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As the prospect of the royal wedding only excited me about the fact, that 2 bank holidays would give me a perfect long weekend, I was hoping for good weather. With no plan of which mountains I woudl want to climb, I spend the week prior looking at different mountains around Glencoe. One of my friends suggested that I could try the 10 Mamores in a day challenge. As I have heard about the Mamores, but not the challenge (does one has to be mad to even think about wanting to try that???) I looked at different reports to see if I could do it.
When Wednesday arrived and the weather looked promising, I also made my mind up to try the 10 Mamores in a solo walk...
I drove to Glen Etive on Thursday evening, put my tent up and spend a pretty sleepless night in the tent. After about 3h sleep my alarm went off at 4:45 am and the last thing I felt like doing was to get up, or
do any kind of walking...but I managed to get motivated to get up have a quick wash in the burn (sure way to wake up) and had a quick breakfast of cold porridge in the car. This was followed by leaving just the basics in the tent , packing my car and finally making my way to Glen Nevis.
I arrived at the car park at 6:30 (managed to get lost of the way) and after packing everything and getting rather excited I, managed to walk away without having gotten changed from trainers into my hiking boots, followed by another walk back,as I left my walking poles in the car as well...so much for getting up early with only 3h of sleep! I do not function well at this time!
Having printed out some instructions to find my way, I headed up the first Munro and by the time I reached the top I was finally awake. As I didnt really looked at the names of the Munros I was about to climb I
numbered them (for easiness) After Munr number 3, I started to feel my knees getting sore (if anyone reading this and found a solution for sore knees from coming down hills, please let me know!) I remember thinking ...OMG
that will be fun, as there are 7 more to go to.
I wont bore you with a description of every single hill, simply because I didnt really pay that much attention. All I seemed to do was go up one hill, spot the next and head up that one. It was actually one of the most unpleasant experience I have done so far! I guess I will never be a simple Munro bagger...I love being up hills to much and dont like rushing to the next one (without having a rest and enjoy the view) to tick the boxes in my book. Dont get me wrong, I have tried walking up hills fast to see how quick it can be done, but doing one after the other just seemed rather pointless for me at the time.
Looking back I have to say that my favorite 2 hills on that route were An Gearanach and Stob Coire a'Chalm.
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12h after leaving the car I was on top of Binnein Mor. By that time I was hungry, tired , cold and just realized that at the end of April I would have not that much daylight left. Looking towards the 2 remaining hills, I realized that it would take quite some time to walk up them, so I made up my mind to be happy with my achievement climbing 8 Munros in a day and would be heading back to the car. I walked straight down Binnein Mor and what looked like an easy path from the top, proved endless burn crossings over a pretty bad terrain. When I finally reached the path I was more than happy, but I didnt realized how long it would take me to walk back to the car. Every step was sore, my legs were burning and it was getting dark, I finally reached the first car park (wishing I would have left my car there) and on the way to the second car park where I parked my car, a man with his 2 kids stopped and asked me if I wanted a lift. Even though it was only a another mile to go I was more than happy to accept the lift and finally was back at my car at 21:30!
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Having to drive back all the way to Glen Coe to sleep another night in a tent, was something I really didnt look forward to. It was hard not to simply stop and book a B&B at Fort William, but I managed to resist the urge and
made my way back to Glen Etive. At Glen Etive I came across another challenge...where on earth was my tent? By that time it was pitch black and camping away from the road, had the disadvantage that I simply could not see my tent
in the darkness. After driving around the road for about half an hour, I finally found my tent and I think I only managed to brush my teeth before I sank in a dreamless sleep for 10h.
During the next day I was mainly in pain
lol. Luckily the weather was amazing, so I spend the day sunbathing outside my tent with the odd trip to my car getting food...Distance walked all day ...200m
Obviously Friday night left me with thoughts of...I will never climb a hill again and who can I blame for that, but by Saturday afternoon my spirits were back and reading though my books I decided to head up to Bidean nam Bian (report will follow) the next day.
