Ben Wyvis Wild Walks

Just as Lochnagar has become known as Aberdeen's mountain

or Ben Lomond has become known as Glasgow's hill,

then the good residents of the city of Inverness have taken Ben Wyvis to their heart as their mountain.

And indeed you can see this big, sprawling massif of a hill from most parts of the city,

from much of Easter Ross or from the Black Isle.

I've just walked up from the Ullapool road at Garbat

on a nice footpath which follows the line of the Allt a'Bhealaich Mhoir

and that eventually climbs up on to the foot of the An Caber Ridge of Ben Wyvis itself.

And I have to confess to a bit of an affinity to this particular footpath

because a number of years ago I was invited to come and officially open this path

by the Ross and Cromarty Footpath Trust.

I remember years ago before this path was built climbing up by the forest,

and in particular this stretch of moorland here was just a great swathe of mud and peat,

churned up by all the walkers over the years,

so I think the footpath workers have done us a great favour,

not only making a nice path to walk on, but they've actually healed this mountain,

they've healed what was once a horrible muddy scar that you could see from miles and miles away.

I stopped just back there a bit to slip on my crampons and swap my trekking poles for an ice axe

because although people think Ben Wyvis is quite an easy Monroe,

in icy conditions it takes on a complete different persona.

A lot of people think it's a bit of a faff wearing crampons and carrying an ice axe,

but I actually quite like it because it reminds me of the mountaineering roots

and that hillwalking in Scotland in winter is no less than mountaineering,

and, you know, it's great fun.

The two main summits of Ben Wyvis are An Caber, which is just above us here,

and Glas Leathad Mor, which is over that way,

and that's the main summit at 3,432 ft.

The two summits sit at either end of a 2 kilometre long ridge,

a bit like two wily dogs sitting above a fireplace.

Remember those china ornaments your grandmother used to have at either end of the mantlepiece.

But in this case, the big quarry in between the two summits is quite a dangerous place at this time of year.

Indeed, a number of years ago when the mountain guide Martin Moran

was doing the first traverse of all the Munros in winter,

this is where he nearly came to grief because he was avalanched here

and just a few weeks ago I was up here when the mountain was smothered in snow

and I watched a chap come down from the summit and traverse across this great quarry

and just above him was a great, big swathe of wind slab,

and I thought, "Oh, no, he's for the chop, he's going to be avalanched!"

Fortunately, he wasn't, and I breathed a great sigh of relief.

But we're as well to be prepared and to realise that avalanches do happen in Scotland

and we really should know as much as we can about them.

There's an old story that says that Ben Wyvis and the land surrounding it

were once rented by the clan Mackenzie, rented from the crown, and the rent was a curious one,

it was a snowball gathered from one of the eastern corners of Ben Wyvis on Midsummer's Day.

The current chief of the clan Mackenzie is a guy called John Mackenzie, Earl of Cromarty,

he's a very, very enthusiastic climber, an old friend of mine,

and I reckon in these globally warm days he'd be severely challenged to find a snowball on Midsummer's Day.

But given the amount of snow Ben Wyvis had this winter, then this might be his lucky year.

I've been totally confused!

I've been looking for a trig point which is about that height off the ground behind a snow shelter.

It's about that height off the ground, and I couldn't see it, then, all of a sudden, I spotted it!

Look, I can stand on the top of it!

It's amazing. That means there must be about 4 or 5 foot of snow here,

quite incredible, it just shows how much snow there's been this winter.

It's fantastic. And over here, these lovely, big, lonely quarries of Ben Wyvis.

An early Scottish mountaineering club journal describes these quarries as being secretive -

"secret glens with black crags and high, secret lochans."

And I found that very, very attractive.

I've never done it, but once day I would like to walk in to Ben Wyvis from the east,

from what we know as "the dark side" of Ben Wyvis,

and you can just see along the line here these lovely cornices,

these beautiful artistic shapes that are created by the wind and the snow,

one of the beautiful features of winter. It's terrific.

There's something special about being up on a mountain like this in late afternoon with the sun just dying.

It's wonderful.

And I always think the views from Ben Wyvis are almost unsurpassed

cos we're standing here in the eastern Highlands looking away towards the west,

looking across to the Fannichs, and you can see Loch Fannich today,

looking up to An Teallach, which is probably my favourite of all the Scottish mountains,

then the Beinn Dearg hills moving away to the north, up to Caithness.

It really is fantastic.

It convinces me again that Ben Wyvis is probably one of the best view points in the Scottish Highlands.

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