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My son Andrew and I have a wild camping trip planned in the Cairngorms in a couple of weeks so with this in mind we decided to get some long walks under our belts beforehand. We drove up to Fort William on the Friday night and camped at the Glen Mavis camp site. We started out at 7:30am and headed up Glen Nevis and parked at the road end. We headed up through the forest and came out at at the waterfall at the foot of An Gearanach.
From here we walked up Glen Mavis about 3km untill we caught our first sight of Binnien Beag and Binnien Mor in the distance
The ascent up Binnein Beag is pretty steep all the way and when we were 200m from the summit the path looked pretty scary to the top so we veared to the west as it looked as if there was a bit of aridge that would make the climb a bit easier. We should'nt have bothered as when we stumbled upon a path it turned all loose scree near the top and it was a real slog to the top. We were rewarded for our efforts with a great view of Binnien Mor and Ben Nevis. Picture below is Binnien Mor
Picture below was our first clear view of Ben Nevis
From here we headed for the north east ridge of Binnien Mor which was pretty staight forward untill the last 300m which is a very steep grassy slope. This section was a real lung buster especially when trying to keep up with a 12 year old wearing a heavy pack. Picture below was after I had caught my breath
The ridge walk from here to Na Gruagaichean provided a chance to cool down and was by far the easiest section of the walk.As you can see from the photo below.
After lunch at the top of the third munro of the day we doubled back and headed for Sgurr Elide Mor. There is a steep drop from the ridge here as you head down towards the hill lochs at the foot of Sgurr Elide Mor. This is another real lung buster as it is a mixture of a very steep climb mixed with some loose stones and very few hand holds. I must admit to a certain amount of satisfaction when at last my son started to show signs of tiring.
From the top we got a really good view of the first munro of the day and although it was the smallest as you will see from the picture below it is very steep
We then headed north east back down to Glen Nevis for the 7km treck back to the car. This did make for a long day but the views and weather we had made up for it. On the Sunday morning we took in Ben Nevis as my son had never climbed it before. I have added a few picks from the walk. As usual there was no view from the top.
We took 4hrs 20mins on the Sunday and were back at the car for 1:20am before the crowds arrived.