Episode 5 Wild Walks

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In 1906, the British Aluminium Company

opened a smelter here in Kinlochleven, and in doing so,

they turned what was a quiet West Highland village

into a factory town.

Now, 100 years later, the smelter is gone.

It's all closed, and the village has had to reinvent itself,

and it's done that quite successfully.

It's been quite fortunate that the West Highland Way

passes through the village, bringing a lot of trade and custom.

The Ice Factor in the village,

with its ice climbing walls and climbing walls and shop

has been a great success, a great draw to climbers.

And the natural position of the village is fantastic.

Couldn't be better. Marvellous mountains all round it.

A handful of Munros, a few Corbetts,

great woodlands for people mountain biking.

So it really is a very fine adventure centre nowadays.

And it's a great point for the start

of our walk into the Mamores this morning.

I'm really disappointed it's so hazy today,

because I always think the view behind me

is one of the finest views in the Western Highlands.

It's the head of Loch Leven, flowing between Mam na Gualainn on the right

and the Pap of Glencoe on the west,

and to me it always looks like a Norwegian fjord

biting its way into the land.

It has a kind of oceanic quality,

and I can't help imagining a couple of war galleys

sailing through the narrows,

their sails unfurled in the wind, heading out into a western sunset.

But I'm just a great romantic, I'm afraid.

We're heading for Sgurr Eilde Mor,

and it's just round the corner up there,

just where that track eases its way round the contours.

And it's just on the other side of that hill.

Sgurr Eilde Mor lies at the eastern end of the Mamores ridge,

that great mountain wall that forms a barrier

between Glen Nevis in the north and Kinlochleven in the south,

and on that Mamores ridge, which is eight miles long,

there are no less than 10 Munros,

and Sgurr Eilde Mor is a wee bit like a sort of afterthought,

a bit of an addendum right at the very end.

The first time I climbed Sgurr Eilde Mor,

I remember coming off the main Mamores ridge down to the loch

and then up onto the summit,

and I'll tell you, my legs were like jelly.

So I hope today when I get to the summit,

my legs won't be quite so jelly-like,

because we're paying the hill the ultimate compliment today -

we're going to climb it on its own, and I'll tell you,

it's no less than it deserves, cos it's a great wee hill.

This is Coire an Lochain, and it's a beautifully atmospheric place.

It really is just this little sort of niche in the hills.

Up there behind me is Binnein Mor.

That lovely hill across there in the sunlight is Binnein Beag,

and beyond it is the Grey Corries on the other side of Glen Nevis.

And this lovely cone shape here in front of me

is Sgurr Eilde Mor itself.

And I can just see someone right on the summit.

Now, as I'm standing here,

I can hear red deer stags roaring in the distance,

and there's a real kind of mystery to the place.

And let me tell you something else that makes it even more mysterious.

On the way up here today, I met some climbers

who had been camping up here,

and I'm always amazed at the games climbers play.

They told me it was quite important to be on this hill today,

there's a special significance,

because this is the tenth day of the tenth month of the tenth year.

And the height of Sgurr Eilde Mor is 10-10 metres.

Now, that's just a wee bit Da Vinci Code-ish, isn't it, eh?

I just wonder what's going to happen. I wonder if it's some kind of omen.

We're on the final 300 metre stretch now.

The summit slopes, and my legs haven't quite turned to jelly yet.

When you come up from the loch and you start to climb,

it seems fairly easy at first,

and then you realise you've got a lot of moving scree to cross,

and that's always quite difficult.

It's loose, it's a bit greasy,

and you seem to take three steps up and two steps back down again.

But eventually, you get onto this lovely tight and narrow ridge,

and you get this real sense of height and exposure,

and I think it's because there's no mountains immediately next to you.

You get this sense of spaciousness.

And that makes it fantastic.

And, of course, it's a summit that's at the top of a steep ridge.

It's a proper pinnacle,

and seems like a proper archetypal mountain summit.

Whoo!

What a fantastic hill.

What a fantastic day.

Sgurr Eilde Mor.

1,010 metres above sea level.

And you know, walking up the hill there,

I was thinking about Kinlochleven and its changing face,

and I remembered the words of Patrick MacGill,

who was a writer who worked on the Blackwater Reservoir

that served the aluminium industry at Kinlochleven 100 years ago.

And he described these hills as

"looking down on us like brooding witches,

"implacable, inscrutable, timeless."

And long may they continue to be just that.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd