Share your personal walking route experiences in Scotland, and comment on other peoples' reports.
Warning
Please note that hillwalking when there is snow lying requires an ice-axe, crampons and the knowledge, experience and skill to use them correctly. Summer routes may not be viable or appropriate in winter. See winter information on our skills and safety pages for more information.
A perfect day on Ben Cruachan, until the moonlit hobble
A perfect day on Ben Cruachan, until the moonlit hobble
by gsaboy » Mon Mar 05, 2012 11:57 pm
Route description: Ben Cruachan and Stob Daimh
Munros included on this walk: Ben Cruachan, Stob Daimh
Date walked: 04/03/2012
Time taken: 11 hours
Distance: 14 km
Ascent: 1376m
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Wow - what a day, as near to perfect as it gets. Apart from the end, but we shall come to that in due course.
The weather started cloudy with a light drizzle, but there was one small patch of blue sky that boded well.
I have been looking forward to Ben Cruachan since climbing Ben Lui, and staring at it all the way down, and it didn't disappoint. Arriving at the lay-by by the station at 9am I was surprised to be the only car.
The walk started through birch woods, water droplets sparkling off their branches, and soaking me, as I walked up to the deer fence. Approaching the Dam there was a mixture of sunlight, mist and light rain, the atmosphere was magical. Then up the ladder on the dam to a awesome view, and fresh snow.
Pressing on to the end of the loch I could see a nice big crampon friendly patch of snow toward the ridge, and the bluest sky you ever saw. Positively alpine.
As always when I got there it was a lot steeper than it looked, enough to get the heart pumping. By the time I reached the scramble over snow covered rocks to the summit the weather was closing in, not unusual for me. But then as suddenly again it opened up, and there was the view, over ….. to loch awe, and as far as the sea. Layers of cloud seemed to chase each other, as you can see in the time lapse shot on the video.
Onto the summit which was stunning, views in all directions, and sharp shadow of me on the snow as the sun shone intensely.
I met a nice chap from Dundee who had been coming up behind me. He wisely opted out of doing the ridge without crampons. He said there were three others, following, and that was it, the 5 of us had the Ben to ourselves on such a stunning day.
The first part of the snow covered ridge was pretty scary, after than it was easy going so you could just enjoy the views, a top then ……. It was just getting better and better.
The light show finished with a sun set just after the 2nd top of the day. I had no desire to head down.
That's where the fun started, with a long walk down to the loch, it was getting dark, and my knees decided that going down was not for them. So I was down to a snails pace, making maximum use of my walking poles, and feeling every step.
I was reassured that I had my light in my pack, but no need. Despite the pain I could enjoy an incredibly bright moon, that lit my way, and gave me a great moon shadow, something i don't think I have experienced before.
Exhausted I arrived back at the lay-by at 8pm, 11 hours after starting. All these photo and video stops take their time, but I hope that are worth it. So Cruachan gets 5 stars from me.
Wow - what a day, as near to perfect as it gets. Apart from the end, but we shall come to that in due course.
The weather started cloudy with a light drizzle, but there was one small patch of blue sky that boded well.
I have been looking forward to Ben Cruachan since climbing Ben Lui, and staring at it all the way down, and it didn't disappoint. Arriving at the lay-by by the station at 9am I was surprised to be the only car.
The walk started through birch woods, water droplets sparkling off their branches, and soaking me, as I walked up to the deer fence. Approaching the Dam there was a mixture of sunlight, mist and light rain, the atmosphere was magical. Then up the ladder on the dam to a awesome view, and fresh snow.
Pressing on to the end of the loch I could see a nice big crampon friendly patch of snow toward the ridge, and the bluest sky you ever saw. Positively alpine.
As always when I got there it was a lot steeper than it looked, enough to get the heart pumping. By the time I reached the scramble over snow covered rocks to the summit the weather was closing in, not unusual for me. But then as suddenly again it opened up, and there was the view, over ….. to loch awe, and as far as the sea. Layers of cloud seemed to chase each other, as you can see in the time lapse shot on the video.
Onto the summit which was stunning, views in all directions, and sharp shadow of me on the snow as the sun shone intensely.
I met a nice chap from Dundee who had been coming up behind me. He wisely opted out of doing the ridge without crampons. He said there were three others, following, and that was it, the 5 of us had the Ben to ourselves on such a stunning day.
The first part of the snow covered ridge was pretty scary, after than it was easy going so you could just enjoy the views, a top then ……. It was just getting better and better.
The light show finished with a sun set just after the 2nd top of the day. I had no desire to head down.
That's where the fun started, with a long walk down to the loch, it was getting dark, and my knees decided that going down was not for them. So I was down to a snails pace, making maximum use of my walking poles, and feeling every step.
I was reassured that I had my light in my pack, but no need. Despite the pain I could enjoy an incredibly bright moon, that lit my way, and gave me a great moon shadow, something i don't think I have experienced before.
Exhausted I arrived back at the lay-by at 8pm, 11 hours after starting. All these photo and video stops take their time, but I hope that are worth it. So Cruachan gets 5 stars from me.
Last edited by gsaboy on Tue Mar 06, 2012 9:05 am, edited 2 times in total.
Re: A perfect day on Ben Cruachan, until the moonlit hobble
by Alan S » Tue Mar 06, 2012 12:16 am
Good report and pics
Ben Cruachan is one of my favourites, I would love to have done it in conditions like that 


Re: A perfect day on Ben Cruachan, until the moonlit hobble
by quoman » Tue Mar 06, 2012 8:03 pm
Hi Bruce.
Quality video again and nice picture's to go with the report hope the knee's get better sooner than later.
Quality video again and nice picture's to go with the report hope the knee's get better sooner than later.
Re: A perfect day on Ben Cruachan, until the moonlit hobble
by rockhopper » Tue Mar 06, 2012 8:17 pm
Lovely - makes me want to go up there again - could hardly see anything the day I was up - nice to see what I missed - cheers 

Re: A perfect day on Ben Cruachan, until the moonlit hobble
by Huck Finn » Tue Mar 06, 2012 10:41 pm
Great report, cracking photos & Video
This hill makes my number 1 spot, we did it in the winter as well, stunning time to do it

This hill makes my number 1 spot, we did it in the winter as well, stunning time to do it

Re: A perfect day on Ben Cruachan, until the moonlit hobble
by Klaasloopt » Wed Mar 07, 2012 5:43 pm
Wow, that's an excellent video!
Serious question: it looks to me the ridge is doable without crampons, would you agree? (even though one might feel more at ease with crampons); I see you doing it with crampons, but without axe. Would you agree 'without crampons, with axe' would do as well? Thanks for replying!
(See, I plan doing this hill next week, but would like to leave the crampons out of the backpack...)
Cheers!
Serious question: it looks to me the ridge is doable without crampons, would you agree? (even though one might feel more at ease with crampons); I see you doing it with crampons, but without axe. Would you agree 'without crampons, with axe' would do as well? Thanks for replying!
(See, I plan doing this hill next week, but would like to leave the crampons out of the backpack...)
Cheers!
Re: A perfect day on Ben Cruachan, until the moonlit hobble
by jonny616 » Wed Mar 07, 2012 6:27 pm
Great report. How were the slabs just after Cruachan , under snow.
Re: A perfect day on Ben Cruachan, until the moonlit hobble
by gsaboy » Wed Mar 07, 2012 10:57 pm
Klaasloopt wrote:Wow, that's an excellent video!
Serious question: it looks to me the ridge is doable without crampons, would you agree? (even though one might feel more at ease with crampons); I see you doing it with crampons, but without axe. Would you agree 'without crampons, with axe' would do as well? Thanks for replying!
(See, I plan doing this hill next week, but would like to leave the crampons out of the backpack...)
Cheers!
Yes it would have been doable without crampons. There was about 5-10cm of soft snow on top of ice. In some places such as the slabs, jonny616 mentioned, it was just a light dusting of snow, so you really wanted to take the crampons off. However by all accounts its snowing up there all this week, so there could be a lot more. But I don't see it getting to the solid ice stage.
I wasn't using an axe as I don't have one, or at least I didn't, until this mornings delivery. So I'm keen to try it out.
I'm quite new to this game, and I must admit predicting the conditions from sea level is pretty impossible.
Re: A perfect day on Ben Cruachan, until the moonlit hobble
by adamarchie » Thu Mar 08, 2012 8:01 am
Wow.
Great to see there's still falling up north. This winter ain't done for yet!
Great to see there's still falling up north. This winter ain't done for yet!
Re: A perfect day on Ben Cruachan, until the moonlit hobble
by Klaasloopt » Thu Mar 08, 2012 8:51 am
gsaboy wrote:I'm quite new to this game, and I must admit predicting the conditions from sea level is pretty impossible.
Thanks for your info!
... predicting conditions from below sea-level is even worse

Re: A perfect day on Ben Cruachan, until the moonlit hobble
by lomondwalkers » Thu Mar 08, 2012 12:06 pm
Superb yet again
I do love your videos
I've done both these Munros as singles due to crappy weather, I must make a point of getting back up on a good day and do the horseshoe!! Cheers for showing me what I've missed twice 



Re: A perfect day on Ben Cruachan, until the moonlit hobble
by BoyVertiginous » Thu Mar 08, 2012 3:10 pm
Cracking account, gsaboy. Can you tell us what the pieces of music used in your video are, please?
Re: A perfect day on Ben Cruachan, until the moonlit hobble
by ChrisW » Thu Mar 08, 2012 3:23 pm
wow- excellent stuff gsaboy, the hike looked spectacular and the photography and videography captured it brilliantly (underwater bit too I see......very fancy
) Great report really enjoyed it, hope the knees recover quickly so we can get some more like this 


Re: A perfect day on Ben Cruachan, until the moonlit hobble
by gsaboy » Thu Mar 08, 2012 10:33 pm
BoyVertiginous wrote:Cracking account, gsaboy. Can you tell us what the pieces of music used in your video are, please?
Music is creative commons stuff, so that I can use it on vimeo.
I got them from: http://ccmixter.org/find-music
The ones used are:
DLDN Instrumental (ft. Onlymeith, Mellotroniac)
Echo (ft. Infaredhaze)
Re: A perfect day on Ben Cruachan, until the moonlit hobble
by BoyVertiginous » Fri Mar 09, 2012 12:50 am
gsaboy wrote:BoyVertiginous wrote:Cracking account, gsaboy. Can you tell us what the pieces of music used in your video are, please?
Music is creative commons stuff, so that I can use it on vimeo.
I got them from: http://ccmixter.org/find-music
The ones used are:
DLDN Instrumental (ft. Onlymeith, Mellotroniac)
Echo (ft. Infaredhaze)
Thanks, I've bookmarked it for a look later.

13 people think this report is great. Register or Login free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
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