Day 67 - Mamores 10!

7 July

The Mamores were my last Munros south of the Great Glen, and the last before I finally went to Skye. Liam was heading off into Knoydart to attempt Ladhar Bheinn, and thus left me to my own devices to knock off these ten Munros in a day.

The Mamores are a tight-knit range of mountains just south of Fort William of high ridges, stony peaks and mountains packed with character. The Mamores in a day has been a wish of mine since I began climbing mountains - a bit of an ultimate goal.

And finally, the weather forecast came good. It was the day to go for it by all accounts, but I woke up in Fort William feeling rough. The forecast was for high pressure for the next ten days to a week, and outside the last low cloud was tearing off the hills around the Fort. The early start was hard work and I slugged down drinks and food, willing myself to feel better. It didn't feel like I was about to do ten Munros. It had to be done: there was nothing else in the area to be climbed, and if I didn't complete them I'd have to come back and lose another day on my schedule. Not an option, at the moment.

So I headed down Glen Nevis and parked at the road end. Glen Nevis is an amazing area, one of the truly special places of the Highlands. The depression of Fort William can feel suffocating (if comfortingly familiar for a west coast Scot) and it's easy to forget that this beautiful glen is only a few miles away. It's a place I could spend a lot of time in...

Binnein Beag was up first: a long slog up it's northern slopes. Conditions were incredible, with crystal-clear visibility to match any stunning winter's day. Sgurr Eilde Mor is the outlier to the group, and demanded a bit of grit on my part to get up and down. My thinking was to start with the awkward eastern Munros first, and work westward into a path of decreasing resistance, and west towards the sinking sun.

On Binnein Mor, I finally felt like I was getting up on the ridge proper. Here, it's a very short hop across to Na Gruagaichean, and once you are on the Ring of Steall (the name for the central group of Mamores), you're sorted. The day was hot, often windless, but water wasn't as great a problem as might have been expected. Each peak just fell in turn, with amazing views in every direction. The Nevis Range looks specially good from here, and Aonach Beag is fast turning into a favourite mountain of mine. To the south, I could see all the early mountains of May; storm-lashed at the time, but now dormant in the sun.

In fact, I'd since made inroads into Knoydart and Glen Shiel, and I'd actually done just about every single Munro in sight. A full 360 degree panorama!

I felt the only detraction of the Mamores in a day, was that all the ridges are fairly similar and 12 hours of that feels wearing on the mind. Nevertheless, I romped around the Ring of Steall, over the Devil's Ridge and back, onto Stob Ban and thus to Mullach nan Coirean. All the morning's fatigue was gone toward the end, the legs were just moving on autopilot. This is another day I would have struggled with in the past. It's a continuing pleasure of the Munro Round to feel so damn fit on these big days. They don't really seem to affect me a lot any more.

Steve picked me up by Achriabhach in Glen Nevis, a shade over 12 hours after I started. We grabbed a McDonalds for tea (a mistake in retrospect!) and slept in the cars outside Spean Bridge.

Finally the door is open to Skye. I've thought a lot on my Round about when I finally get to Skye. I always remember thinking that Skye would be such a long way off that there isn't any point in thinking about it. And I thought that when I did get there, I'd be so close to finishing my Round. Well now it's here, and the weather forecast is incredible for the coming days. Now that I'm in this position, there still feels like a long way to go, but I also have so much behind me. For the first time, I'm beginning to feel the end drawing into sight...