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Carn Mor Dearg & Ben Nevis from Inverness!
28k (17.5m) 1600 meters. 10 hours.My last day of the Great Glen Way, and I thought it was about time I went up high, and take some pictures as well! So far I had taken only 2 photo’s in 5 days!
One of Loch Ness...sadly no monster!
and one of the floating pub at Laggen Lochs. Not a trek for photos this time, the reasons (or excuses) are that half the time you are walking through forest tracks, and also the weather conditions were a bit “flat” for good pictures. But for our last day the forecast was good, so Carn Mor Dearg & Ben Nevis seemed to fit in well on my walk to Fort William from Spean Bridge.
With an 6 mile walk before I got to the usual start of the walk at the North Face car park, I was eager to get away and go at a fairly fast pace. I walked with my wife for the first 3 or 4 miles, then chomping at the bit I left her and sped ahead, by now any early cloud was clearing nicely, and as I walked up from the car park, the skies were blue, the sun was shining and I was sweating!
I refilled with water before leaving the burn, but was surprised to find a good supply of water running down from CMD’s northern slopes quite high up.
Well I may have started last and a long way behind anyone else, but I soon passed a group of several halfway up, and again met around 6 more on the summit….there’s still life in the old dog yet!
The views were fantastic…. the Arête looked very sporting, the North face of the Ben awesome, Tower Ridge still looked terrific (I did it last October) and the views of near and far mountains went on and on, as far as it is possible to see.
I enjoyed the scramble along the arête, never too difficult, but exposed enough to give me a sense of daring.
I hadn’t forgotten how steep it was from the bealach, but had forgotten how boulder covered it was….my first time on this route was over 20 years ago, so the memory had faded, and the last time was about 5 years ago in winter, when this was just a long uniform snow slope with no indication of rocks and boulders beneath the frozen snow.
Hard work, more sweat and toil got me to the swarming (with people) summit.
I had a break slightly away from the crowds near the edge of the North Face, two other walkers came and sat nearby and asked if I could take their picture, so stood on a large boulder with their backs to the cliffs, I jokingly said “move further back so I can get you in” Oh they smiled as they went over the edge! Only joking again, I quickly shouted DON’T! Just in case they did! at least it put a natural smile on their faces.
2 hours later I was at the bottom by the Ben Nevis Inn, after passing hundreds going down and still hundreds going up (even very low down at such a late time of the day…around 5.30pm)
Another 25 minutes I was in the centre of Fort William….The Great Glen Way finished off the hard way!
