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One Mamore ,a day on the way and Ben Nevis via the cmd arete

PostPosted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:07 am
by pigeon
A week off work and the plans were made to drive to kinlochleven on tuesday,visit the mamores then meet up with mates who were walking the west highland way.Set off early and got to mamore lodge hotel at about quarter to 8
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mamore lodge now closed down
The weather could not have been better and i was getting some great views
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Was soon up to the lochan where i got a look at my first target sgurr eilde mor
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binnein beag in the background
Began the climb up and was at the top in about 2hours10 mins where the views were spectacular
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ben nevis
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summit cairn on sgurr eilde mor
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looking down to coire an lochan
From here the plan was to carry on to binnein beag but on getting down to the lochan i decided to take it easy and stroll back to the lodge leaving binnien beag for another day .Got down to kinlochleven and met the lads as they came in on there trek from bridge of orchy about 4 o clock.Wednesday and we set of on the west highlad way to fort william about half 8,it was another cracking day
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David(deep sea)Paterson
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me above loch leven
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west highland 8
It was when we got our first views of ben nevis that the bold ryan and i decide we would tackle the ben on thursday ,so we hunted for digs in fort william and started climbing the ben at about half ten thursday morning
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ryan at half way lochan,ben nevis
It was here that the big decision was made,we would take on the cmd route rather than the tourist track as was originally planned
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up to the cic hut
Got up to the hut and started the steep and punishing climb to carn mor dearg(there must be an easier way than this)
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ryan running on empty
Great relief when we reached the top
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carn mor dearg summit
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Then it was off along the arete which was tough but the views over to the north face of the ben were superb
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on the arete
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absail posts
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It was a long clamber to the top of ben nevis but we really enjoyed ,without a doubt the best way to do nevis and we were well pleased when we eventually reached the topWe didn't hang around to long as we knew it would be a long slog back down to the car and as we headed back down we meet people about half way still going up ,this was about 7 in the evening ,hope they had torchesIt was a great day ,ryan was finding it tough on the way down and his knees were giving him grief ,but it was a superb effort by the lad to have tackled this on the day after completing the way .All in all the best walk we have ever done ,so glad we never went the tourist route and in the end it had taken us ten hours in total and we celebrated in mcdonalds,fort william with burgers and milkshakes before heading home :thumbup:

Re: One Mamore ,a day on the way and Ben Nevis via the cmd arete

PostPosted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:16 am
by Tenbob
Nice walk by the sounds of it. Thought it looked a bit dangerous with the mist closing in. I've been thinking of tackling the cmd arete on the way to the Ben for a while now but keep putting it off. Any hairy sections? The possibility of this being the reason I keep putting it off :lol:

Re: One Mamore ,a day on the way and Ben Nevis via the cmd arete

PostPosted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:52 am
by pigeon
Its not too bad tenbob,there was hardly any wind and the mist wasn't thick so we could always see where we were going,there a number of small paths to the left that can be used to miss some of the scrambling ,am not to great with heights either but once we were into the ridge we were fine so if you get a good day give it a go,miles better than the tourist path 8)

Re: One Mamore ,a day on the way and Ben Nevis via the cmd arete

PostPosted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 6:44 pm
by Tenbob
Nice one Pigeon. That's that put on the list for this year then :D

Re: One Mamore ,a day on the way and Ben Nevis via the cmd arete

PostPosted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 10:34 am
by Huck Finn
As always, good report backed up by good photo's :thumbup:

Re: One Mamore ,a day on the way and Ben Nevis via the cmd arete

PostPosted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 10:37 am
by monty
Good report Pigeon with some good photos. Not so good in the clag on the arete though. Lovely views from Sgur eide mor. :D

Re: One Mamore ,a day on the way and Ben Nevis via the cmd arete

PostPosted: Sat May 07, 2011 9:32 pm
by rockhopper
pigeon - saw your comment on my last report and just had a look to see what you've been up to - must've missed this originally. These are on my longer term plans and was glad to see your comments about crossing the arete; nice photos too especially the second - well done :D

Re: One Mamore ,a day on the way and Ben Nevis via the cmd arete

PostPosted: Sun May 08, 2011 2:53 pm
by pigeon
rockhopper wrote:pigeon - saw your comment on my last report and just had a look to see what you've been up to - must've missed this originally. These are on my longer term plans and was glad to see your comments about crossing the arete; nice photos too especially the second - well done :D
Aye the cmd was great especially as it was a last minute decision type thing,if your going to do it don't go as far as the cic hut as the climb up from here is a killer ,have since looked at other peoples track logs and they all seem to have got up onto carn beag dearg ,anyway if you get a good day you'll love it :thumbup: