walkhighlands

Easter Munro Day

Munros: Ben Hope

Date walked: 21/04/2014

Time taken: 3.5 hours

Distance: 7.5km

Ascent: 924m

Was on my very first visit North of Inverness and the intention was to try and get Orkney & the whole North coast cracked in three days. Had the family booked too and got them to believe me that I had the weather booked as well!
Now Orkney was fascinating and the history fantastic however my excitement could hardly be contained when I clamped my eyes on these two.ImageImage
As the day was quite late I decided to push on to where we were staying for the night in Durness at Smoo Cave and the hotel by the same name appropriately. Smoo Cave was a cracking visit too!Image
The views above of the coast line were even better especially as the sun was setting.Image
Anyway on to the walk. I was up and running at 4-30 as it was still an hours drive from Durness to the start point. The wildlife that was running around that time of day was awesome enroute and I had to be very careful driving there.
Well there was no denying where the start point was.Image
Now one thing I don't enjoy when starting off up these hills is steep starts as I have my first hour where I like to warm up and this fella definitely denies this! So I took it easy with plenty of breathers on the way up. The path was very good and easily identified all the way to the peak.Image What made this a cracking day for me was the inversion that was threatening to happen and I was observing the whispy white stuff creep along Strathmore towards Loch Hope the higher I got. The snag with being quite steep was I was now counting my height gain and wishing the trig point & cairn to appear all too soon! But oh it still seemed miles off!Image
Now one thing that always makes me smile on the hills are these felllas. I never seem to fail to see one !Image Added to this the views were beginning to become stunning!Image
Finally this appeared and what shocked me was I was only 2 hours into the walk however it rammed home how steep this climb up the south ridge is.Image
Quick Breakfast at the top and here's my shots from the peak.ImageImage
I descended the same way and managed to avoid any souls all the way down. A fantastic short day and the beauty of this is that I was done and dusted by 10am and sorely wished I had done my homework and gone for Ben Klibreck as well. Here's a shot from the roadside of a really good walk and a cracker from the most Northerly Munro!Image

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Comments: 4



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Distance: 15km
Ascent: 1545m
Comments: 2
Views: 4033


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Distance: 19km
Ascent: 1118m
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Views: 3366


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Distance: 11km
Ascent: 995m
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Attachment(s) Corbetts: Ben Donich
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Distance: 7.5km
Ascent: 575m
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Attachment(s) Corbetts: Goat Fell
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Ascent: 874m
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Views: 4071


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Distance: 8km
Ascent: 958m
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Distance: 8km
Ascent: 1022m
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Jabber


User avatar
Location: Bonhill
Activity: Mountaineer
Pub: Waterhouse Inn Balloch
Mountain: Ben Arthur
Place: My House
Gear: My New Scarpas
Member: BMC
Camera: Samsung NX11
Ideal day out: Ridge walking

Munros: 139
Corbetts: 13
Fionas: 3
Wainwrights: 2
Hewitts: 9
Sub 2000: 2



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Statistics

2014

Trips: 1
Distance: 7.5 km
Ascent: 924m
Munros: 1

2013

Trips: 1
Distance: 15 km
Ascent: 1545m
Munros: 4

2012

Trips: 3
Distance: 37.5 km
Ascent: 2688m
Munros: 4
Corbetts: 1

2011

Trips: 11
Distance: 136 km
Ascent: 11646m
Munros: 18
Corbetts: 1


Joined: May 18, 2011
Last visited: Nov 04, 2023
Total posts: 112 | Search posts