Ben More and Stob Binnein
A novelty! Not only is it less than a year since my last LJ post but this one isn' one of the three peaks. However, I have some spare time and thought I would maybe try to write short accounts of all the 3000+feet mountains.
So, DH, his two brothers (both disturbingly fit) and I went off toward Crianlarich yesterday to climb up Ben More and Stob Binnein and perhaps a couple of others in the same range depending on how we were feeling at the end of the first two. As it happens, we were all (and me particularly) completely broken by the first two so there was no chance of doing anything other than traipsing home.
The start of the walk is from Inverlochlarig which is 8 miles down a single track road from Kingshouse. Personally, I could have spent the day practicing rally skills on that road but DH was a little more cautious and keen to actually walk so we set off around 8am from the very empty car park.
We chose the route from the south because the walk from the north seems to be universally regarded as pretty much insane. Ben More is the 16th highest peak in Scotland and Stob Binnein the 18th. However, the walk from the north essentially takes you straight up the front of Ben More for a full 1,000 meters without any breaks. I knew even before yesterday that this would be beyond so the southern route looked more attractive.
So instead we started out up the flanks of Stob Invercarnaig which is only 700 metres to the summit. I maintain that it was this climb that broke me; not a single step for the first 45 minutes or so wasn't directly uphill. Anyway, I also blame not having been out for three weeks, being generally overweight and still having a slightly crooked ankle from Scafel Pike. Nonetheless, I was done in by the top of this hill.
This is the view from the top of just this part down to the car park which gives you some idea of the sheerness of the slope. It's not my photo as we had no sun (credit instead goes to Alan S on Walk Highlands)
So we moved on to Creag Artair, another 100 metres up (but with a couple of flat bits!) and then across a beautiful ridge (Na Staidhrichean) across to Stob Binnein which is a further 250 metres up via Stob Coir an Lochair.
I was very disappointed to find that the weather forecast for bright sunshine which caused me to even pack sun tan lotion was nothing more than a pack of lies. No sun appeared at any point in our journey (which makes my rather red race a little confusing) and the cloud descended to the point where visibility on the ridge was no more than 10 metres most of the time. Here, again is a picture pinched from someone else (again Alan S on Walk Highlands) of what it should have looked like.
Having crested Stob Binnein, I collapsed for a while trying to get some energy back into my legs and raise the willpower to go on. However, the descent of Stob Binnein (around 300 metres) put paid to any feelings of rejuvenation I might have had. The slightly knackered ankle took its toll again and, as for much of the day, I quickly found myself a good 5-10 minutes behind the other three.
At the foot of Ben More, I decided to give up and just sat down. I know my limits and I had reached them: there was no way I could climb another 300 metres sheer ascent and get back down it. So I sent the others on ahead. I then decided I would see how far up I could get before I met them on the way down. As it turns out, I pretty much got to the top (didn't quite make the trig point as I couldn't be bothered with the scramble when the views were nil) but I count that as a full ascent.
So, I was pretty proud of myself at that point before I realised that I was completely drained so wasn't quite sure how I was going to get home. Slowly and painfully turned out to be the answer. We clambered down Ben More and then off the side of Bealach-eadar-dha Beinn down into the Inverlochlarig Glen. This turned out to fairly hard work as well on long grass with much of the terrain boggy and peaty and the occasional sinkhole which I could have done without.
Nevertheless, it avoided any further ascent or descent and we made it back to the cars after about 6.5 hours which sounds horrendous for just 9 miles covered but it did include 5,000 feet of ascent and descent. At the top of Ben More I briefly calculated that we'd done 4,500 feet ascent in 4.5miles which is about a 1:5 gradient on average.
The end result of this is that I have established my limits and I actually hit them before I tried to climb up Ben More. I need to be fitter, lighter and more aware of how difficult it is going to be to get down and home before trying anything like again. These two hills were considerably more difficult than anything else I've done including Ben Nevis and the level of tiredness on the walk home was on a par with the last leg of the Caledonian Challenge after 23 hours and 50+ miles.
On the plus side, all the equipment was brilliant: the new boots worked perfectly, I bought a new mid layer/top from Rab which although slightly too warm on the initial slopes when I was sweating like a rapist in a whorehouse, was perfect higher up in keeping me warm but not too hot. Finally, the memory map software which was a gift from guybles has proven worth all the frustrations of owning a Windows Mobile phone. Seriously, I cannot recommend this enough in terms of having the full OS maps in 1:50,000 of anywhere I go walking and good enough GPS to tell me where I am. Having heard so many stories just in the last few weeks of people getting lost, injured or killed by not knowing where they are on mountains, this equipment is not very helpful but could easily be a lifesaver.
Anyway, DH is off to Killimanjaro in a couple of weeks so I'll be sticking to the Pentlands and trying to get fitter. There may also be a diet and, hopefully, the The Three Peaks of Yorkshire in mid September with the aforementioned guybles. For now, I need to stop my joints and muscles aching and entertain my daughter for the day.