Ben Klibreck and Ben Hope

[malrobb]

Hi All,

Just seeking if people on here think it is feasible to do Ben Klibreck and Ben Hope in a day. We would be travelling from Inverness (by car) and likely end up staying in Tongue so would need to factor in driving times as well. This would be the end of May so light is on our side etc but at the same time don't want to rush them and we could easily split them and allocate one day for each. The master plan is do these 2, Ben More Assynt and Conival on the 2nd or 3rd day and then hopefully something on the way back to Inverness as well. Thanks for any input

Mal

[kaye.cantlay]

I did both easily from Inverness in a day....
And it was October 17th so the days were shortish.
I did drive up in the dark and began Klibreck just as it got light (7:30-ish? maybe even earlier)
Back in the car by 11 - didn't bother taking boots off and drove straight to Hope.
Plenty of time to do Hope - it's easy and there were loads of other people around.
Drive back was in the daylight still.

[kaye.cantlay]

and I've just remembered......when I did Hope, there was a bridge down so I had to park some distance from the usual start point - ? 3 miles - so adding maybe 6 miles to the walk.....but there was still loads of time to spare

[gld73]

Yep, definitely do-able once the days are longer. I think it was May or maybe early June when I did both in a day in 2016, setting off from Inverness around 07:30, doing Klibreck first, then heading over to Hope. It was still light when I got back to the car, though I wouldn't have fancied leaving it too much later - as it was, I had nice evening views over to Ben Loyal on the drive to Tongue where I stayed that night, then did Ben Loyal on the way back to Inverness (although it's not a munro, I found Ben Loyal the most interesting hill of the 3).

[malrobb]

Thanks for the swift responses; much appreciated. I am not doing the driving so has to be shared decision.

Thanks

Mal

[mmill]

I don't know if you have been up to the north coast before, or how much munros are the sole aim. An enjoyable alternative could be to do them on separate days, so then have time for exploring the beaches and coast, a fun leg stretch after the hill walk.

[boriselbrus]

Definitely do-able. I did Klibreck in under 3 hours by myself, Ben Hope was 4 hours with my other half (she goes up hill at speed but due to dodgy knees is very slow on the decent).

But as others have said, it is a stunning area to spend a bit of time in, the beaches are well worth a visit so if you can then I'd spend at least a weekend doing them to make leisure time to drive time ratio a bit better.

[thand]

We drove up late in the afternoon and then camped high on Klibreck, before descending and then climbing Ben Hope the next day.

Would have been a great way to see the area at sunset and sunrise if it hadn't been raining

[Ben Nachie]

Would have been a great way to see the area at sunset and sunrise if it hadn't been raining

It is! I camped near the summit of Ben Hope to watch an annular eclipse just after sunrise. Those of us on the summit were amongst the very few to see it as mist obscured the view for everyone else below, including Patrick Moore who had travelled to Durness for the event.

[malrobb]

Thanks for the additional replies. I have visited the far north coast before and it is stunning but now based down in England so when I travel North, it is always a battle with getting Munros done and enjoying the area, although they are not mutually exclusive of course On this trip we are also trying to wild camp on top of the Sgurr an Fhidhleir to enjoy the views over this unique area.
Thanks again

Mal

[Ross Richardson]

Whats the rush? Why not have to enjoyable days instead of cramming it into one? Most people on here seem to be obsessed with ticking off a list as quickly as possible rather than doing it for enjoyment.

[al78]

Whats the rush? Why not have to enjoyable days instead of cramming it into one? Most people on here seem to be obsessed with ticking off a list as quickly as possible rather than doing it for enjoyment.

I can understand the rush, or a desire to cram as much into a trip as possible. I live in SE England and if I wanted to take a holiday to explore the magnificence of Sutherland (for example), I have to travel over 600 miles each way. Once I am there and I have a list of summits or beautiful locations to experience/explore, I have to fit them around the fickle Scottish weather. I see no point in expending significant energy trying to appreciate the landscape from above when the cloud base is down to 400m, and I don't go out walking for hours in driving rain. If there is a day where the forecast looks like the summits will be clear, I will look at ways of being time efficient, such as climbing multiple summits in a day, not necessarily in the same locations, because when you get a sunny day in Scotland, you have to take advantage of it because you might not get another one. When I was in Braemar in June I managed only two big hill walks out of a possible seven I was interested in doing, mostly due to the mostly dreich weather* which prevented any decent views from the Munro and many of the Corbett summits most of the week I was there.

*Unfortunately I have never managed to time my trips to Scotland with these long dry spells we seem to be getting with increased frequency because I book leave and accommodation in advance. I can't just get up and go at the drop of a hat.

[prog99]

Whats the rush? Why not have to enjoyable days instead of cramming it into one? Most people on here seem to be obsessed with ticking off a list as quickly as possible rather than doing it for enjoyment.

I think 4 years on he might have got up it by now.

[NickyRannoch]

Whats the rush? Why not have to enjoyable days instead of cramming it into one? Most people on here seem to be obsessed with ticking off a list as quickly as possible rather than doing it for enjoyment.

Why not climb hills the way you want to and let others do the same.

[WalkWithWallace]

Yeah Ben Klibreck and Ben Hope are often combined together on the same day, from memory it's about a 40 minute drive between the two.