Dave (Rhino) and I travelled up to Scotland last Thursday afternoon to join Stuart (midweekmountain) for 2 days of walking/scrambling.
Thursday night we stayed at a superb climbing hut in the town of Kinlochleven that Stuart had kindly arranged.
The place was huge (a real Tardis) with multiple dorms, lounge, real fire, 2 kitchens etc etc. It felt even bigger since we had the whole place to ourselves!
Friday 7am and we set off for walk number 1 which would be the famous grade 1/2 Aonach Eagach ridge. We took 2 cars since it was a linear walk so that saved us having to walk miles back to the car once we had traversed the ridge.
I had some reservations about the ridge from what I’d read/youtubed. Nevertheless, it turned out to be nowhere near as scary as I envisaged and, thankfully, there were to be no shaky knees today.
We had 1 or 2 minor issues here and there (including a slightly tricky climb down near the start) but Stuart was always on hand to offer advice/guidance. I think we did have some rope as a backup but it wasn’t needed.
Straight from the off, it was a steep climb up to the ridge proper with around 2500 ft. of ascent required just to reach the start of the ridge!
Some pics of the walk
The welcome committee at the start of the climb up.
The path was steep so height was gained very quick.
Still a long way up!
At the top of the initial climb up to the ridge, we met 2 guys who had camped out overnight. Not a bad location!
Looking down one of the steep gully’s
Looking across the ridge. Mile after mile of awesomeness
Dave with Ben Nevis in the background. Cloud just covering the summit. For now…....
Yours truly
Checking out the next section
Don’t look left Dave
Photo time
Approaching a real up and down section
Pause for thought
And on we go again
Zoomed in on Ben Nevis and the CMD. Gotta do that sometime
Superb views down the Pass of Glencoe
Skirting round the outside here and there
Can't remember where this was but i'm pretty sure you don't want to fall at this point
Stuart and the final summit (i think!), top right
On we go
Another steep down section
And up
and up..
and up!
What goes up, must come down
And then obviously back up again
A look back
The boys coming up another steep section
Almost there. What's the view like Stuart
Looking back along the ridge.
Few paragliders out today
Heading towards the end of the ridge
Almost down now. Glencoe in the background.
Looking back up. The picture doesn’t do it justice. A horribly steep (scree at times) descent of around 3000ft. I hated it!
Walk stats recorded on the Garmin were:
Total time of 7hrs 27 mins
Total ascent 1250M (4101ft)
Total distance 7.31 miles
The sheer length of the ridge alone would be enough to catapult it towards the top of “best ever ridge walk/scrambles” for me.
It’s not all up and down, scrambling every 2 seconds and standing on the edge of a 2000ft drop. The ridge is pretty wide for a good chunk of time, allowing you to amble along and admire the 360 degree views for hour after hour.
In summary, a superlative ridge walk with magnificent (constantly) views (helped by the lovely weather) all around. Will definitely be back to do this one again
Maybe even in winter
Day 2 would have to be pretty special to top this……