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Munro No 001 Date - Sat 01/08/2009
Munros -Ben Wyvis
Route - Parked car in the Ben Wyis cark park near Garbat. Plan is to ascend on the main tourist route: up the West ridge of An Cabar, and walk along the plateau to the main summit - Glas Leathad Mor (1046m). We will retrace our steps on the way down.
Weather - Good (no rain, some wind, cloud free summit (just))
Attendees - ScottC, ColinL
Time - 6.5 hrs
Distance - 14km/8.75 miles
Ascent - 935 m
Max Altitude -1046 mA quick stop next to Loch Glascarnoch for a look at Ben Wyvis and the clouds above! (fingers crossed they wouldn't come down much more!):
We parked in the Ben Wyis cark park near Garbat. Plan is to ascend on the main tourist route: up the West ridge of An Cabar, and walk along the plateau to the main summit - Glas Leathad Mor (1046m). We will retrace our steps on the way down. We began at 1pm (a bit later than planned!)
Didn't read it as we wanted to get cracking....
And so the path begins on my first Munro adventure... (I'm sure wet starts knee deep in mud are yet to come...):
As we approach through the woods we get our first glimpes of where (hopefully) we'll end up:
Think it was about here that I broke through the first pain barrier (and rid myself of any "what the hell am I doing" thoughts) and was set up for hours of walking no problem
. Ben Wyis on the left, Little Wyvis on the right.
Nice stream (and I couldn't see any dead green sheep I keep hearing about people finding in these things, anyway I had plenty of Evian with me....)
Nearly there
Getting closer, I laugh to myself about how hard it is to comprehend the size of the mountain/length of walk. Keep repeating to myself some words I read somewhere about mountaineering along the lines of:
1. Judge the distance, then 2. Triple it. Still, it
is getting closer...
A quick look back the way. Sky starting to look very healthy...hopefully coming our way:
Right we are. Lets get up there!:
We soldier on for 30 mins to be rewarded with a great view looking West (over to x area and y mountain....I'll learn them in time!):
Looks easy...but at times each one of these steps seemed like very hard work!!! (nothing a chunk of Green & Blacks Chocolate didn't sort out....)
Time for a break, time for a random photo standing on a boulder....
Short clip of it all (taken close to the top of An Cabar)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TPEyeZ6FhA[/youtube]
A look across to Little Wyvis. We're high up now.
We make it to the Cairn of An Cabar.
We stop there for 20 mins to devour several sandwiches, banana, more chocolate & fig rolls.
A figure on the summit we're about to arrive at!
Coire na Feola:
We made it
The wind picks up and the grey sky starts to move in - seems a good time to start the descent! It's near 5pm now, about 4 hours after we started (no need to rush your first Munro eh...)
We make our way down the ridge and find a nice refreshing breeze!:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_eoc0RH37s[/youtube]
Half way down:
7.30pm. 6.5 hours total. We get to the bottom as the cloud covers over the mountain top!
[UPDATE 17/08/2009]: We went up Ben Wyvis again 2 weeks later on 15/08/2009, but this time taking the longer one way route - ascending An Cabar and descending down Tom a Choinnich. Trip report for this one is here viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1565
Route taken first time 01/08/2009