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Pitlochry to Ben Nevis?

Re: Pitlochry to Ben Nevis?

Postby Sunset tripper » Wed Mar 09, 2022 7:30 pm

TheRealLurlock wrote:Apologies for the double post - but I've one more question: Would you advise taking crampons & axes for any part of this route assuming we go in April/early May?


Snow 4 to 6 feet deep on top of the ben when I was there last summer, though the route up from CMD was clear - no guarantees.

Ben Nevis 1st June 2021
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Re: Pitlochry to Ben Nevis?

Postby TheRealLurlock » Fri Mar 25, 2022 12:37 pm

I thought I would add that anyone coming across this thread looking for guidance on the area may be interested in reading the following walk report:

https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=105793
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Re: Pitlochry to Ben Nevis?

Postby TheRealLurlock » Wed May 11, 2022 2:47 pm

My wife and I have now completed this walk, and I wanted to add one more post to this thread, firstly to say thank you to everyone who offered advice and suggestions, and secondly to give a brief summary of what we ended up doing each day, to describe how the walk differed from what we'd planned, and to list some of the lessons we learned from our first excursion in the Highlands in the hope they might help someone else who comes across this thread in future.

I saw suggestions to plan the journey over either four or five days. Given our inexperience we opted to give ourselves five days, and this turned out to be the correct decision as there's no way we could have done it in four.

Day 1
We started in Dalwhinnie and planned to reach the Culra bothy. We stayed the previous night in the Old School Hostel. Lee has done a great job with the place particularly considering he only opened it a few months before the Coronavirus restrictions began. We climbed the Fara at the firebreak, which was much steeper than it looked in photos/Google Earth and took us longer than expected. At the top there was also a strong headwind which slowed us down as we traversed the ridge. I couldn't identify a Southward path down from the Fara, so we began descending i er the moorland at what looked like the shallowest point. This turned out to be one of the most painful and demoralising sections of the journey, as the uneven, grassy ground was much harder on our feet and ankles than we'd expected. At the bottom we also had to circumvent a fenced-off area in which the estate was cultivating a new section of forest. This delayed us further, particularly as the ground close to the fence was extremely boggy. However, soon after this we picked up the track next to Loch Pattack and made much quicker time to the bothy, where we made camp for the night.

Day 2
We planned to climb Ben Alder, descend down the Western slope and reach Corrour station for dinner. This turned out to be far too ambitious and this is the part of the journey where the fifth day was needed to make enough ground towards Fort William. The approach towards Ben Alder started well and we had no issues locating the path. However, I was not expecting the ascent to be as technical as it was, and there were a couple of steep scrambles where my large, heavy pack threatened to pull me off balance and cause me to fall. We reached the summit very pleased to have climbed our first Munro and paused only briefly before heading more-or-less due West to begin our descent. Again without a path, progress and was slow and painful as I had to lower myself and the weight of my pack with each footfall onto uneven and unpredictable ground. It turned out to be even more gruelling than the descent off the Fara and took is much longer than expected. Our feet were in so much pain that we had to take a long break shortly before reaching Uisge Labhair to sit down and take off our boots. We followed the stream as far as we could before pitching the tent. We could not find any good ground so we ended up camping on a spot much softer and wetter than I would have liked. As it happened the weather was calm throughout the night, but I doubt the pegs would have held in strong wind.

Day 3
We had hoped at least to make it Corrour Station for breakfast but it was clear that we still had far too much distance to cover, particularly after I made a navigational error resulting in us making an unnecessary river crossing at the first hydroelectric dam which we had to repeat to get back on our original side. Fortunately we picked up the vehicle track at the dam and followed it all the way through the Corrour estate and along Loch Ossian, making quick ground. This came at the cost of unbearably sore feet as the hard paths underfoot met our stiff and insufficiently worn-in B1 boots. By the time we sat down in the station house we were exhausted and in agony. We ended up staying for around 3 hours gorging upon as much food as we could, and my wife took the opportunity to have a nap on their sofa. We left at about 4PM, following the path towards Loch Trieg, and decided to push on to the Staoineag bothy where we stayed the night.

Day 4
We planned to make it to Steall Falls in order to climb Ben Nevis via the CMD Arete on Day 5. Until now we had enjoyed excellent weather - clear, warm, and with light or no wind for the most. Unfortunately at this point the weather turned, and we we stepped out of the bothy into a full day of constant rainfall. I had also been warned to expect the ground between Staoineag and Steall to be boggy, but I had not realised just how difficult it can get on a wet day. We had waterproof jackets and gaiters with us but no waterproof trousers, and within a couple of hours we were swimming inside our boots. We were also surprised to discover that the marked vehicle path beginning at Luibelt was so muddy for long sections that it was actually better to veer away from it. I made a second navigational error at one stage and mistook a tributary for the Abhainn Rath, meaning we had to backtrack a bit to continue following the river in the right direction. The rain also made some river crossings difficult due to the stronger flow, and at one point we decided to wade a crossing above our knees rather than risk slipping on mossy rocks and completely submerging or injuring ourselves. Despite all this we reaches Steall Falls in good time and stuffed our soaking footwear with some pages torn from a second hand book we had brought to help dry them overnight.

Day 5
The rain and wind intensified throughout the night and the conditions were quite alarming inside the tent. Fortunately we'd found a patch of hard, dry ground with excellent drainage and our pegs held without issue. However, I misjudged the wind direction and pitched our tent at the wrong orientation. When we began to pitch, there was a slight Westerly breeze, but this later turned into strong and frequent Easterly gusts. In hindsight we should have got out of our tent and rotated it 180 degrees to face the wind, but at the time we chose to stay dry inside. Unfortunately this meant we didn't actually end up staying dry inside, since the strong wind allowed wet spray into the inner tent through the top vent. We also got very little sleep due to a problem with our brand new sleeping mat, which had started leaking through the seams. On previous nights we had managed to fix this with some duct tape, but this time it seemed to gradually deflate over the course of a couple of hours no matter what we did. Conditions in the morning hadn't improved: the rain continued, the wind remained strong in the Glen, and visibility up towards the peaks was poor. Our gut feeling was to abandon our plan to climb Ben Nevis, especially as neither of us had any prior experience on it. While we were considering what to do we happened to meet a much more experienced fellow at the falls who had a more up-to-date forecast predicting 50mph gusts at elevation. That was enough to convince us that we would come back to try again another day, and we decided to leave towards Fort William via the main Glen Nevis road.

Overall we thoroughly enjoyed the walk, despite the mistakes we made, the difficulties we encountered, and the disappointment of missing out on Ben Nevis. We enjoyed the challenge and the discomfort of some sections has given us a satisfying sense of accomplishment, even if we inflicted a lot of it on ourselves through inexperience. We're glad we attempted a longer and more ambitious plan as we feel we have learned a huge amount in one go - perhaps the same amount it would otherwise have taken multiple walks to learn. We're already planning our next trip and hope to return to these marvellous landscapes soon.

Lessons learned
  • Take a full set of walking poles each. We thought we would save money by sharing a pair between us, but it's obvious how much more ground we could have covered with two poles each. One was better than none but the difference between one and two almost seems even bigger than the difference between one and none.
  • Stiff mountaineering boots need much more breaking in than regular walking boots. Our feet were in severe pain most of the time until the final day, and we took painkillers on multiple occasions to manage the soreness.
  • Pack more than two heel Compeeds. By the end of the first day my wife had already used the two Compeeds I had packed as her boots were destroying her heels. This is despite using aftermarket insoles, wearing Merino hiking socks and also using Bodyglide foot balm preventatively each morning before putting on our boots. Possibly try using sock liners as well.
  • Always try to identify and follow a path for a descent. We had no particular difficulty covering rough terrain during ascents and flats, but on the way down, long grass, gourse, boggy and otherwise uneven ground was very painful and demoralising, particularly with a heavy pack.
  • Consider the terrain as well as the gradient when planning distances to cover. I did not appreciate quite how varied the ground in the Central Highlands is and how much it impacts your speed.
  • Pack lighter and tighter. We didn't have the budget to buy everything ultralight, but some things were obviously far from optimal - particularly our tent which was far too large and heavy. The weight and size of my pack made climbing Ben Alder quite precarious at points and slowed us down considerably over rougher ground. We encountered people using walking pole-based tents and tarps which looked like an amazingly lightweight and compact solution, although probably much too cold for my wife who wad already struggling to keep warm inside our heavier and well-insulated tent.
  • All of the above points lead to the unavoidable conclusion that we relied far too much on the season to make the walk possible. We rose with or just after the sun each day at about 5:30 or 6:00 and stayed on the go for about 12-13 hours each day, except at Corrour where we took a 3-hour break. With fewer hours of daylight we would have been in significant trouble and might not have reached Fort William on time. Judging by previous posts in this thread, we moved at a much slower pace than should reasonably have been expected of us, although I think we have a good understanding of at least some of the reasons why and know what we need to do to increase our speed next time.
  • Have a fully waterproof outfit. We did not expect a day of fairly moderate but constant rainfall to leave us with completely oceanic boots. Fortunately we were able to stuff them over night with pages torn from a second-hand paperback to dry them out somewhat.
  • Pay closer attention to wind direction before pitching a tent. On the final night we ended up with the tent buffeting much more than it needed to and wet spray getting into the inner tent through the top vent.
  • Give ourselves more flexibility. We picked a route and didn't deviate from it at all, even though it took us longer than we predicted to traverse it. If we'd had more plan Bs and alternative routes in mind we might have been able to make more out of the last day when we abandoned our Ben Nevis climb, instead of just walking straight out of the Glen along the main road.
  • Keeping a pair of thick, warm, wool socks in reserve for wearing inside the tent each night was an excellent decision.
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Re: Pitlochry to Ben Nevis?

Postby al78 » Wed May 11, 2022 3:58 pm

Isn't that what they call character building?
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Re: Pitlochry to Ben Nevis?

Postby Ewen1966 » Sun May 15, 2022 10:01 am

Like the others I'd start at Dalwhinnie. I reckon a minimum of 3 days to get to Steall, especially if it is dependent on trains. It is called the thieves Road, I believe. 70km. The late Andrew Lafferty aka Hermit Hill did it the other way and his YT channel has it for an entertaining watch.

https://youtu.be/kGkZ3ZY5EM4

I don't know if it has to be on the east coast line or if you are going by car or train but an alternative and shorter route could be the road to the Isles from Bridge of Gaur.
Train to Rannoch and then over to Loch ossian, Loch Tréig and down to Steall. I'm doing it the last week of May but getting a late train so having a camp at Corrour old lodge and then down to Meánach and then on to Glen nevis and train back from Fort William.

Edit: The hazards of not reading the whole thread before posting. :)
Well done on doing the walk.
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