3 days out-and-about in Fort William area. Any suggestions?

[Northguy]

In another thread Monty asked some specific questions regarding our planned trip to Scotland. In this thread I would like to discuss our plans (as not to confuse the "recommended reading" thread with route discussions).

We are coming over to Scotland on Thursday the 13th. We'll land on Edinburgh and we'll use a small rental car to travel to Glen Nevis. Plan is to camp there until monday the 17th of september and then head of to the Netherlands again. So we have 3 full days available for hillwalking and we are mobile, so we can drive somewhere easily.

We are fit and able walkers. We know how to use compass/maps and GPS navigation and are in the posession of OS maps for the Ben Nevis and Glencoe area.

Our fair weather wishlist is:
1) Walk the Lost Valley of Glencoe and climb Bidean nam Bian. Suggested route from WH. Alternative Stob Coir'an Albannaich & Meall nan Eun.

2) Head up the Mamores. Preferably the Ring of Steall or the Stob Ban and Mullach nan Coirean route.

3) Climb the Ben Nevis along the CMD. Plan is to start at the Lower Falls according to this route and descend along the "tourist path". Alternative Aonach Beag and Aonach Mor.

We know our way around navigation, but we are aware that the first mentioned routes on our wishlist are demanding in terms of length, ascent, scrambling and drops. If weather turns out for the worse, we will skip the 1st mentioned routes and exchange by the latter mentioned routes.

Anyone good suggestions or other nice alternatives?

Regards,

Patrick

[darren]

Some cracking pubs in Fort William.

[Northguy]

Some cracking pubs in Fort William.

Noted....

[monty]

Hi Patrick. Your plans seem solid to me. There are many alternatives though. You could pitch a tent in glen nevis near steall falls. Day one, ring of Steall. Day two, Grey Corries and the Aonachs. Day three, CMD Arete and Ben nevis. This would mean no driving between days other than to get provisions.

Whatever you do have a great time and have luck with the weather.

[Northguy]

Hi Monty,

Thanks for the reply. Your remark about skipping Bidean nam Bian and exchanging it for The Grey Corries and the Aonachs looks tempting, but I guess I'll pass for that one . I read your walk report on the Corries with great interest, but I guess the 34 km and 3000m ascent is looking a bit too challenging Compared to the Ring of Steall and the Ben Nevis by the CMD, this is quite ambitious

For fun, I did make some modifications to your route by leaving out the Carn Mor Dearg ascent and do an ascent along Allt Coire Ghiutsachan (see below). But this hardly saves any km in distance, only some metres in ascent. I think we should be realistic and skip the plan of doing the Grey Corries ánd the Aonachs by starting from Steall Falls.

Grey Corries combined with Aonachs v2.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

Having seen the pictures of the Grey Corries, it does seem a good idea though to swap Bidean nam Bian for the 'regular' Grey Corries walk. That vista on that walk looks spectacular also and the drive from Fort William to Spean Bridge is approx 7 miles less than the drive to Glencoe.

I guess I´ll let it sink in a little bit before we make up our mind finally.

Cheers,

Patrick

[jmarkb]

Hi Patrick,

Don't dismiss Bidean too quickly: it's a great walk!

No harm in coming with more ideas than you have days: it will allow you to pick and choose depending on the weather. It might be worth having a couple of routes on slightly lower hills in mind in case the higher ones are in the cloud, such as:
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/fortwilliam/mam-na-gualainn.shtml
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/fortwilliam/cruach-innse.shtml
or
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/fortwilliam/sgurr-ghiubhsachain.shtml

Hope you have a great trip,
Mark.