MAMORES WEST
The Devil's Ridge, the way out to and back from Sgurr a' Mhaim. Photo Colin Matheson
10.3 miles 824 metres
Start Friday 19.53
Stob Coire a' Chairn 20.28
Am Bodach 20.53
Sgor an Iubhair 21.28
Sgurr a' Mhaim 22.03
Stob Ban 22.53
Mullach nan Coirean Saturday 00.10
Finish 01.30
Squares: yellow - changeover, red - finish. Circles summits: green - this leg, red - done. Map Colin Matheson
Time: Estimated 2.30 Actual 5.37
Rob writes:
As it poured with rain I delayed leaving the van and as a result Dave just beat me to the changeover – not a bad thing since it was blowy and cold on the summit and neither of us had to wait around. I'd taken my cameras up and we took a few shots before Dave carried them down. Since I was carrying them up I had a good excuse to chicken out of using the wire bridge. I did get on to it but decided against it. (Dave did too.)
The ridge was much rougher than I'd anticipated and I never seemed to be able to get any rhythm or pace at all. The ridge out to Sgurr a' Mhaim was especially slow – both ways – and summit conditions were nasty in very dense cloud – which was an occasional problem for the rest of the “run”.
I cut towards Stob Ban, which was clear and looked intimidating and the ascent dragged.
By now it was getting dark – not the half dark of An Teallach but the true dark of a night in the mist. My head torch was hopeless and on the rough ground I settled for safety ahead of speed and slowed down even more.
Time dragged on as I trudged round to Mullach nan Coirean where the top came sooner than expected and I was uncertain it was the top. So much so I set off down then returned to check. All was O.K. But even on the final ridge descent I couldn't pick up speed – I was locked in a slow nightmare pace I couldn't break.
With reservations I decided to go through the forest and mercifully found a good track beside a stream and remembered the pattern of the forest tracks as I'd lost my map now.
Diana, Alwyn and Dave were so worried about me being long overdue they were all deeply asleep.
Peaks done 141 time taken 6 days 22 hours peaks to go 136
Discussing this leg with others afterwards, virtually everyone believed that Rob must have made a major navigational error, as none of us could see why he was still on the ridge when darkness fell. Rob's account does not admit to any such problem, and his summit times in so far as such clearly rounded off times mean anything indicate a reasonably uniform slowness. Maybe he had just reached serious cumulative exhaustion.
Contrary to his suggestion that being late was a good thing, surely arriving at the start immediately after a hard climb weighed down with equipment meant that he started unnecessarily tired.
The planned start from Ben Nevis was from the road end to go up beside the water slide.
Rob writes:
Alwyn was intent on taking his original route up the Ben but after a sharp exchange of opinions I persuaded him it was unnecessarily risky and eventually he listened and got the message. This was a relief as I was genuinely worried.
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