0:00:19 > 0:00:22Just as Lochnagar has become known as Aberdeen's mountain
0:00:22 > 0:00:26or Ben Lomond has become known as Glasgow's hill,
0:00:26 > 0:00:32then the good residents of the city of Inverness have taken Ben Wyvis to their heart as their mountain.
0:00:32 > 0:00:37And indeed you can see this big, sprawling massif of a hill from most parts of the city,
0:00:37 > 0:00:40from much of Easter Ross or from the Black Isle.
0:00:49 > 0:00:53I've just walked up from the Ullapool road at Garbat
0:00:53 > 0:00:58on a nice footpath which follows the line of the Allt a'Bhealaich Mhoir
0:00:58 > 0:01:04and that eventually climbs up on to the foot of the An Caber Ridge of Ben Wyvis itself.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08And I have to confess to a bit of an affinity to this particular footpath
0:01:08 > 0:01:13because a number of years ago I was invited to come and officially open this path
0:01:13 > 0:01:16by the Ross and Cromarty Footpath Trust.
0:01:16 > 0:01:19I remember years ago before this path was built climbing up by the forest,
0:01:19 > 0:01:25and in particular this stretch of moorland here was just a great swathe of mud and peat,
0:01:25 > 0:01:28churned up by all the walkers over the years,
0:01:28 > 0:01:31so I think the footpath workers have done us a great favour,
0:01:31 > 0:01:36not only making a nice path to walk on, but they've actually healed this mountain,
0:01:36 > 0:01:42they've healed what was once a horrible muddy scar that you could see from miles and miles away.
0:01:47 > 0:01:53I stopped just back there a bit to slip on my crampons and swap my trekking poles for an ice axe
0:01:53 > 0:01:58because although people think Ben Wyvis is quite an easy Monroe,
0:01:58 > 0:02:02in icy conditions it takes on a complete different persona.
0:02:02 > 0:02:07A lot of people think it's a bit of a faff wearing crampons and carrying an ice axe,
0:02:07 > 0:02:12but I actually quite like it because it reminds me of the mountaineering roots
0:02:12 > 0:02:17and that hillwalking in Scotland in winter is no less than mountaineering,
0:02:17 > 0:02:20and, you know, it's great fun.
0:02:25 > 0:02:30The two main summits of Ben Wyvis are An Caber, which is just above us here,
0:02:30 > 0:02:33and Glas Leathad Mor, which is over that way,
0:02:33 > 0:02:37and that's the main summit at 3,432 ft.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41The two summits sit at either end of a 2 kilometre long ridge,
0:02:41 > 0:02:46a bit like two wily dogs sitting above a fireplace.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50Remember those china ornaments your grandmother used to have at either end of the mantlepiece.
0:02:50 > 0:02:56But in this case, the big quarry in between the two summits is quite a dangerous place at this time of year.
0:02:56 > 0:03:01Indeed, a number of years ago when the mountain guide Martin Moran
0:03:01 > 0:03:05was doing the first traverse of all the Munros in winter,
0:03:05 > 0:03:08this is where he nearly came to grief because he was avalanched here
0:03:08 > 0:03:13and just a few weeks ago I was up here when the mountain was smothered in snow
0:03:13 > 0:03:18and I watched a chap come down from the summit and traverse across this great quarry
0:03:18 > 0:03:21and just above him was a great, big swathe of wind slab,
0:03:21 > 0:03:25and I thought, "Oh, no, he's for the chop, he's going to be avalanched!"
0:03:25 > 0:03:29Fortunately, he wasn't, and I breathed a great sigh of relief.
0:03:29 > 0:03:35But we're as well to be prepared and to realise that avalanches do happen in Scotland
0:03:35 > 0:03:38and we really should know as much as we can about them.
0:03:42 > 0:03:47There's an old story that says that Ben Wyvis and the land surrounding it
0:03:47 > 0:03:52were once rented by the clan Mackenzie, rented from the crown, and the rent was a curious one,
0:03:52 > 0:03:59it was a snowball gathered from one of the eastern corners of Ben Wyvis on Midsummer's Day.
0:03:59 > 0:04:03The current chief of the clan Mackenzie is a guy called John Mackenzie, Earl of Cromarty,
0:04:03 > 0:04:06he's a very, very enthusiastic climber, an old friend of mine,
0:04:06 > 0:04:13and I reckon in these globally warm days he'd be severely challenged to find a snowball on Midsummer's Day.
0:04:13 > 0:04:19But given the amount of snow Ben Wyvis had this winter, then this might be his lucky year.
0:04:23 > 0:04:25I've been totally confused!
0:04:25 > 0:04:32I've been looking for a trig point which is about that height off the ground behind a snow shelter.
0:04:32 > 0:04:37It's about that height off the ground, and I couldn't see it, then, all of a sudden, I spotted it!
0:04:37 > 0:04:39Look, I can stand on the top of it!
0:04:39 > 0:04:43It's amazing. That means there must be about 4 or 5 foot of snow here,
0:04:43 > 0:04:48quite incredible, it just shows how much snow there's been this winter.
0:04:48 > 0:04:54It's fantastic. And over here, these lovely, big, lonely quarries of Ben Wyvis.
0:04:54 > 0:04:59An early Scottish mountaineering club journal describes these quarries as being secretive -
0:04:59 > 0:05:05"secret glens with black crags and high, secret lochans."
0:05:05 > 0:05:08And I found that very, very attractive.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12I've never done it, but once day I would like to walk in to Ben Wyvis from the east,
0:05:12 > 0:05:15from what we know as "the dark side" of Ben Wyvis,
0:05:15 > 0:05:18and you can just see along the line here these lovely cornices,
0:05:18 > 0:05:22these beautiful artistic shapes that are created by the wind and the snow,
0:05:22 > 0:05:25one of the beautiful features of winter. It's terrific.
0:05:25 > 0:05:32There's something special about being up on a mountain like this in late afternoon with the sun just dying.
0:05:32 > 0:05:34It's wonderful.
0:05:34 > 0:05:38And I always think the views from Ben Wyvis are almost unsurpassed
0:05:38 > 0:05:43cos we're standing here in the eastern Highlands looking away towards the west,
0:05:43 > 0:05:47looking across to the Fannichs, and you can see Loch Fannich today,
0:05:47 > 0:05:52looking up to An Teallach, which is probably my favourite of all the Scottish mountains,
0:05:52 > 0:05:56then the Beinn Dearg hills moving away to the north, up to Caithness.
0:05:56 > 0:05:58It really is fantastic.
0:05:58 > 0:06:05It convinces me again that Ben Wyvis is probably one of the best view points in the Scottish Highlands.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd