Ben Hope ... March 07
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The
view from the Ben Hope car park at NC461478 show route map |
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After
cycling down to the head of Loch Hope I now take to the Moine Path, an
old drovers road that links Hope and Kinloch.
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Heading
east on the Moine Path.
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Leaving
the Moine Path and heading up the An Garbh Allt.
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looking
up the northern ridge from Loch na Seilg.
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Ben
Loyal from the northern ridge. Loch
NA Seilg is the big loch on the immediate left. The distant sea loch on
the left is the Kyle of Tongue.
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High
up on the northern ridge the "Bad Step" comes into view.
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The
"Bad Step" the ridge comes to an end with a short steep wall,
the difficulty can be normally avoided by taking the obvious gully 100m
to the left.
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| The big problem with the so called Bad Step is not the technical difficulty, it is an easy short climb, may be 20 foot in height. The difficulty is dealing with the exposure, the lower part is overhanging and you are forced to move right onto a very big wall, possibly as much as 500 foot of free air under your feet. See This Link .... I took one look at it and thought "No Way". I headed for the easy gully, but big problems, it was full of water ice, an impossibility with no axes or crampons, so there was no option, it was back to the bad step, a few scary moves and it was past. |
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Looking
back down the bad step, the approach path can be seen with snow on it
on the right. The small vertical section is hidden from view.
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Looking west to Foinaven.. Loch Hope is the near loch, with the sea loch "Loch Eriboll" beyond. Show route map |
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Summit
Trig Point, with Ben Loyal as a back drop.
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Another
view of Ben Loyal and the wilderness of the far north.
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Heading
south east off Ben Hope, the distant hill on the right with a touch of
cloud on the top is Ben Kilbreck. show route map |
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Looking
back to Ben Hope from its south eastern top of Sail Romascaig. show route map |
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..Panorama..>>..Scroll
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Yet another view of Ben Loyal, to the far right can be seen Ben Kilbreck. show route map |
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Ben
Hope from its south east ridge, Foinaven can be seen on the left skyline.
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Heading
west off the hill.
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A
spectacular little stream to sit beside and take your fill as you admire
the western skyline.
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The
most bizarre thing, while descending at about the 300m contour, I came
accross this small pack of Scotties two of them were particularly savage
and seemed intent on attack. There did not appear to be anyone with them.
So be warned, they may live there and prey on lone walkers :-) show route map |
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Looking
up Strath More to Ben Hee show route map |
Total .. 11.4 Miles, 3230' Ascent
( 19.7 points of effort )