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Travelling North
On the 8th of August,
just before midday, Alex and I were dropped off
at Queen Street Train Station. We stood outside with sleeping mats and jackets
everywhere, trying to work out how to get it all onto our backs. After a little
improvisation and problem solving, we managed to carry everything on the
rucksacks, which I was doubtful of at first. We walked into Queen Street, and
got our tickets (£19.10 - child open return, I was still 15 at the time)
We didn’t wait around much
before getting on the train, which was at the last platform. We got on the 1238
train and before long it was leaving.
I did have a small concern that I wasn't sure if the carriage we were on would go to Fort William
- two carriages went to
Oban, two to Fort William and two to Mallaig, splitting apart at Crianlarich.
(We could have ended up in Oban! Oops....) It was all fine though.
We began moving, and the train didn’t seem to take long to get out past
Dumbarton, Garelochhead and Arrochar, and we had great, clear views of the Arrochar Alps;
The Cobbler in particular, which we’d climbed weeks previously. Ben Dorain was
also a great and familiar sight. Passing over Rannoch Moor was also interesting,
but after a while it seemed Alex was growing a little tired and as he slept, (or
attempted to) I sat looking out the window most of the time, as we trundled up
past Loch Treig. Rannoch Moor is a remote place, yet quite amazing all the same.
Camping
About an hour after reaching Rannoch
Moor, we arrived in Fort William at around 4.30pm. We instantly went to the supermarket which was beside the train station to get our food supply
for the coming days. We didn't buy a lot either, but it was easily sufficient to
keep us going. After that, we began finding our way into Glen Nevis.
After a couple of miles
of walking, we passed the campsite and soon after, we came to the Youth Hostel.
I had tried to book a night in there beforehand, but it was already full by the time I checked
for availability. We crossed
the bridge at the Youth Hostel and walked on
a small path by the river before cutting up onto a field. Much of the field was
boggy, but we found a patch sheltered under
no more then four or so beech trees. Once we had pitched the tent (which was
surprisingly easy to do with two people) we had a hell of a lot of land, along with
incredible views to ourselves, or so it felt like. We spent the rest of the night organising
things and
going out into the “field” (Which was more rough ground then a field). We
entertained ourselves for the evening with games of
'get-back-to-the-tent-with-camos-going-unnoticed'.
We only stopped when the sun went down and it became colder,
retreating to the tent for the night. I clambered out once or twice more, but we
primarily stayed inside after that. When it was finally time to sleep, we ended
up shitting ourselves, because with every noise outside you wonder if it’s a
person outside your tent... We must have done that for about an hour before I
finally fell asleep at about midnight. (you can tell we come from Glasgow :-) )
I think it was my watch alarm that finally woke me up at 5.30am the next
morning. However I didn’t get up until about 6am or 6.30am. The first time I put
my head out of the tent it was foggy, although it appeared to the ground fog, as
the sky appeared to be turquoise beyond. We sat organising gear and packing
stuff for the day, getting “breakfast”, (nothing more than an apple and some
Haribo or the likes) and generally being grouchy with each other. I put that
down to tiredness.
We finally left the tent at 7.20am. I wanted to put the
tent behind some bushes though: I found some sheep wool on in the grasses the
night before, suggesting its grazing land, and my gut feeling was not a good one. We tried moving it but with the
sleeping bags and extra gear all inside, it was too hard to move, and after Alex
reassured me that his gut feeling was telling him it would be fine, I
apprehensively left it where it was, and we set off.
Ascent
It was 7.30am by the time
we started walking on the path, and we crossed the fence, where a woman was
huddled up in clothing with a mug of what looked like tea, reading a book. Oh it
must be fun to sit there huddled up with a hot mug of tea, reading! That was
much nicer anyway, because I felt half dead, with half-asleep legs... In fact, I
felt pretty horrid for the first while. Maybe two Dextrose tablets
will get me going? Might have done. We briefly read the notice boards at the bottom, I took a
quick note of
where the path was (getting to the summit basically meant keep to the right, but
don't worry, we had maps) and
we headed off. It initially wasn’t the best fun we could have had, but we slowly
climbed above the mist and an incredible view opened up. (1st picture below)
In the valley, the ghostly white mist slowly flowed through, and the sky was
cloudless and was still a little dark. To the south the peaks were lit by
sunlight. If there was any moment that was magical, that was it.
We continued
upwards though, and after following the steep path from the youth hostel we
joined with the older path and went right. We charged on, before encountering
people that had started even earlier. We went upwards and into the small valley
where the river flowed through coming around the left side. Above us, we could
only just see the lifeless granite hump of Nevis. We just worked on and on, and
i have to say I quite enjoyed myself. The path zigzagged once, where we passed
more people, and by this point, 9am, we had already reached 2000 feet.
I could hardly believe it! I felt like we had just started out, and we
were already approaching the last section of the Cobbler, by equivalent height!
As the continued on further the lochen came into view and we went to the right again. (although I wouldn’t
have minded visiting the hut under the north face by going to the left actually,
that would have been enjoyable. But I will someday)
The path started to zigzag up the steep slope. By 10am we had slowed the
pace slightly and reached 3000 feet. We were getting great views, and all the
massive peaks from the valley were all suddenly so small, and before long we
could see over to Mull.
There were some thicker clouds coming our way, but
nothing too major, otherwise the sun was just inching its way over the slope and
gently striking us. The temperate was lovely - but we were shattered! I know what
people mean by enduring a boring trek up the pony-track, but I don't view it as low as
that. Still, the path just went on and on, upwards and upwards! Even
still, we moved quickly. (possibly because the mountain flattens out?) and
approaching 4000 feet which by that time we were walking on a barren wasteland
of granite. The north top of Carn Dearg was not far off, but I didn't consider
going there, I suppose I had an overwhelming urge to get to the summit. After
another short while the cloud set in and we found ourselves walking through mist. Wind
picked up and it got a little colder. I still had a t-shirt on until the top
though, but my hands became very cold because I had a GPS and camera in hand the
whole way up, which I guess slowly cooled my fingers until I was struggling to
get heat back into them.
The last part felt quick as the ground flattened and
soon, we saw the buildings at the summit. On top of this, in one of the gully’s
we found some snow. I suppose it never
melts, because it was August and this lump was far more than ten feet across. We
carried on to the last bit and at 10.50am, we reached the top! I put
on gloves and a fleece, ate most of a roll, took some pictures. It was misty and cliffs were right beside us,
they really weren't far away at
all. They're massive cliffs, but it didn't feel terribly significant. I tried
phoning home but couldn’t get through, never mind though. There were no views,
but everything still
felt really good. Although only 11am there
were a fair
number of people arriving on the summit, but I suppose we were lucky, because
the mountain was quiet, absent of great crowds. There weren't several hundred
all piled onto the summit and all the better.
Descent
We'd had a good ascent because of the lack of crowds, but the way down was a
completely different story. We left at 11.30am and got underneath the cloud
again. Then the sun came out once more. And crowds of people swarmed up the path in a long
snake, as we came
down. The mountain just lost its atmosphere. It wasn’t overly bad, just not as
exciting and wild, and it got hotter as we went down. Maybe it was a mixture of the crowds and
heat but I didn't enjoy it as much as the ascent. The amount of people going up
was crazy, I've never seen so many people on a hill before.
By 1.10pm we were back at 2000 feet and
we took a small detour to the lochen, and refreshed a little, with a dip in the
water for me and some sun cream for both of us. Leaving that, I felt a little
better, although the walk was beginning
to ware on me a bit. However, I went on steadily, better to get the bad parts
behind you than to complain about it and
have it in front of you! But the sun just got hotter, and by the time
we got off the mountain at 2.15pm, it was
sweltering and humid.
Going Home
We got back to the tent (thank god it was still there) and collapsed inside,
drinking the last of the water. We also decided that we’d got off the hill so
early we may as well get a train home, as Alex seemed to be getting a bit
homesick, and as I found out that also meant grumpy. So we packed our stuff and
left about 3pm. It was a nice hike into Fort William,
having had a rest already, and the next train to Glasgow was at 5.40pm, so we
waited in Fort William for about an hour,
before finally getting the train and heading home! I think we were shattered,
and the journey back was quiet. I suppose we did find a great beetle that we'd
carried from Glen Nevis. An old woman opposite us eventually stamped on it after
it scurried around on the floor, and I had some games of FreeCell. It The train back
was nice, I enjoyed it, and we eventually got of at Dalmuir at about 10pm or so,
got another train to Westerton where mum picked us up, we dropped of Alex at his
house and got home not far off midnight!
Written 2007-08-10
Proofed 2008-05-16
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