Ben Cruachan

This was a hard-core walk! Eleven hours from when we left the car to when we got back, with only sandwiches and rationed brownies to keep us going (well, we also had the obligatory hoard of Snickers and Mars bars, but didn't need to resort to them). We ascended Ben Cruachan first with an open mind on whether we would walk the ridge (clockwise) or not - depending on weather /snow conditions. The top was amazing - it's a small top with sharp drops into big Corries at each side and there is nothing quite as high nearby, so you (almost) feel like you're on top of the world!

Although we were a little behind schedule once up top, the consensus from walkers we met at the top who had just walked the ridge anticlockwise was that it was alright although there were a few pant-wetting moments at a rock near the top. With this "cause for concern" noted and assessed, we decided to go for it. Little did we know that only 20 meters away down the ridge was some insanity which involves trying to clamber down a snow filled gap between two rocks on the narrowest part of the ridge, and the orientation of the gap is such that if you slip, you slip all the way down the mountain and die. After some tense footwork (assisted greatly by my heavy boots which make kicking steps in ice/snow so much more possible) and some ice-axe assisted backwards scrambling, we made it down the gap and around some rocks, onto the main ridge itself. The ridge was still quite exposed in places, but as it went along, over the course of a few kilometers, it gradually became a bit wider and a bit less steep to the sides.

So it was a really impressive walk and if we were to do it again we'd probably go anticlockwise instead of clockwise around the ridge, as the few exposed scrambles we had to do were all descending scrambles which are always harder than ascending scrambles. Going anti-clockwise turns these scrambles into ascending scrambles instead.