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999 - The Bogey Hill

Stob Ban is officially a bogey hill for me. First attempt a couple of years ago was as part of a route from Kinlochleven to the Devil's Ridge, Sgurr a Mhaim then onto Stob Ban. Due to spending too much time playing with a lovely dug that ascent was aborted and we had a rather entertaining descent via a non existent path. Back in January it was on the agenda as the rendezvous hill with ptc* and the Outdoorsmagic crew who had ventured north. I was feeling so rough that weekend that I didn't even bother to get out of bed and the hurricane weather put paid to the rest of them getting to the top. 
So here we are, third attempt and as ever the weather delayed the attempt by a day. It was going to be a bit of a special day - I'd be ticking my 100th Munro and Kate would summit her 1st "Kate" (her own number specific aesthetically pleasing hill list). We'd decided to go for a anticlockwise approach from Glen Nevis and get onto Mullach nan Coirean first with the possibility, if time and weather permitted, of finishing on Sgurr a Mhaim. So off we went but were very nearly thwarted at the first hurdle with a very precarious stile!  
The ground was sodden but no wonder as it had been raining for days. We were teased all the way up with the occasional glimpse of blue sky and sunshine
 
Then out of the mists a cairn appeared - my 100th Munro - or so I thought. We paused to celebrate with a sip from the bottle of An Teallach Ale that we had won as part of the raffle at The Clachaig the night before.  
 
Then the mists cleared and we realised we were about 200m away from the true summit. So off we trotted, bottle in hand, onto the huge f*ck off summit cairn to continue our celebrations. It was at this point we passed two women who looked at me rather strangely  - I wonder why?
 
Then came the biggest shock of the day. Kate, a teetotaler, decided to join Steve and I in sipping from the lovely bottle of An Teallach. We were most surprised when she uttered the words "this tastes quite nice" as she took a second sip!
Just for the record, we didn't finish the bottle but decided to share some with the hill in celebration of this momentous moment.

The clouds were still playing with us though we did get glimpses into the glens either side 
 It even cleared on the summit of Mullach nan Coirean once we were off of it.
As we looked over in the general direction of where we wanted to go we knew we weren't going to get the views we wanted from the top of Stob Ban.
 Still, it was a momentous moment when we got to the top and Kate bagged her 1st "Kate"
But as the weather was getting worse, the decision was taken not to do Sgurr a Mhaim and it was heads down for the descent. As ever I was at the coos tail trying to remain upright on the loose rocky path when the cloud cleared and I decided to grab a quick photo op of Steve and Kate further down the ridge.
Mmm this didn't look right. Where's the lochan? When I caught up with Steve and Kate, there was much discussion on whether to go back up or keep heading down to the West Highland Way. As we were staying in Kinlochleven and Kate's hire car was back there we decided to keep heading down. This would have been a great plan except for one tiny problem - the key to the house was back in the car in Glen Nevis, along with my purse. Doh! We were so far down by this point that we kept going towards Kinlochleven in the hope that there would be a bus to Fort William otherwise it would be a taxi.
When we got to the Macdonald Hotel the bus had left 20 minutes before. Now, getting a taxi on a Sunday evening was not as easy a task as we thought but Ali's Taxi came up trumps. 
So Stob Ban is definitely a bogey hill for me. Yet another one to add to the list of hills I will go back to...........  
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Comments

  1. Martin Rye14 September 2009 at 18:56

    Good ale, good hill and from the photos a good walk.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jamie Bassnett14 September 2009 at 20:24

    Brill!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Elaina14 September 2009 at 21:23

    Yeh Martin it certainly is a good ale & a good walk even with the detour :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. b14 September 2009 at 22:53

    I reckon I'll head up Stob Ban on the meet this weekend as I've a bone to pick with it too after last time!

    Nice photie's :o)

    ReplyDelete
  5. PTC16 September 2009 at 20:56

    Ach, I'm sorry I missed youse.
    It all looked like a lot of fun.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Elaina16 September 2009 at 23:01

    It certainly was ;-)

    Next time eh

    ReplyDelete

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