walkhighlands

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 Climb Through the Clouds (Ben Nevis and Carn Mor Dearg)

A Climb Through the Clouds (Ben Nevis and Carn Mor Dearg)


Postby Cackle » Fri Mar 28, 2014 3:07 am

Route description: Ben Nevis by the Càrn Mòr Dearg Arête

Munros included on this walk: Ben Nevis, Càrn Mòr Dearg

Date walked: 10/08/2013

Time taken: 11 hours

Distance: 19 km

Ascent: 1558m

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

Hi everyone. This is my first walk report so I apologize if it's a bit shoddy!

I awoke one day in July last year with a longing for adventure. I started to browse this site for some spectacular Munros that would involve a long drive and an overnight camp and what I eventually settled on was Ben Nevis simply for the Carn Mor Dearg Arete.

My buddy and I left my home in Stonehaven around 5 o'clock after I had finished work, all of our supplies bought and packed ready to go the night before. We had a quick stop over in Perth to pick up a handy little 2 man tent from my buddies parents house then back onto the road to keep up with the remaining hours of sunlight.

Our little campsite by Loch Garry
Image

Our campsite was a small wooded area just off a layby close to the shores of Loch Garry which proved to be absolutely perfect as it was relatively secluded and completely silent but for the lapping of the water on the shores of the loch.
The race against the sunset was closely contested as we had about 30-40 minutes of light left for us to prepare the ground for the tent and collect a small amount of firewood. We then sat for a good few hours with a few beers enjoying the fire and eventually decided to call it a day around midnight.

The next morning, we awoke around 7am and set off after a quick breakfast hoping to get to the visitor center earlyish but as fate would have it we were delayed as there was a pretty bad crash on one of the roads and had to wait for police to clear the wreckage. Arriving at the car park well after 9am, we finally got to walking.

Loch Garry as we found it in the morning
Image

What I wasn't prepared for was the sheer amount of people that had turned up to tackle the tourist route up to Ben Nevis. It was like some mass pilgrimage, scores of people trekking up to the summit.
The walk up to Loch Meall an t-Suidhe (The Half-way Lochan) was, for me, the toughest part of the journey.
Once we started to approach the fork in the road, I was extremely happy to see that next to nobody had taken the route off to the left which was to be where we left the mass pilgrimage on our quest for the more spectacular route,
After a quick feed, we started along this delightfully lonely path where the real adventure now began.

Looking back down the valley
Image

After a while on this very welcomed flatish part of the route, we turned gently right with the path which would now take us right beneath the utterly awesome North Face of Ben Nevis and eventually up to the CIC Memorial Hut and got an unforgiving view of the next part of our journey which was to be the ridiculously steep and lengthy scramble up to the summit of Carn Mor Dearg.

Into the cloudsImage

At this stage in the journey we figured we should just take our time and get it done safely. After around an arduous hour (probably longer) of being taunted by sheep sauntering up and down the rocks, we finally made it to the summit of Carn Mor Dearg.

Feeling pretty defeated and nursing a bad temper at this point due to being soaked through from being in the clouds for hours, we came upon our first glimpse of the arete.
All hard feelings and bad tempers were washed away and we were reminded of why we started this journey. The views of and from the arete are simply awe inspiring. Even though the clouds were thick and visibility was rather limited, the scenery still had a massive effect on morale and in a way it even added to the grandeur of the knife point as it gave it an air of mystery.

Morale giver!Image

My buddy ross
Image

View from the arete
Image

After traversing the arete and emerging on the other side with a new notch in my shin as a result from a slight misstep and with a few mini heart attacks due to loose rocks and boulders, we made it to the last ascent of the day which wasn't so much tiring as it was frustrating. With the clouds as thick as they were, the top looked JUST out of reach and with every step it pushed further back to reveal yet more rocks time and time again.

Endlessly Deceiving
Image

Having believed the top was only a few strides away and getting my hopes up for the 50th time, we finally emerged on the plateau at the summit.
With the SCORES of pilgrims all jostling to have photos taken at the trig point as proof of reaching the highest point on the British Isles, we politely waited our turn to reach the top and stand ON the trig point so that I was with out a doubt the highest person for 400 miles for at least 20-30 seconds.

Inside the shelterImage

After a quick rewarding feed inside the shelter, we then set off on our return journey down the tourist route. Our decent got us out of the clouds pretty quickly and we could feel the temperature rising with every step we took down the path. After about a 7.5 hour ascent, the decent only took us around 3 hours back to the car park.
I hope to tackle it again this summer in the hopes that the clouds will be non existent so we can get better views of the surrounding area.

So that was my first report I have written, please let me know what you guys think. Thanks!
User avatar
Cackle
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 3
Munros:103   
Joined: Jul 29, 2013
Location: Stonehaven

Re: A Climb Through the Clouds (Ben Nevis and Carn Mor Dearg

Postby gaffr » Fri Mar 28, 2014 10:45 am

Hello,
Nice day out on the Ben. Fine images of the terrain and I hope that on your next visit you will get some images of the big cliffs. I too like to have a wee fire, at times, when camping. But I think that I may have chosen to have it in a position on the stones beside the shore of the loch.....minimum footprint etc. Of course the cans went into the rubbish bag into the motor. :) We shouldn't have us responsible hill-folks acting in the same way as the fishing folks. :)
User avatar
gaffr
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 2258
Munros:281   Corbetts:203
Fionas:33   Donalds:14
Sub 2000:11   Hewitts:25
Wainwrights:11   Islands:17
Joined: Oct 25, 2009
Location: Highland.

Re: A Climb Through the Clouds (Ben Nevis and Carn Mor Dearg

Postby Cackle » Fri Mar 28, 2014 8:51 pm

Don't fret, it would have been rather counter intuitive to clear all of our other rubbish away only to leave the cans behind, they were cleared away with everything else after we packed up our tent.
If my memory serves me right, this place had been used before, perhaps for the same purpose as the ring of stones we used to contain the fire were already present when we set up camp.
Last edited by Cackle on Tue Apr 01, 2014 10:21 pm, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
Cackle
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 3
Munros:103   
Joined: Jul 29, 2013
Location: Stonehaven

Re: A Climb Through the Clouds (Ben Nevis and Carn Mor Dearg

Postby celt54321 » Sun Mar 30, 2014 2:22 pm

nice report cackle,it really is a great walk.....and gaffr not all fishin folk leave a mess behind them,i dont for one....its just like all hill folk dont chuck bannana skins all over the place :lol:
User avatar
celt54321
 
Posts: 99
Munros:50   Corbetts:11
Fionas:3   Donalds:3
Joined: Nov 8, 2012

Re: A Climb Through the Clouds (Ben Nevis and Carn Mor Dearg

Postby gaffr » Sun Mar 30, 2014 3:16 pm

Hello,
Yes the fishing folks do get the blame for all the stuff left behind at the lochsides :( But we can't blame them for the stuff left behind on the hills....unless of course they have started to fish the high lochans. :)
I think what I was trying to do was to give the folks a chance to say that they do behave responsibly....It just sets a good example to the younger folks who may get into the hills by reading reports on here. :D
User avatar
gaffr
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 2258
Munros:281   Corbetts:203
Fionas:33   Donalds:14
Sub 2000:11   Hewitts:25
Wainwrights:11   Islands:17
Joined: Oct 25, 2009
Location: Highland.

Re: A Climb Through the Clouds (Ben Nevis and Carn Mor Dearg

Postby fingeez » Wed May 13, 2015 9:03 pm

haha never noticed this before man, nice one :)

haha don't worry gaffr I was said buddie on this trip and the fire ring was most definitely already there.
User avatar
fingeez
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 547
Munros:115   Corbetts:3
Sub 2000:2   
Islands:11
Joined: Mar 19, 2010
Location: Aberdeen, Scotland

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




Can you help support Walkhighlands?


Our forum is free from adverts - your generosity keeps it running.
Can you help support Walkhighlands and this community by donating by direct debit?



Return to Walk reports - Scotland

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: davidbird762, scribe64 and 83 guests