Lonely, wild hill days. An honest view of failed attempts!

Over 70 years of climbing there are only a handful of days where we failed to meet our Summit. But there were some... where the weather or map-reading errors serve as a lesson, even for hardened climbers...

Most notably;-

1.   Ben Griam Mor and Ben Griam Beg, (not even Grahams).

2.   Am Faochagach, (a Munro)

3.   Cruach nan Capull, (a Graham)

1. Ben Griams- Ben Griam Mor and Ben Griam Beg

I start with two particularly lonely hills, the Ben Griams. These are two of the 59 Hills included under the “Index of Other Hills”  on the final page of the SMC Book “The Corbetts and Other Scottish Hills, Vol 2 1996”.

This list contains hills below Corbett height but, in the authors opinion, well worthy of a visit. It includes such wonderful hills as:- An Sgurr (Eigg), Pap of Glencoe, The Quiraing, Stac Pollaidh etc.

We eventually ticked these all off.

Two of them, Ben Griam Mor and Ben Griam Beg (Big dark hill and Little dark hill) are relatively little climbed and only 592 and 580 metres respectively. So, they were not Munros or Corbetts or even Grahams. But they were in the book, so had to be done!!  Find them if you can!!

We parked in foul weather on the B871. It was a really wild November day, in 2001. not far from Crask. The book estimated 3km distance, 430 metres height- one and a half hours to the summit of the first hill, Ben Griam Mor.

We had decided to do them both. Ben Griam Beg's summit holds the remains of the Highest Hill Fort in Scotland.

Soon after setting off the weather turned from bad to atrocious, with heavy snow and a full gale. Progress was slow, and visibility, originally several hundred yards, was steadily reducing.

We eventually reached Ben Griam Mor and literally crawled up the slope. It was getting impossible to stand and impossible to see. We couldn't even see our own footprints in the snow.

Eventually we arrived at what appeared to be the top. We decided to try to sit out the worst of the conditions, so sheltered and had a sandwich. The flask of coffee was being blown empty as quickly as you poured it.

We then climbed into our orange Bivvy Bags, a very rare occasion. After an hour we decided to beat the retreat, as darkness comes early in November, particularly in wild conditions. We gingerly slid downwards on our bottoms, using the bivvybags as sledges and using a compass each, to agree the general direction of the car.

We hadn't got round to Sat Navs and other technical aids, even if they existed then. Map and compass were King. The maps, round our necks, and down our jackets, in their map cases were dancing a jig. Had they not been in their plastic cases they would have been pulp wet with the snow, and shredded with the gale. 

Once on flattish land we just continued to rely solely on the compass' to lead us back to the road, which we hoped to join at right angles. We hadn't much choice as our outgoing prints and all semblances of a track were non existent.

After what seemed an eternity, but was in fact only about 2 more hours we found what appeared to be the road. It was covered with about 2” of snow which would have been much more but for the gales sweeping most of the snow off. Lack of protruding vegetation was a clue.

Our only remaining decision then was “Where is the car, Left or Right”. A lucky bend in the road gave us a clue when the compass direction changed a little.

There were no tyre tracks along the road, just pristine pure snow. It was apparent that no other vehicle had been this way in the last 4 hours or so. It was a good thing that we had taken an early start as we had been out over 6 hours.

Car found we drove slowly away, with the road edges not always being obvious, and roadside ditches lurking. Occasionally one of us had to walk ahead to ensure we didn't encounter a ditch. We waved no flags but the red and the white roadside snow poles were a great help.

It was a day to remember.  Thank goodness we had not had a more ambitious plan.

A year or so later, we returned, in good conditions and finally ticked the pair of Ben Griams of our “Most Wanted” List!!

On a number of occasions over the years we had been forced to crawl for short distances, especially on summits with big drops, and when being battered by high/gale force winds and enjoying poor visibility.  

One of our team, Malcolm, was particularly proficient when it came to navigation in poor conditions, but we all had our say, coming to a majority decision if necessary.

There were a number of occasions when conditions became worrying. Where possible we would make an early decision to do an alternative climb. On only one occasion whilst doing the Munros did we have a single day where we failed to bag a Summit. This was near Alltguish...

 2.  Attempt on Am Faochagach. (November 1985)

The Munro Am Faochagach is on the NE side of the A835, near the Northern end of Loch Glascarnoch.

We stayed at the Aultguish Inn around 1985 shortly after they had started to operate a bunkhouse adjacent to the Hotel. After a good night at the Inn we awoke to see snow everywhere.

Our days target, Am Faochagach rises 954 metres and is usually possible to approach from the North end of Loch Glascarnoch, but this entails crossing a broad flowing stream - the Abhain Gharbain- and negotiating a flooded plain.

The likelihood was that this access route today would require deep wading, at the least. There was also a near gale force wind from the West, so we would be better starting with some shelter from the stormy blast.

Our intentions of an early start had already disappeared. It was a bleak day and snow lay up to several feet deep on the hills. We decided to approach the hill from the East side, using a long valley to give us some protection from the atrocious conditions.

We therefore left the A835 just over a mile East of Aultguish, at Black Bridge. Here we took the 'Land Rover road' North to the South end of Loch Vaich, (OS Map 20 for those interested).

The car rocked and we procrastinated until about 11.30. The radio cheerfully forecast force 11! Abandon the day, or have a go? 

Eventually we plucked up enough enthusiasm to make a start. There is a Land Rover track that gets you up to over 800m but we decided it was too exposed so opted to try to follow Allt Glas Toll Beag, as this was a gully that looked as if it might provide some small element of shelter. Its upper reaches also appeared to receive some shelter from the West.

It was harder going than we expected due to thick snow all the way, making footsteps unsure and the snow making it difficult to overcome the underlying heather and, often, waste deep snow.

Bearing left in the upper reaches we aimed to put our heads over the parapet into the snowstorm just South of our Mountain's Summit. After arriving at the summit ridge we turned North East onto flatter ground around where we thought that the summit cairn should be.

The temperature plummeted and our cagoules and eyebrows froze.

We cast about for a cairn, but without luck so we then moved slowly further North West. One of us shouted (above the wind) that maybe we should turn back. Footsteps disappeared within a matter of seconds, and visibility was such that unless you held hands you didn't know where your team of 3 were.

We voted 2 to 1 to carry on for another three minutes. Then we voted 2 to 1 to retreat.

Finding our way back to the gulley that we had gone up proved a problem, but the gods were with us and we eventually found it. Torches were required all the way down, but at least we were getting some shelter from the tempest.

Rather late (5.20pm) we arrived back at our car, dug it out, and prayed that it would start. We had been very fortunate not to have lost our way in the deep blizzarding snow. We should have turned back much earlier, or not started at all!

Needless to say, when we arrived back at The Aultguish, food and drink were ordered in large proportions.

We had been stupid to make the attempt!

The following year, in November 1986, we decided to tackle the mountain again...

Even though we must have already been within 100m or so of the summit we could not count it.

This time we started from the NorthWest end of Loch Glascarnoch. We had a cunning plan to cross the flat wetland and deep stream of the Abhainn Gharbhrain. We took with us a plastic Dinghy which held a maximum of two.

It was heavy carrying the dinghy so we were going to use it! I'm onboard with Ian ready to row

It was just as well as the stream/river was over 6ft deep. So we ferried in turn rucksacks and people. Appropriately we had added “L” Plates to the Dinghy. The crossing, although short, was a bit fraught as a strong northerly breeze was trying to push us out into the Loch and this would have led to us being blown several miles out of our way.

However, our luck was in and we were blown to the eastern shore. Once landed the way lay firmly and easily ahead as we angled up to the ridge and followed the gently undulating  crest northwards.

A very fresh wind blew up and with it came very thick low cloud. Visibility plummeted, despite the wind. Surely we would not be thwarted again...

We almost accepted the first top, incorrectly, as the summit. To have failed twice would not have been good news. Moving slowly on we soon found the true summit. It was merely a pile of stones on a flat expanse.

As we tried to improve this small cairn we unearthed a tin with a message from a previous explorer. The summit was quite likely to have been the small, but obvious, cairn which we had thrashed about trying to find the previous year!! Alleluia.

On return to our dinghy, Ian decided to row it back the kilometre to the parked car. We piped him ashore. It had been a 6 hour day. 9 miles and 2100ft.

 3.  Attempts on Cruach nan Capull, a Graham

At the end of October 2018, just as the clocks moved back an hour, we decided on a Graham. It was in the Cowal and Ardgoil Area which we had had little cause to visit in our pursuit of Munros and Corbetts.

This hill is the most southerly 2000ft elevation in the Scottish Highlands. To get there we used an approach we had never tried before, heading along the south bank of the Clyde to Greenock and then taking the short but scenic Ferry Crossing to Hunters Bay Quay just North of Dunoon.

Next day we drove a short way North to the head of Holy Loch, then took the B836 West for a few short miles, passing a familiar name “Clachaig” reminding us of a favourite pub in Glencoe.

Parking up we followed Corrachaive Glen southwards towards our target of Cruach nan Capull. Initially there is a good forestry track. As it was “only” a Graham we were a little slack on the map reading and missed a not so obvious turning. 

Shortly afterwards, thinking that we realised our mistake we then followed the wrong river bed until climbing clear of the forestry. Malcolm then checked his map. "There is good news and bad news," he said.

"The good news is that I now realise exactly where we are, and the bad news is that we should be on that mountain about a mile over there."

Time was moving on so we took the only option. We carried on and climbed the wrong mountain, being Cruach nan Caorach 578m.  Our target Cruach nan Capull  was now clearly visible about a mile to the south east. To get there would have entailed dropping down, negotiating the forestry then climbing up again. We decided to leave it for another day.

That “another day” arrived four years later, on 30 October 2022 when we set off from the same start point to remedy our errors...  

This time we did find the narrow track we had previously missed. However, heavy rain had made the woodland floor a quagmire in parts, and the path became progressively less obvious. We missed the point where it did a dog-leg and, thinking we could still see traces of a path, we wandered off route as the trees grew denser and denser.

Eventually we realised we were off route, that the terrain was getting more difficult, that the day was moving on and the idea of having to fight through dense trees to regain our car was not appetising.

We backtracked using compass and eventually found the dog-leg that we had missed. We hurriedly tried for the summit, eventually breaking clear of trees at the 400m mark, but still over a kilometre to the top.

With dusk threatening in the next half hour we again retreated, because even if we reached the top which we probably would, we would still have to be sure of our navigation down through the trees to the forestry road again. Bugger!!

These Grahams were proving more difficult than some of their higher Cousins. To fail twice on a small Graham was both a disappointment and a lesson.

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