TR: Glen Nevis

Niall Wallace said:

I presume TR means Trek Report or something.

Probably

Quoted message said:

On the whole a rather disapointing day for me given I set out to get up a
Munro or 2.

Sorry to hear that, another day maybe.

I had a late start today as my guts weren't used to the Scottish ale I
sampled last night, so I started out a bit dehydrated. My wife and I
walked in to Steall waterfall from the car park, quite a few casual
walkers and a group of new worlders with huge back packs. I took their
group picture for them with a posh SLR and they told me they intended
to do your walk but overnight on the hanging valley bellow the
watershed.

This walk and onto the summit of the malevolent one had been my
intention but although the mackerel sky at 6:30 suggested a high cloud
base the weather report at the visitor centre said the cloud coming in
to below 3000 feet. Although by 12 we were in bright sunshine and no
midges.

So I changed plan and decided to walk to Kinlochleven via An Gearanach
and Stob Coire a Chain.

The OS 1:50,000 showed paths on the route but the Harvey mapped
differed, which worried me a bit, so I photographed the Harvey and put
a few control points on the image and planned a route from that,
uploading a few waypoints to my 12xl.

As we walked to the rope bridge the campers ambled into the valley as
an RAF fighter shook us up.

I made the mistake of crossing the bridge and walking past the hut to
the waterfall. The trouble being the stretch of grassy bank from the
waterfall to the start of the ascent is boggy, much better to walk
along the glen and ford the stream at the bottom of the path. My next
mistake was missing the path and having to walk diagonally up to meet
it. The path immediately turns into a scree like surface sunk through
the turf and a series of short sharp zig zags, I was out of breath
very quickly and frequently stopped to see the folk in the valley and
my wife making her way back to the car. The walk up Allt Coire nan
Laoch lay out in front of me on the other side of the glen but no one
was on it, the summit of Ben Nevis was clear which made me think I had
made a bad decision. I would like to get up there on a clear day as
last time I was in cloud for 1000ft.

At this stage I saw two people following me but their pace was in long
loping steps compared with my short staccato ones. Over the next
30mins they inexorably overhauled me. Later they turned out to be
Holly and Blanca, backpackers camping near the Nevis Hotel, though
using a day sac which they took turns in carrying. I stood aside to
let them pass at about the 2000ft mark. I think following them
increased my pace and I caught them up where they were looking at a
map where the path followed the contour right, whilst their OS map
showed a left turn. My Harvey map suggested the right route and they
took off again. At the cairn where the path became indistinct on a
grassy slope I could here them talking to a man. He was sitting making
his route notes onto a dictaphone, we all chatted for a while and it
transpired the two girls, Holly on her gap year and Blanca on exchange
from a sports degree in the Czech republic were doing the "ring of
Steel" something I had not heard of. They had hiked in to the start of
the ascent from the vsitor centre so had already covered 10 km more
than I. We struck out for the steeper path up to the summit of the
first Munro. With the other gent not far behind, we did not get his
name but he was up for a 4 day walking holiday, I guess he was 15
years older than me. We all stopped for some food at the summit where
the other chap left his pack as he was only going as far as An
Garbhhail. By now the girls doubted they had time to do the circular
walk and the ridge opposite did look intimidating. We decided we would
all walk out to Kinlochleven together and my wife and I would give the
girls a lift back to Glen Nevis.

I was surprised at how rocky An Garbhanach was and there was one move
above an exposed drop where I needed to face the rock and choose my
steps. I stood at the bottom as backstop but the girls seemed un
worried, the following ridge off to the saddle between here and the
stob was also a bit of an exposed scramble.

It was only as we stood at the beginning of the ascent to the stob
that I realised the girls had also not expected this difficulty. The
Harvey map showed a contour path avoiding the stob but not the OS and
it looked boggy on the ground, we decided to go for the second Munro.

It was well into the afternoon by now and 10 tenths cloud cover with
the summit of Ben Nevis obscured as well as some of the higher peeks
in Glencoe. I felt happier about my choice and the wind was cool
enough for the girls to don fleeces.

We did not stay on the stob long as I wanted to stay out of the cloud.
The path continued off SE toward Na Gruagaichean but I knew we needed
to exit south, just as we decided to walk down the steep grassy slope
we came across the path shown on the harvey map which followed the
contour until entering a series of long zig zags onto the grassy
descent. Halfway along the first stretch we saw two figures separated
by 300m descending the steep grass straight off the saddle between Na
Gruagaichean and Leachd na h-Aire ( I can copy these names but not
pronounce them). We met the couple on the path where they stopped for
a rest, they had intended to do the stob and An Gearranach but time
was beating them.

The path petered out as shown by Harvey rather than the distinct line
on the OS . I was able to show the girls the orchids in the heather.
In fact whilst up here I had been surprised by the wild flowers and
how high they were, this was still above 2000ft. A bit lower down
amongst the midges were a lot of round sundew, I had seen the oval
ones at Strontian yesterday. Holly picked up a frog and we heard a
cuckoo.

The continuing descent was tough and hot as the breeze died down. We
reached the Mamore estate road as we went through the deer gate. Here
the orchids in the verge were fuller pyrimadic flowers.

We went downhill left just before the keepers cottage and wandered
through the bog myrtle across a wooden bridge through another deer
gate and then down the steep soft zigzag descent to Grey Mare's tail,
which we diverted to before completing the route in the car park where
my wife was waiting.

I'm still worn out but we completed the route in 5hrs, the girls kept
my pace up, they were nearer my grand daughters generation than my
daughters, it was good to have their company although I thought I
preferred solo walking. Without them I would have been an hour longer.

Back at Glen Nevis the road was closed for a parade by a pipe band so
I dropped the girls at the roundabout and wished them well. I gave
them a website on which I will post pictures when I get home. As I
drove back to our chalet at Inchree and a warm shower I did not envy
them having to prepare their camp and cook on a gas stove, I feasted
on a roll mop followed by Morrisons lasagne cooked in the microwave.
Next back to the bar, I think I'll be too sore to walk tomorrow.

I have downloaded the 12xl track and it matches well with the harvey
map image with errors of at most 100m and three or four erratic
points, though I did have it clipped to my sac strap.

AJH