The “Big” Ben More

 Munro baggers will know that there are two of their objectives that are called Ben More.  The Mull version is possibly better known as it is the only Munro on that island and is quite often kept to be many compleaters’ final summit.  But the mountain that looms over Crianlarich is a mountain that commands respect.

Ten club members set out from Inverardran Cottage which is the superb base of our hosts, the Ochils Mountaineering Club.  We walked alongside the A85 on the course of the old railway before starting uphill just past Benmore Farm.  The zig-zag track led to the start of the pitched path that relentlessly gains height.

Ben More is a TRAIL 100 mountain and is described by TRAIL magazine as “sadistically steep”; it’s not wrong!  We walked up towards the snow line and as the snow became more abundant than occasional patches, just above the start of the old stone dyke, we put on our crampons.  Progress now became a lot easier.

Cruach Ardrain

The boilerplate characteristics of the snow showed that it had gone through quite a few freeze-thaw cycles as the sunny days melted the surface and the nights of clear skies refroze the top layer of water.  These conditions were widely reported across Scotland at the time and in the days that immediately followed, resulting in many walkers being caught out, lulled on to the hills by seemingly attractive conditions but finding themselves have to deal with bullet névé.

Ben Lui & Ben Cruachan

The views became more expansive as height was gained with Ben Lui and Ben Cruachan particularly catching the eye to the west.  We took a line slightly to the left of a direct summit bearing and curved around to the right as we neared the top.  Whether the true summit is the cairn or the trig point, I had my photo taken at both to satisfy myself that I had actually reached the highest point of the mountain.  All the ground was shrouded by layers of snow subjected to cycles of freeze thaw and there was a slight breeze compounding the sub-zero temperature; we took shelter in the natural cleft a few feet below, and just to the west, of the summit pillar.

Ben Lawers & Loch Tay

Ben Vorlich & Stuc a' Chroin

Many summits, near and far, completed the impressive panorama.  Bens Lomond, Lui, Cruachan and Lawers could be seen from the south to the north-east.  Ben Vorlich and Stuc a’ Chroin were prominent just south of east.  Neighbouring Stob Binnein dominated just over a mile to the south.  And a tantalising glimpse of the Paps of Jura 70 miles to the south-west was a surprising highlight.

Stob Binnein from Ben More summit

Stob Binnein from just above the bealach

We had become a group of four as the faster amongst us continued well ahead of us.  As we descended south towards Bealach-eadar-dha Bheinn I spotted a group of people and immediately feared the worst.  I soon recognised a few people from our original 10 and as I got nearer was told that one of our party had taken a tumble and had sustained arm, shoulder and possibly rib injuries.

Luckily a group of Manchester and District (MAD) Ramblers were quickly with him quickly followed by a member of the Tayside Mountain Rescue Team who was out on a walk with his wife.  Telephone conversations were had and soon the Prestwick based Coastguard rescue helicopter was on the scene and our casualty was promptly airlifted to hospital in Glasgow, no doubt reaching the warm indoors before any of us!

AIRLIFT!

AgustaWestland AW189    G-MCGT 

We all took the traversing descent path down to Benmore Glen with the group once again splintering based on differing levels of fitness and fatigue.

Such a taxing day resulted in the night’s meal being hailed as the finest of feasts.

The Lure of the List

I’ll admit it, I do like a good list!

To do lists, ticklists and spreadsheets all feature prominently in my day-to-day life, both professionally and personally.  But it is as a hillwalker that they have the most influence.

Most hill lists fall into one of two types; those that are fixed with no possibility of additions or removals and those that define the criteria for inclusion.  For those lists of the second type, there may be the possibility of hills being added to or removed from the list, mostly as a result of ever more accurate surveys.

The hill list that started it all for me is the Wainwrights; 214 fells in Lakeland that were the focus of my hillwalking ambitions for 30 years.  Alfred Wainwright gave no clear definition for his list and although he outlined (literally!) the geographical area to be considered by using the outer limits of the major lakes, he had to tweak the resulting area by extending the boundary to include Caldbeck and Longsleddale.  His list of 214 fells was purely his personal choice and the beauty of the list is that it will never change.  His inclusion of Mungrisdale Common still perplexes many but Andy Beck gives a plausible explanation in his superb book “The Wainwrights in Colour”.

After completing the Wainwrights and to fill my aspirational void, my attention has turned to the TRAIL 100 and the Nuttalls.

The TRAIL 100 is a list of “the finest UK mountains” and like the Wainwrights, it is a fixed list.  There are many of the 100 that are absolutely worthy of inclusion but, having trudged up to the top of Clougha Pike in Lancashire, I wondered whether those that compiled the list were trying to include a geographical balance.

Many of the modern hill lists have specific criteria and the Nuttalls is one of those.  There is a clear definition of location, height and prominence which when combined, produce a popular list for hillwalkers.  There have been occasional changes to the list as a result of surveys of some of the more marginal inclusions (and exclusions) and in the last ten years there have been ten hills added to the list and six that have been removed.  To their credit John and Anne Nuttall (who original compiled the list) welcome the accuracy and have no hesitation in amending their list if a change is required.

Another hill list with specific criteria is the Donalds but its definition is convoluted.  If you want an intellectual challenge you could do worse than to try to fully understand the reasoning; I’ve never properly got to grips with it!

Probably the most famous hill list is the Munros, mountains in Scotland that are at least 3000 feet high.  Sir Hugh Munro never gave specific criteria but there appears to be a broad consensus reached by the Scottish Mountaineering Council which oversees the list and any changes; Robin N Campbell’s book “The Munroist’s Companion” has some interesting reading on the subject.  But in recent years when surveys have judged that mountains previously thought to be higher than 3000 feet actually aren’t, the SMC has been reluctant to comment and officially update their list.  I suspect the reasons are political but it is frustrating that such a respected organisation fails to act on accurate (as confirmed by the Ordnance Survey) data.

You may have concluded by now that there are many hill lists, each with their own characteristics.  One (or more) can be picked up off the shelf in the form of the many guidebooks available and there is likely to be one that suits your own ability and ambition.  A lot of lists claim to include “mountains”, but what is a mountain?

That’s something I’ll explore in my next blog.

Ben Lomond

I didn’t really care what anybody else’s plans were, I was heading for Ben Lomond.  Others in the club mooted the idea of a direct ascent of Ben More from Crianlarich but it was obvious that the route would be relentless.  The promise of more varied terrain on the Ptarmigan ridge proved more alluring.

Although Rowardennan was an hour and a half’s drive from the hut, that didn’t seem that long compared to yesterday’s six hour journey from home.  Five of us headed for the ridge after starting on the West Highland Way and followed a good pitched path to the snowline, avoiding the iced up steps although microspikes made progress somewhat easier for one of us.  As we ascended, the view over to the Arrochar Alps opened out and we made our way up to the Ptarmigan ridge.  Our meanderings along the ridge took us in and out of the wind and we found a suitable spot for lunch, cold but sheltered.

Beinns Arthur, Narnain & Ime

We had been able to see Ben Lomond’s summit ridge and saw walkers in the distance, some descending the north-west ridge.  It looked as if some turned back as we didn’t see them progress to the base of the ridge but we did come across one crampon-shod couple who said that the ridge was not too bad.  A young couple caught us up and overtook, not surprising as they were inadequately equipped – summer boots and a water bottle for the young woman who looked like she was on the way to the gym; jeans and Timberlands for the young man.  No sign of axes or crampons in the single small rucksack being carried !  The minus 5^oC temperatures and 30mph plus winds demanded more suitable clothing !

Ben Lomond summit from the Ptarmigan ridge

At the base of the summit ridge we put on our crampons and made our way up.  The spikes made a difference and I was happy to acknowledge that we had made the right decision at the right time.  A couple of us used ice axes but I felt comfortable using my poles – at only one point would I have preferred an axe but the position wasn’t desperate.  And my goggles proved invaluable in the wind.

As we moved up, a group of eight young Poles followed us.  They were as ill-equipped as the previous couple – no winter boots, crampons or ice axes and although they had reasonable jackets their legwear couldn’t have given them much protection from the wind.  After five hours of walking we took our summit photos at the trig point and the Polish group waited for us to start making our way off in the mist; I’m pretty sure that their main method of navigation was to follow footsteps !

We followed the voie normale down to below the cloudbase and after a while dispensed with the crampons.  It’s a pretty uninspiring path and it made me glad that I’d chosen the Ptarmigan ridge as the way up.  Towards the bottom it was muddy and its condition betrayed the huge number of feet that must use it, both up and down.  It’s probably one of the most used ways up any Munro.

Beinn Narnain

And as daylight waned at the end of the walk, the hills took on the fiery tones cast by the sunset with the alpenglow giving the upper reaches of Ben Lomond a spectacular colour.

The Ptarmigan ridge and Ben Lomond

TRAIL 1000 metre peaks – part 2

Following the publication of a new tick list in the June 2013 issue of TRAIL magazine;

“THE 1000m PEAKS OF THE BRITISH ISLES”

I wrote a blog about its composition and some possible exclusions.

The list was linked to an article of Mike Cawthorne’s walk over the 135 Scottish 1000 metre summits as described in his book “Hell of a  Journey” I managed to separate Mike’s summits from TRAIL’s list, coming to the conclusion that Mike’s list was specific (see my previous blog) and that the TRAIL list has no specific link to it, other than a common “1000 metre” criterion.

Of the 141 summits in TRAIL’s list;

            135 are Scottish

            5 are Welsh

            1 is Irish.

The Welsh summits

The 5 Welsh summits are the four 1000 metre Furths as listed in Munro’s tables plus Glyder Fawr (itself a Furth summit) whose height is listed as 999 metres in the tables but has been resurveyed resulting in a new height given as 1001 metres.

The Irish summits

The exclusion of two Irish summits gives rise to an inconsistency.  If the Welsh summits give any precedent, the list should include the Irish Furth summits of at least 1000 metres.  These are Carrauntoohil, Beenkeragh and Caher.  But only Carrauntoohil is included.  Why?

Both Beenkeragh and Caher have a significant drop so it’s not as if they are insignificant summits.  There are quite a few Scottish summits in the list with less!

I have a theory that Carrauntoohil was included so that the list would be a “British Isles” list and whoever compiled it didn’t think to include the other two Furth summits.  Or maybe their research just wasn’t thorough enough.

The Scottish summits

The Scottish summits that make the list are the 1000 metre Munros as listed in the 1997 edition of Munros tables – except for two!  The two missing peaks are the lower Munros of An Teallach (Sgurr Fiona) and Liathach (Mullach an Rathain).

I’ve always found that TRAIL doesn’t seem to recognise that An Teallach and Liathach, both magnificent mountains in their own right, each contain two Munros.  And I’ve always wondered why.  Is it because they are both generally known as a single entity in the eyes of many?  I can’t think of any other reason.

The complete list

TRAIL’s list was published with no specific prominence criteria which means that it can be considered complete.  But it is inconsistent!

If I ever get around to ticking the 1000 metre Peaks of the British Isles, my list will have 145 summits!

“Hell of a Journey”

Last year I wrote a blog about TRAIL magazine’s list of 1000 metre peaks in the British Isles and the accompanying article about Mike Cawthorne’s winter traverse of the Scottish 1000 metre peaks.  Mike’s book, “Hell of a Journey” quoted that this walk took in 135 such summits, but he didn’t specifically list them.

I managed to buy a copy of his Boardman Tasker award shortlisted book and as I read it I came to the conclusion that this is as good as any mountaineering book that I have previously read.  The title describes the Mike’s endeavour perfectly and I can thoroughly recommend it, particularly to Munro-baggers, winter-walkers, wild-campers and mountaineers.

But back to the list.

There are 137 Munros that are 1000 meters or higher and I wondered where the other two had gone.

Mike started his walk in November 1997 and the most recent edition of Munro’s tables was published in 1997 which implies that two are missing.  But Sgurr Breac in the Fannichs was the clue as it was detailed in Mike’s text as one of his 135 summits with a height of exactly 1000 metres.  But in the 1997 tables it is listed with a height of 999 metres!

This got me thinking – when was it likely that Mike planned his walk?  I came to the conclusion that he used the 1990 edition of the tables, before the 1997 edition was published.  Would the numbers now tally?

The 1997 update to the tables was a significant one with quite a four “new” 1000 metre summits being classified as Munros and one 1000 metre summit being demoted to a Top.  Some research confirmed that Sgurr Breac was listed in 1990’s tables with a height of 1000 metres; the 1997 update had demoted its height to 999 metres.  All of which explains the number of summits increasing from 135 to 137.

So clarity has resulted – Mike’s round was of the 1000 metre Munros (known as Metros in some hillbagging circles) as listed in the 1990 edition of Munros tables.

Lagangarbh

There is a memorial bench in the Altnafeadh car park…

Despite many years as a member of my climbing club, I had never been to a Lagangarbh meet.  There have been many meets there over the years but circumstances conspired to keep me away but this year, the planets must have aligned and I found myself in the legendary SMC hut for a weekend.

Coire na Tulaich is probably one of the most notorious accident blackspots in Scotland, with a number of fatalities in recent years due to avalanche.  It is also the voie normale to the summit of Buachaille Etive Mor, that great bastion of rock that stands guard over the entrance to Glen Coe.  Recent SAIS reports had rated the avalanche risk as “High” but it had been downgraded to “Considerable” only a few days earlier, particularly for north-facing slopes of which the route up is.

Lagangarbh and Buachaille Etive Mor

I was very keen to avoid the coire and decided on a route to the right, following the broad ridge leading up to Stob Coire na Tulaich (point 902).  Although the ground at Lagangarbh wasn’t frozen despite a dusting of overnight snow, nine of us  set off up the untracked snow which was knee-deep in many places, with an occasional thigh-deep plunge catching us out by surprise.  On one short but steep pitch, I led but got caught out by the almost waist-deep snow, providing much amusement for the others as they bypassed me through shallower snow on the left !  As we moved up the snow started to harden with some hard névé needing steps kicking to reach a small plateau where we put on our crampons and goggles.  From here we moved out of the protection of the ridge and into the gusting wind as we headed towards the minor summit of Stob Coire na Tulaich.

towards Stob Coire na Tulaich

Conditions worsened as we crossed the col with 60+mph gusts of wind causing us to drop to our knees, with occasional whiteout conditions making progress even more arduous.  We got together to make a decision about what to do next in the harsh conditions and I made it clear that I was determined to get to the summit.  The others agreed to come and I stayed at the back of the group to encourage one or two of the others, for whom conditions were tiring them quicker than the main body of the group.  At the top we rested for a short while, had a bite to eat and took some traditional summit photos amongst the poor visibility.

We started back down the ridge in poor visibility and what felt like worsening winds, forcing us to our knees again.  The gusts were now taking longer to ease and keeping us on the ground, at which point I was becoming concerned that we were staying still for too long.  I was about to give the group a serious gee-up about getting down, even if it meant crawling to the col, but the winds lessened and visibility improved allowing us to progress to the col.

It became obvious that the wind was blowing snow into Coire na Tulaich over a big cornice, justifying the day’s route choice.  One of us spotted about five other walkers heading up to Stob na Doire, these being the only other people any of us saw all day.  The conditions were obviously keeping many others off the hills !

We followed our ascent route back down and enjoyed a few bumslides on the way giving some of us the chance to practice our ice axe braking !

Although the day’s conditions were challenging, I enjoyed them a lot and bad as they were, I could imagine myself still enjoying even greater windspeeds.  The day’s mileage and ascent weren’t the most I’d ever done and dropping through the freezing level resulted in a lot of wet gear but bagging a TRAIL 100 mountain and a Munro in full winter conditions was greatly satisfying.

It had rained overnight on Saturday and continued to do so sporadically as I decided whether or not to walk up Beinn a’ Chrulaiste with the group.  I had made up my mind that I didn’t want another soaking as a prelude to a long damp journey home.  But the rain stopped so I changed my mind !

Most of yesterday’s group with a couple of others saw nine of us set off across boggy ground to reach the broad west ridge, soon reaching the snowline before the minor summit of Stob Beinn a’ Chrulaiste.  Walking poles were proving very useful on when crossing the hollows to where snow had drifted.  The windspeed increased and visibility decreased as we made our way up and a correction to the bearing soon had us heading for the summit.

Although visibility was poor, we managed to get some good views of the snow-plastered Buachaille Etive Mor.  Beinn a’ Chrulaiste isn’t the most exciting mountain but the view across the valley is unsurpassed.

Buachaille Etive Mor

We could just make out the trig point from a foresummit and soon the summit photos of my first Corbett were taken after goggles were quickly donned in the cutting wind.  A quick decision was made to reverse the route rather than traverse the mountain which gave us a more leisurely opportunity to enjoy the view over to Buachaille Etive Mor and Coire na Tulaich.

Crowberry Tower on the upper left skyline 

Walking back to Lagangarbh via the Altnafeadh car park, I passed a bench with a memorial plaque to Allan Lang, Richard Lang and Paul Bower.  On 21^st February 1995 they were caught in an avalanche in Coire na Tulaich.  Such were the continued high avalanche risk at the time rescue teams abandoned the search – their bodies were recovered 6 weeks later.  The bench looks towards the coire and serves as a poignant reminder for us all to understand the power of the mountains and how lucky we are to be able to enjoy our days amongst them.

TRAIL 1000 metre peaks

The June 2013 issue of TRAIL magazine sees the publication of a new tick list;

“THE 1000m PEAKS OF THE BRITISH ISLES”

It’s a challenging list, containing the very highest summits of the British Isles.  What TRAIL hasn’t done is publish a specific definition of the criteria for inclusion.  So I did a bit of digging.

Using the Database of British and Irish Hills for reference, I compared the TRAIL list to the 1000 metre summits on DoBIH.  The list contains, broadly speaking, the Munros and Furths that are at least 1000 metres high.

But there are a few possible omissions.

The most obvious are two Furth summits in Ireland, Beenkeragh and Caher, which makes me wonder whether the inclusion of Carrauntoohill was an afterthought, perhaps to allow the inclusion of summits from Wales and Ireland.

Also published in the June 2013 issue is an article about a winter traverse of the Scottish 1000 metre peaks by Mike Cawthorne.  Mike quotes 135 peaks which points to the reason TRAIL has included only 135 out of the 137 Munros that are at least 1000 metres high.  The two peaks “missing” from the TRAIL list are the lower Munros of An Teallach (Sgurr Fiona) and Liathach (Mullach an Rathain).

As TRAIL published just a list and not specific criteria, in practice, there are no omissions.  The publication of the list will have baggers checking their ascents against it and no doubt some will aim to complete it.  I just think that it’s a shame that TRAIL doesn’t appear to have been paying attention to detail, presumably choosing to align itself with an individual’s interpretation of 1000 metre peaks rather than a specifically defined selection from the SMC’s Munro’s Tables.

I haven’t read Mike Cawthorne’s book (“Hell of a Journey”) about his traverse but I intend to get a copy soon to see if he gives any reason for excluding two summits and whether they are the two that I think they are.

After the Wainwrights

I inadvertently started bagging Wainwrights in 1983 but it was in 1988 that I considered that bagging them all would be a goal worth pursuing.  Since then I have had long periods of abstinence from the hills interspersed with times of focussed bagging.

But as I approach the end of the Wainwrights my thoughts have turned to other ticklists.  When I decided to concentrate on the Wainwrights I wanted to include the Outlying Fells in my round.  I didn’t want some smart alec asking me if I’d completed book 8 once I’d finished the 214.  Over time I think that I might have turned into that smart alec as having spent a lot of time on the Outliers, they feel like a logical extension of those fells listed in the 7 Pictorial Guides and they definitely give a greater appreciation of the geography of the Lake District.  My plan is to finish the Outlying Fells and the “regular” Wainwrights on the same day.  But once that day has passed, what next ?

Although some earlier attempts had been made to compile lists of the Scottish 3000-foot mountains, arguably the first ticklist was the Munros, published in 1891.  Since then there have been many other lists compiled – so many that I’m expecting somebody to publish a ticklist of ticklists!  I did toy with the idea of graduating to Munros but, to be blunt, the biggest barrier to completing them is the cost of petrol.  I’ll still visit Scotland and climb the odd Munro or two, but as a whole they are too numerous and too far from home to make “compleation” a realistic goal.

So what lists could be realistic?  The Fell & Rock Climbing Club published “The Lakeland Fells” in 1996 listing 244 fells; the list becoming known as the FRCC 244.  If I complete the Wainwrights and the Outliers, there are only 8 of the 244 that would not have been climbed – not exactly the biggest challenge.  Because of the huge overlap between Wainwrights and the FRCC 244 I have incorporated bagging those extra 8 into plans to finish my Wainwright round.

Bill Birkett wrote “Complete Lakeland Fells”, listing 541 tops with a height of over 1000 feet.  During my Wainwright round so far I’ve walked to the top of a few of these, but many are fairly insignificant bumps.  Ullister Hill near Lord’s Seat is one of the most unrewarding tops I’ve ever visited (even on a sunny day!) and Thirdgill Head Man near Wandope looks very impressive from the ridge below but as it only has a reascent of 2 metres, it’s a very minor bump on a ridge.  And Lad Hows on the south flank of Grasmoor was hardly noticeable!  To complete the Birketts would mean aiming for uninspiring summits – my time on the hills can be far better spent.

I’ve come to the conclusion that once I’ve climbed the Wainwrights, Outliers and FRCC 244, the Nuttalls will become the active ticklist to follow.  Nuttalls are mountains in England & Wales with a height of 2000 feet or more, with a reascent of 50 feet (15 metres).  I’ve already bagged quite a few and I want to spend some time in areas that I’m not too familiar with – I’m not looking forward to some of the rounded Pennines but the Brecon Beacons look like some wonderful peaks to aim for.  And this new quest will not fully take me away from the Lake District as there are a few Nuttalls that I need to reach the top of, the Glaramara ridge and the area south of Crinkle Crags being two areas rich in unclimbed summits.

As well as the Nuttalls I’ve got an eye on the TRAIL 100, a list published in TRAIL magazine in April 2007 listing, in their own view, the best 100 summits in the UK.  There are quite a few in Scotland, but the numbers are more manageable than the Munros.

So with the Nuttalls and the TRAIL 100 to come into focus soon, and maybe adding the Irish 3000s and Scottish 4000s to my targets, I reckon that the next 10 years or so of hillwalking is already accounted for.