The Little & The Ben: Wyvis early morning
Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2015 9:58 pmIt was more than one year when we did some Munros together with Richard - The Ring of Steall in September 2014....... Report from the trip here: http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=50517
and long time since I walked with someone as I'm mostly walking alone. Richard had a holiday for the week commencing 23.11.2015 so it was easier to fit with my two days off in the week ( tuesday and wednesday ). Mostly I preffer the first day off for some mountain trip, but in this case rain and some areas heavy rain forecast for tuesday, without a rain in some areas in wednesday and also the fact that Richard had something else to do on tuesday we decided for the wednesday 25.11.2015. I prepared 5 options where to go and wanted Richard to chose any of them as it was long time since he was in the mountains
Decision made for Ben Wyvis, which I wanted to do together with the Corbett Little Wyvis.
For this option I estimated and planned the day by following timing: Start the drive before 03:30 am, start the walk around 07:00 am, start the drive back around 13:00 and get back home around 16:30-16:45...it means that we need walk in the darkness in the beginning, at least in the first one - one and half hour...Happy winter - short days !
We met at 03:15 at the Tesco car park and then continued by one car only, it was very rare case for me to be a passenger
We arrived to the Ben Wyvis car park around 06:45 am - total darkness ( missed the entry for the first time as we were busy talking )
- Torch in hand, we started the walk in darkness just before 7:00 am. The car park was empty, nobody else there yet...well signed start point and one path only, can't do any mistake here to find the right way
- Finally some opened view after leaving the forest area. The silhouette of the mountains ahead, but still in darkness...
- Daylight !!! The snow started around 650 m above sea level...looking back down to the Glen with the forest when climbing An Cabar, Richard on the zig-zag path.
- Not just snow, but stronger wind started in the higher level. The path with the big stones - stony stairs was icy and slippy, better to walk along in the snow...
- On the horizon, Little Wyvis opposite over the Glen
- ...the Corbett Little Wyvis in all its beauty
- Looking back again, stronger wind and getting misty...
- The first cairn of An Cabar...
- ...and the second cairn towards North / North-East, there is our way ahead to the summit, poor visibility
- Towards East - sunrise !
- Better visibility for a while
- The sun was trying hard to get through the clouds
- Looking back to An Cabar
- The frost, the snow and the wind...
- The summit of Ben Wyvis
- Richard on the summit
- Me on the summit
- Richard trying to find the right place without wind.......no chance !
- Walking back...
- Descending, grassy wet ground in the lower level...
- The boggy way up, to the next target Little Wyvis
- Looking back from the higher level
The report continues in the post below.......
