This was a weekend in Fort William with the Hillbillies Meetup group; the plan was to do the Ring of Steall on the Saturday, with a day off on Sunday, and Ben Nevis via the CMD arrete on Monday.

We were very lucky with the weather for Ring of Steall – the day remained dry and mostly sunny throughout, with enough breeze to prevent us overheating, and to keep the midges at bay.

I had been looking forward to the challenge of the wire bridge crossing since seeing pictures of it online – though found on the day that it was much more challenging than I’d anticipated, as the upper wires are so widely spaced that I found my arms were at full stretch to reach them, which was more than a little uncomfortable! Add to that the wobbling of the wire under my feet, and I really wasn’t very happy. Another girl in the group, who was more confident than me, kindly walked across just behind me, pulling the upper wires inwards as she did so, making it easier for me. But I was still exceptionally relieved to reach the other side!

After the wire bridge, the next challenge was crossing the river below Steall Falls – all managed without too much difficulty as there are plenty of rocks and stones available to clamber across.

And then it was on to the steep climb up An Gearanach, the first Munro. From memory there was a decent path the whole way up so no technical difficulty, and it didn’t take us too long at all to reach the summit, where we had a brief rest to regroup and have a snack before continuing with a brief scramble across the summit ridge, before dropping down and climbing back up to Stob Coire A’Chairn.

After a lunch stop on the top of Stob Coire a Chairn, we carried on to Am Bodach, continuing on after that to the “Devil’s Ridge”. Plenty of scrambling involved in this section!

Then there was the final descent and reascent to the top of Sgurr a Mhaim for our final Munro of the day.

The descent off Sgurr a Mhaim remains one of the worst descents I’ve ever done off a Munro – everyone in the group agreed it was awful. It’s unrelentingly steep, an absolute killer on the knees and on tired quads. And it seemed to go on forever – we could see the car park in the distance and for a very long time it just didn’t seem to be getting any closer. Of course we did eventually make it down – thankfully all without injury, and all beaming at having completed such a legendary challenge.

The weather on Monday was entirely different – with low cloud, high winds and rain forecast for much of the day, the planned CMD route up Ben Nevis was abandoned, though Sue and Johnson, the leaders, said they would take the group up Ben Nevis via the tourist route. Having already done the route in superb weather the previous summer, that option didn’t appeal to me, but I was keen to venture out and try a shorter route by myself. So after looking at the map to see what other Munros were available nearby, I settled on the two western Mamores, Stob Ban and Mullach nan Coirean.

I really enjoyed the route up Stob Ban – it started on a forest track and then headed straight up via a steep footpath through the forest, which was very overgrown but quite beautiful. There was a short scramble near the top where I was a little apprehensive given I was alone and the rock was wet (it was raining lightly at this stage, and a little breezy, but not breezy enough to affect my balance) but I found the scramble pretty straightforward in the end.

Sadly very few views from the top, as it was largely under the cloud with occasional glimpses of views as the cloud shifted, but I remember feeling absolutely on top of the world, loving the brisk feeling in the air.

From the summit I could see a clear footpath heading over to Mullach nan Coirean so set off along it, getting some lovely views as I dropped down out of the cloud, of some of the surrounding peaks, and even across the valley to Ben Nevis, the top of which I could see was completely covered in cloud.

Unfortunately as I approached the summit of Mullach nan Coirean, the light rain turned into a deluge, and by the time I reached the summit the views had completely disappeared. I took a very quick snap of the summit cairn for posterity and continued on, following the path straight over the summit and down the ridge on the other side.

it wasn’t long before my waterproofs gave up any pretence of being able to keep me dry. It was reminiscent of my experience on the Cairngorm plateau, with water sloshing round in my boots and even my underwear somehow being soaked through. Thankfully on this occasion I wasn’t lost – I could still clearly see and follow the path down, but as with any Munro, I had a very long way to go to get down!

Thankfully I got down without incident, and just had a short drive back to the hotel in my wet clothes. The boots took days to dry out though! I initially agreed to join Vicky and Naz the following morning to do the CMD arrete as the weather was looking more favourable, but when I woke up on Tuesday morning I was feeling quite tired and not in the mood for taking a chance on another soaking; I also was due back at work the next day so knew that if I stayed and did the CMD, I would have a very long drive home afterwards. So I met Vicky and Naz at the car park as we’d agreed, to give my apologies and wish them luck. They ended up having a fabulous day, with the weather staying dry and the views opening up as they approached the summit, which did slightly make me kick myself for not joining them, but I consoled myself that the CMD would always be there for another day and that it just wasn’t meant to be on this occasion!