Camping in the Lairig Mhor

By now I was hooked on the idea of climbing Munro’s I felt determined to climb all of them as fast as I could. The group I was with were less eager and in the end I had to compromise. Alex was the organiser for the 14 of us at Ratagan Youth Hostel and he wasn’t happy at all with me going out alone in the mountains. In the end I was with the group for nearly the whole time. The walks seemed to be based on what Ben Oliver and Alex hadn’t climbed before and there was only slight correlation between what I wanted to climb and what they wanted to climb. But my efforts to err them to my preferences [endless nagging tending to work best] had some effect.

It was the longest day for walking that trip. It was my initial preference and the weather was nice. On getting up It was decided by Alex "Let’s do the Seven Munros!" . Mornings were always hurried by Alex saying "Put your boots on in the car, hurry up!" The day was fantastically warm with large patches of remaining snow on many parts of the ridge. Alex borrowed a car from Nicki can’t remember the make now but it always broke down and the speedometer stopped working:- registered 5mph all the time! On the way up to the Cluanie inn we were packed in like sardines with three people in the Boot of the Hatchback and five on the back seat. It was none the less a good day.

Four more Munros to be satisfied with. I was beginning to realise that my tongue was less than perfect in pronouncing these names. I resorted eventually to calling them ‘that one’ or ‘those two to the east of …………’ etc. This was no exception, they were called ‘The North Glen Shiel Ridge’ or the ‘Brothers of Kintail’.

It was a wet day to start with. Only a small group of us went walking, but an hour and a half in to the walk the weather cleared up. The winds were still strong high up but the views steadily improved during the day. The ridge itself was narrow at times but a pleasant stroll. The rest of the group went touring around Skye.

The afternoon was spent at the Cluanie Inn. Alex commented that driving with plastic boots on was ‘interesting’ as he couldn’t feel a thing. His driving was subsequently ‘entertaining’. He handled the blind corners of the road very fast and that made me nervous, though the choice he gave me of ‘shut up or get out’ made his position quite clear!

"I want to traverse the Five Sisters" I said. Alex replied "It raining, we’re doing these mountains, if you don’t like that tough". The rain was heavy and the rivers in spate, this was all part of the bargain weather wise with Scotland though but the only reason we climbed these summits was because Ben hadn’t climbed them before.

They were a long drive round and lined the northern rim of Knoydart. The rain was certainly heavy but we made good progress with the large keen group there was. The clouds parted occasionally to give airy views of Glen Quoich. But the first summit was attained in the wind and driving rain. A group of people gave up and turned away while Alex took my map away from me.

I felt angry at the time he did this, it was though I couldn’t be trusted with a map. The way he scrunched the map into his pocket wrecking it didn’t please me either. The weather cleared very quickly on the way to the next summit and in the end it turned out to be quite nice. The next day we made a failed attempt of Beinn Fhada due to strong winds.

This was our transition day from Glen Shiel to Killin and on the way we stopped at White Corries to climb the Meall a’Bhuiridh. It was raining at the car park, people were not looking enthusiastic at this climb. When we were walking the group were stopping every 5 minutes for 5 minutes. I got impatient at this and stormed off ahead up to the top of the chair lift where I waited. I had steam to let off and hard walking was the best way of doing this.

When the rest arrived, Alex moaned at me for heading off alone as ‘it was dangerous’. I didn’t feel like moaning back at the time but at least we were above the snow line and into mist. We noticed the pisting machines were out so we went up the rocky slope next to the pisted area so we wouldn’t be moaned at for trashing their slope. We eventually reached the summit and then sledded down. Alex found an excellent shallow gully to go down. The sledging was great and we had great time afterwards in a snowball fight. It seems that when I threw snowballs at people, everyone got me back with a vengeance, good spirited none the less.

It was a nice day, Andy Ward, Mel, Me and Others were out going to climb Ben Vorlich and Stud a’Chroin. Alas Andy Edmunds had an accident with a drawing pin. The flat disc came off as he pressed it into the wall. The result, the pin in his finger, I didn’t witness it at the time but apparently he went very green and nearly fainted. He had to be driven to the doctor subsequently.

Saving the day, we did a long drive round to Shiehallion. The weather was windy with severe gales up top and occasional snow showers. The views to the north were very wild with views out to Ben Alder to the north. One shower gave a lot of pain and I found a small rock to hide behind while I fitted my snow goggles on. The going was then easier but exhausting. There’s a lot to be said about snow goggles:- they reduce the pain of blizzards and they make the view seem brighter. I was now eager to do some serious ‘bagging’ the next day. For once my preferred Munros coincided with Alex’s while others did a monster drive round to the Drumochter pass.

An Stuc didn’t become a Munro until a few months after but is included now. Alex and Riki were my company today as we did a seemingly long walk. We set off from the reservoir up from the visitor centre to the first Munro. My feet were complaining of foot sore on the steep heather rise to the first top. Once up there the view to Ben Lawers was grand. The ridges and corries were well banked in snow. To the west and North a vast panorama opened out to rolling mountain tops and the Tarmachan ridge from this angle seemed very sharp.

A fast pace was set to the next summit. The snow was crusty and the spin drift in the sun made the place a snowy wonderland I hadn’t had the privilege of seeing before. The descent to the bealach was steep and up to now, Alex seemed slow. We did some sledding down to the bealach among the craggy outcrops. Alex loved sledding though he always moaned about having holes in all his gear. I wasn’t surprised, I tended to be more cautious with sledding, partly due to gear I didn’t want trashed.

Beinn Glas gave good views to the south east though the mist was now covering the summit of Ben Lawers. The pace was brisk up to the summit and the Bank Holiday crowds were out in force with this being the highest summit in the Southern Highlands. Up to now ice axes weren’t used, the descent down the north ridge was on hard snow. I kept the other two waiting while I acquired my axe. We then set off doing more sledding.

I was tiring up An Stuc, I was at the back from now on Alex seemed to be on full power now while Riki is always on full power. The descent off An Stuc was ‘interesting’! Steep could also be used as an adjective. Up to now Riki had never done an axe arrest, she sure had some incentive to try now as she slid down towards the crags! The rest of the walk felt like torture at their pace. A strong cross wind developed and I cursed the uphill bits. Alex’s boots are super heavy being Scarpa Vegas but he probably invented anti gravity or something with his pace! We finished at 3.30pm thus took only 6.5hours.

I was relegated to go with the group this time. It was huge, 14 of us. Alex & Ben were both on 99 Munros and it was something for them to celebrate hence the big group. As usual the large group was slow but after yesterdays stomp I felt knackered. The single Munro was compensated for by a session of fun on this great snow slope which was corniced. We soon trashed the cornice and jumped off the top. Alex’s sledding enthusiasm was at full swing now. I threw a snow ball at Etienne, in return he threw me off the top! It turned out to be a good day in the end.

The last day, I set off alone, Andy Ward being an aspiring politician / newspaper editor has far better debating skills than I do and managed to convince Alex it was O.K. for me to go alone. Alex wasn’t happy but at least Andy was on my side on this issue.

The four Munros are typically rolling hills, the strong winds however improved the walk putting a bit of a buzz into this walk. For much of the way I was walking with another lone walker. The ridge had misted over and the strong winds were getting tedious for the nth consecutive day, still at times it kept me on my toes and provided good navigation practice off the last summit.

Dad met me at Killin Youth hostel and this meant that the rest of the group led by Ben Oliver put major effort into making it an embarrassing situation for me. I ended up drunk that night after being provided with ‘coke’ and ‘lemonade’ and ‘fizzy orange’ yea’ right mate!

The next day I was hung over, dad and I were planning to traverse the Mamores. We started at the Mamore Lodge Hotel and walked along the West Highland Way. My backpack felt extra heavy though I don't know why.

We set up to the first Munro, we had just packed the tent as it started raining. That rain was to be with us for the rest of the time that day. I was quite dry up until the first Munro then my hands went cold through my gloves. I switched to Mitts, dad was cold and switched to a jumper which meant taking off his jacket in a gale. We reached Stob Ban drenched having eaten no more than a few Mars Bars. We continued to the next summit Sgor an lubhair, a Munro at the time now demoted to a top.

We passed a lochan on the way, dad said it would be a good campsite, it would have done however my Munro mind was ticking so we went up to the next summit. A big mistake in hind sight, Dad was slow and exhausted, progress was slow and eventually we finished in Coire a’ Mhail, the descent for dad was very slow and I got cold waiting. We set the tent up, cold and wet, in the rain on super saturated ground. It was to be a wet night. It was cold as well, being soaked through I shivered when I would otherwise be warm being above freezing all the time.

Dad and I concurred in the morning that we should give up. We were probably close to hypothermia given constant shivering. It snowed in the morning, overnight gales pulled a peg out which was never found and washing porridge up was a cool experience!

The valley we were in was an example of a hanging valley, following the river to the end of the valley was not an exit as steep cliffs bar your way. This valley often attracts accidents by people trying to go down this way. We looked at the map and found that going up for 150m was the only way out to the next corrie.

The day was slow as we finished at Glen Nevis Camp site. The day turned out nice, next day was worse but I couldn’t care less I wanted to go home and the walk along the West Highland Way proved tedious back to the car. We stayed the night at Glen Coe Youth Hostel and then drove back to Manchester.

After that time I decided that a proper goretex waterproof jacket was essential for the hills. This continued my never ending quest in refining my equipment.

Tragically Alex Hobson was killed later in April in a climbing accident on Great Gable. He was by far the hiking clubs most enthusiastic member having been to Scotland on a regular basis and once to the Alps. I knew him for only six months though even now three years on I still miss his company, he was a good friend.