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we planned to walk ben more on 29/4 but after we arrived to the car park it was almost impossible to get off the car due to really high winds. there were some cars but i guess people walked the easy route taking into account the weather conditions.. and we were really desperate to walk via a'chioch therefore we decided to postpone hillwalk and go to iona instead (report from iona
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11932 AND HERE
http://around-scotland.blogspot.com/search/label/iona)
we tried ben more on the next day and it was a good decission, we were successfull.
we left uisken beach (where we camped) quite early, had a breakfast in pennyghale and arrived to dhiseig car park about 10am. weather conditions were much better than on previous day therefore we decided to bag the munro.
just in case
we walked up following the easy track and if conditions up were good enough we would descent via a'chioch & the arete.the track to ben more goes via a country rd, then stony path, then kind of gorge, and when the gorge ends you can choose to follow the faint path (more on your left) or just go ahead up (follow sheep paths) which turn into a well defined path later on, it even is marked with a series of small cairns. we took option 2, but there was a couple who walked more-less the same speed as us and they took the path to the left; we arrived to
coire nam fuaran exactly the same time - so it makes no difference whatsoever, whichever path you choose.
from coire nam fuaran, the path becomes a bit steep, on loose stones, until the summit.
the walk up took us 3 hrs exactly, with some breaks to take pics. the summit was really busy, therefore we decided not to have a break there with the crowd and start the descent immediately.
we chose the descent via a'chioch. i must say that before we went to mull i read the reports from this walk here on WH, which were a bit scary actually. yes- descent from ben more summit towards a'chioch is steep, yes - there are loose stones and scree,
but if you're not affraid of open space and have some common sense you'll be all right and there's nothing to worry about. of course, for strong-headed guys the descent (or ascent) would be on the very top of the ridge, we took
one of many paths going just below and it was perfectly safe and stress-free. there is some scrambling but i sorted it all out sliding down on my bum (which resulted with a large hole in my trousers)
although a'chioch looks like a good, big mountain from ben more, as we approached it becomed smaller and we reached it quite quickly. on a'chioch we met a group of walkers with an injured person who called for rescue helicopter - the rescue guys arrived after about 1 hr and the strong wind made their action pretty difficult, i think they tried at least 3 times before they managed to 'send a rescuer down' for the injured person.
descent from a'chioch is a lot of easy scramble again and as we reached the lowest point between a'chioch and beinn fhada we walked down to the glen, along the stream,
so we didnt walk up to beinn fhada. i know from many sources that
the glen usually is a swamp-like, but we were lucky - it hadnt rained on mull for more than a week before we arrived and the glen was reasonably dry with only few wetter places. and it's a long walk thru that glen (gleann na beinne fada). there are
many paths again, following any of them would be fine as they all end up at the same place (more-less), we just took a direction down and didnt really follow any path in particular we
just made sure that we followed the stream running along the glen. in some guides it says to walk on the left hand side along the stream, in some to walk on the right. it doesnt matter -
there are places where you can cross the stream (even when it runs deep in the gorge) so no worries.
we reached beinn fhada car park just within 7 hrs.
the last thing - from the car park below beinn fhada to the dhiseig car park where we left our car is about 40-50 mins walk. we were lucky, we got a lift from a fellow walker
it was absolutely great day out, full excitement, awesome views and that feeling that we achieved something. that totally turned me on for climbing rocky mountains with scrambling and all that
so far, ben more is my fav scottish mountain, first chance i have, i'm back there.
more pictures here:
http://around-scotland.blogspot.com/2011/05/ben-more-isle-of-mull.htmlenjoy!
