Highlands - Dalmally - Ben Cruachan - River Orchy - Lost Valley
It’s the 21st Dec 2020. The government doesn’t know whether to cancel Christmas or not. Rules keep changing at a moment’s notice. New Covid strains believed to be discovered. Scotland announces the border will be closed from the 26th onwards.
I have until 4th Jan to do anything I want. And all I want is some proper adventure. The outdoors. Some Pete time. What even is that? What does it feel like? I messaged my photographer/climber friend Allan (an experienced outdoor fellow)
“Hey mate I’m thinking of doing a solo mission to Scotland next week, I’m torn for getting an air BnB or camping, just looking for some advice, I don’t necessarily have super deep winter gear, as in tent and sleeping bag, how big of a mistake would it be going camping lol, if I just take loads of layers would it be alright?”
The Legend Al is, he offered to lend me some sleeping gear. He well knew it would be Baltic. With a winter sleeping bag under my arm and some determination to get some wilderness, I headed to Scotland.
I aimed to stay for 3 nights in the highlands around the Glencoe area. When driving up I had no plan of what to do, just the vague idea that I wanted to wild camp for at least one night and possibly summit a big ol mountain. But I was hesitant and a little scared to commit to either, both being unknown territory for me. (Solo winter hiking & camping)
By complete chance, I booked the coolest little BnB. I arrived at Dalmally village. Parked at the train station and quickly realised that the train station was the BnB. On the active platform were all the rooms and plants, old farming equipment, tables, chairs and live chickens. Madness. One morning on the way to the shower, I passed a businessman waiting for his train. I had a great conversation with graham the owner.
(Quick) 4 Interesting facts about Graham (that’s him up there)
Graham is the dude that converted the rail house into a BnB. He bought it in 1990, and it took him 14 years to dry out the building, then 2 years to fix it up.
He was a farmer for most of his life. He now lets his sheep roam free on his lands. But this means in lambing season he has to hunt them down to help them give birth. He won’t wash for 6 weeks, so they can’t smell him coming.
He never learned to swim and doesn’t float, but a hobby of his is to go diving for clams. Since the age of 14, he's worn a big old style wetsuit and walked into Lochs looking for clams. He carries canisters of air, and when he's finished, he releases air into his suit and bobs up to the surface.
Last year he went to the doctor for a bad hip. They gave him an x-ray and found 3 shotgun pellets in his hip. He doesn’t remember ever being shot…
I spent some time researching the nearby area, and I found the Munro I wanted to summit (Munro: Scottish mountain over 3000 feet in altitude) his name is Ben Cuarchan and he’s a big boy. I chose to attempt a 15km loop that climbed Ben Cruachan and then traversed ridges across to 3 other Munros. I planned to hike up to the snow line and then decide to continue or head back.
With the short days in mind, I started the hike in the dark. And blasted the first easy 5km. as I crested up to the reservoir I could see Ben Crauchan’s peak covered in cloud. Other than the cloudy summits, the weather was on my side most of the day. I reached the snowline in high spirits and powered on up. It was a steep hike to the summit with the terrain quickly turning from muddy trails to knee-deep snow and icy rock. I reached the summit in good time, but unfortunately, I wasn’t treated by any views.
The clouds lingered around the summits all day, only occasionally dispersing to show me little snapshots of the views I could have had. The majority of the day was a snowy slug up and down various ridges amongst the cloud. Poor visibility and the occasional icy scramble section were the most significant challenges. I’d set periodic waypoints on my Garmin watch kept me on track. I smashed my estimated time of 9 hours and ended up completing it in 5. I got back down, drove to the nearest loch and had my late lunch and a quick dip. Challenge complete. I felt blessed to have good weather for the hike.
I had no plans on my second day. Only that I wanted to visit ‘the lost valley’ and wild camp somewhere. I left the BnB early and listening to a helpful tip from Graham. I headed to the single track road that ran alongside the Orchy river. I had a casual drive along the beautiful river, occasionally stopping to snap some photo opportunities. I drove past 4 Kayakers gearing up for their day and had a eureka moment. I turned around and introduced myself. I ended up photographing the kayaker boys all morning. Racing them down the river meeting at various rapids and waterfalls. It turns out one section of the Orchy is one of the most infamous grade 5 waterfalls in Scotland. I’m a lucky bugger for meeting these legends just before they set off.
After paddling around the river, I missioned over to ‘the lost valley’. Closer to Glencoe, It’s a small beautiful hanging valley with about a 40-minute hike up to it. As the day was getting late, I decided to camp up in the valley and hiked up with all my gear. When I reached the valley, I was greeted by an epic ridgeline view. On the evening of the 23rd, I began setting up my tent in the peaceful valley. I only saw one person that evening, a hiker in the distance descending a steep trail off the mountain. He shouted, happy Christmas to me. Then the evening was mine. I cooked, read, drew and reflected on a crazy year. I felt an immense sense of gratitude for everything in my life and a deep connection with the natural world. I wrote down a list of the 10 best things of 2020 and right on cue as I looked up from my notebook a herd of dear came down from the mountain and grazed in front of my tent. It felt like a handshake with nature.
I then proceeded to have the coldest night sleep of my life. Most of my gear is 2 or 3 seasons. Having borrowed a big old winter sleeping bag from Al, I was reasonably confident I’d be fine, up until about 11 pm when I started feeling mega cold. I layered up with everything I had and managed to drift off to sleep. At 2 am, I was woken up to the sensation that my tent was about to fly away. The wind had picked up significantly, and my tent was being battered about. I went outside in sideways snow and pegged down the extra guidelines I was too reckless to do earlier. Lesson learned. Somehow I actually managed to get some sleep. In the morning, I was greeted with a thin layer of snow over the ground and mountains surrounding me. I chirpily packed up, hiked down to my car, proceeded to run over my family's Christmas presents accidentally, and then drove back to Lancashire to spend Christmas eve with some loved ones.
It was a lovely little escape from the real world and reminded me of my travels in Japan. I think everybody should try to get out on small solo adventures. Reconnect with the world and yourself.
What do you want to hear about, feel free to give me any thoughts or feedback in the comments below!