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This walk was going to be quite a challenge for me as it would be my third day of walking consecutively, uncharted territory and I wasn't sure how I was going to cope
Yet another pre-arranged gathering via the 'meets' section, I had advertised the fact that I was planning to tackle Gulvain after an overnight stay in Fort William. There were 2 willing volunteers to accompany me, Andy (AJNicholls) & Alice (Savage Alice)
I had arranged to have my full English breakfast at 7.30am & duly pigged out, cereal, toast etc, checked out & then headed west along the A830.
We had arranged to meet at 9am in the layby just as you turn onto the A861 off the A830. As you turn left onto the A861 the first thing that hits you is the huge difference in the quality & state of the two "A" roads, the 830 is a good surface & a normal A road, the 861 is a single track with pot holes and a poor surface
Alice turned up shortly before 9am & we had a wee natter & decided to sit in our cars, rather than be breakfast for the midges whilst we waited for Andy
It gave Alice a chance to have a bite to eat, once Alice was duly fed we decided to give Andy a ring to see where he was. He was very apologetic and confessed to having a fuel problem, which is a polite way of saying that he was close to running out
A short time later we saw a wee red car do a 180 at the end of the A861 and then we had a call asking for the co-ordinates for the layby
Andy was advised that he had almost arrived & should do another 180, which he did & appeared a few minutes later
Both Alice & myself have both met & walked with Andy before and on both occasions the weather "could have been better"
The forecast on the Beeb didn't look too clever, low cloud and drizzle, but when we set off is was fine, a bit humid & even a hint of blue sky
As usual we were going to follow the WH route and the walk to the base of Gulvain was a fine walk along a good track. There are a few burns to cross and I daresay after a bit of rain these could be a bit of an obstacle, but for us not a problem
- The parking area
- 2 posers with the cloud covered Gulvain in the background
- The way ahead, note the low cloud
- The view to the east of Gulvain
- Looking back down Gleann Fionnlighe
- One of the last photo's before we entered the cloud
Once you reach the base of Gulvain, the ascent is pretty relentless, not difficult following a well defined path.
You have to bear in mind the start of the walk is almost at sea level so one has the full munro height to climb
As we entered the cloud, the temperature dropped & the drizzle commenced, nothing too drastic - waterproofs were not required, yet
We reached the trig point on the western summit, we knew we had another 1km to the real summit. So the descending began onto a great little ridge which briefly gave us great views on both sides
- One of the few photo's from the ridge looking east
- Looking west
- Andy (tough guy in t shirt) & Alice with the summit in the background
- Note my pose having done the 10second dash, I had to use my new tripod, especially after hauling it up 900m
- Looking back to the trig point
- The substantial summit cairn, taken just before the drizzle came down a bit heavier
- Looking across to Loch Eil
The descent off Gulvain was fairly easy although for some strange reason we lost the path a couple of times
It is usually easier to keep on the path descending, but if everything went to plan it would be boring
Another great day out in great company, nice to meet Alice & hopefully we will meet up again in the future before you compleat
Good luck with the rest of your holiday Andy, hopefully you won't really jinx the weather for the next 2 weeks
See you on Saturday at Crianlarich - mind and make sure you have plenty of fuel, as garages in Crianlarich are non existent, train leaves at 0746 precisely