging’s 80-Minute Route", this being an echo of "Raeburn’s 18-Minute Route" climbed the previous year on the same buttress.