Exploring The Highlands in winter
“Our two days with Chris gave us the confidence we needed to attempt the CMD Arête route up Ben Nevis in winter, the following day! And it was epic! Can’t thank Chris enough.”
After a spell of pretty awful weather we were gifted two perfect days to show Toosie and Simon around the Scottish Highlands in Winter. A private trip with the intention of: 1) Learning the skills of winter hiking and 2) Summiting munros all whilst having a good workout!
On Saturday, we opted for the Ballachulish Horseshoe, a stunning circular hike in northern Glencoe which takes on 2 munros and throws up many talking points for us to delve into the intricacies of winter hiking along the way. A short walk out of the village and behind the local school led us to the foot of the aptly named School House Ridge, at around 600m the snow became firm and crampons were deployed. The ridge rises along the NE spur towards the summit of Sgorr Dhearg (1024m), with a couple of tricky moves along the way. We continued steadily along the ridge using a rope to pass some of the awkward steps which stood in our way before joining the snow arete to the summit of Sgorr Dhearg with fresh cornices on show to highlight anothing winter hazard to be aware of when out on your own!
From our first summit we had the choice, to bag a second munro or head down, with the most amazing weather it was a no brainer! We weaved our way along the rocky ridge connecting a continuous band of snow to the top, simply brilliant! The views at the summit were illusive, dipping in and out of the cloud yielding some great photographs. From the summit we started our rather long descent, discussed avalanche safety and headed straight to the Clachaig Inn in Glencoe for a well earned dinner!
On our second day we stayed around Fort William and ventured into Glen Nevis. After a day scrambling over ridges the team wanted more of this, the east ridge of Stob Ban (999m) it is! With slightly heavy legs from the day before we wandered into the valley which became snowy quickly. As we reached the col before joining the ridge to the summit we were gifted with unbelievable views everywhere we looked, spoilt for choice and a great spot for lunch!
A walking ridge leads to the summit, but it certainly requires you to have a head for heights and to be comfortable on your crampons. From the top and after copious photos we continued west to our second Monro of the day, Mullach nan Coirean (939m). Another great day with amazing views and brilliant company, thanks team!
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