AHow2 Guide to Adventure: Glencoe-Kintail Vol Biv

The Friday forecast was ok but with a great looking weekend for the West Highlands, I wanted to get myself in a position to explore the swathe of wilderness from Mora and up to Knoydart (the area to the NW of Fort William) in what looked like a rare opportunity to fly up the coastal hills of the West Highlands.

Cautious of being too optimistic for what Friday might bring - and falling short of where I wanted to be on Saturday - I decided to set off from Beinn a Chrulaiste in Glencoe, with the reasonably straight forward goal of getting past Fort William and into the hills beyond to the north west.

Gill was out too, to enjoy the spell of spring sunshine, so I had the benefit of easy logistics, getting dropped off at the foot of the hill, with a loose plan to meet up on Sunday around Kintail.

Take off on Beinn a Chrulaiste

I got away from Beinn a Chrulaiste around 1pm, with the day in full swing and was straight into decent climbs. I had a bout of indecision on whether to head north as originally planned or east where the clouds looked better, but high cumulus over the Ben was too tempting anyway and I had a great climb up to nearly 7000ft. Indecision struck hard again however, on where to go next, driven by the milky sky and uncertain conditions in either direction.

Heading north to Ben Nevis

Looking down Blackwater reservoir

The crossing NW past Fort William and over Loch lochy had me worried. Wanting to get as much height as possible close to the crossing some convergence clouds drew me in but I couldn't find the lift and minced away all my good height. The final nail was driven home when I eventually found the sink and was forced to make a last ditch crossing with 4000ft of altitude, landing on one of the spurs just across the Glen.

The Ben

Passing Loch Lochy

Landing, just past Fort William

I hadn't got my head around the sea breeze that was pushing up the glen (that I sank into) and was confused by the northerly winds to the north (SE behind me) which was no doubt causing the convergence. It was a disappointing end to the flight, losing all my momentum scrapping about hunting for the convergence. I should have just gone for it when I had the height.

After a few kms hike to the top of the hill my spirits lifted when the hills to the west revealed themselves, with the sea in the distance. That's what I came for!

I took off from the western face in the early evening, aiming for a glide onto the next ridge to position myself for Saturday (and expecting a bit of a walk) and hooked into a weak thermal coming out the glen to the north that took me up to 3k ft. Heading along the ridge, I was delighted to find more pockets of lift...and more! Took me a while to realise what was happening but I found myself in a beautiful convergence line right above the ridge I was expecting to hike up. Up around 4200ft I cruised along to my planned bivvy spot and out of the convergence, had a wee evening soar with a fairly strong north easterly blowing in. Almost got to strong so I landed and went to find a good camp spot out the wind, eventually having to drop back lower to find a stream, at the foot of a gully under the summit of Gulvain.