Cape Wrath Trail in Winter

It’s taken a while, but here’s the route we’ll be taking this Christmas. On the face of it, it looks too easy, but given the shortage of daylight, the true wilderness conditions and the likelihood of terrible weather, this is much more achievable than last year’s route.

Bothies have been chosen where possible to safeguard against the elements. If we get good conditions, we’ll camp instead and the route may alter.

So here it is, it’s not perfect, you may completely disagree with some of the choices, but that’s the beauty of the trail. It’s your choice…there are no markers telling you where to go next.

The 2009/10 route (day, start, destination, overnight, dist. miles, dist. km, ascent)

Day 1: Achnashellach – Easan Dorcha (bothy) 3½M 6k 400m

Day 2: Easan Dorcha – Heights of Kinlochewe (bothy or camp) 12M 19k

Day 3: Heights of Kinlochewe – Shenavall (bothy) 13M 21k 400m

Day 4: Shenavall – Ullapool (B&B) 10M 16k 700m track + 8M 13k road

Day 5: Rest day, Ullapool

Day 6: Ullapool – Knockdamph (bothy) 11½M 19k 300m

Day 7: Knockdamph – Beyond Oykel Bridge (camp) 12½M 20k

Day 8: Beyond Oykel Bridge – Well beyond Loch Ailsh (camp) 9M 15k 400m

Day 9: Well beyond Loch Ailsh – Glencoul (bothy) 11M 18k 500m

Day 10: Glencoul – Achfary (camp) 13M 21k 600m

Day 11 : Achfary – Kinlochbervie (hotel) 13M 21k 200m

Day 12: Rest day, Kinlochbervie

Day 13: Kinlochbervie – Strathchailleach (bothy) 8½M 14k 200m

Day 14: Strathchailleach – Cape Wrath (camp) 6½M 11k 200m

Day 15: C Wrath – Strathchailleach (bothy) 6½M 11k 200m

Day 16: Strathchailleach – Kinlochbervie (hotel) 8½M 14k 200m

A big thank you to those kindly folks at Paramo who have agreed to reproof my Aspira Smock and repair a small rip in the crotch of my salopettes (don’t ask!) free of charge.

I’ve already made my views clear on how good Paramo kit is at dealing with the very worst conditions and it’s nice to find a company that is also so pleasant to deal with.

My day job is in marketing and I have to say I’m impressed with Paramo’s approach - “make great kit and leave customers to spread the word” (pretty much). I’m not alone in thinking this.

Watch out for a write up of the trip in a Paramo brochure in the New Year.

In the meantime, I’ve been out on my mountain bike cross-training like mad and running around dark parks with the British Military Fitness lot again. My postman has been arriving laden down with some rather fantastic silk/merino Wigwam socks and some lightweight new Montrail Hardrock Mid boots and Rocky Gore Tex socks from the US of A.

I’ve also been taste-testing meals and have settled on a mixture of Wayfarer (reliable, familiar, but rather heavy), Expedition Foods (some nice freeze dried options) and Be Well (the best of the bunch).

Fundraising efforts are picking up and we’re having a party in Bristol if you fancy swinging by (details here: http://tweetvite.com/event/bristolparty)

And finally, I promise to get round to posting the revised route from Strathcarron to the Cape very shortly…All systems go.

Lots of excitement brewing as it’s now official - Cape Wrath in Winter 2009 is on!

I should be clear that this unfortunately won’t be the full Cape Wrath Trail which I’m disappointed about. It will be a journey to the cape using Strathcarron as a starting point (it’s on the railway network). Am I disappointed? In some ways yes. I set out to do the whole thing in one go and anything else feels like a slight letdown.

However, I realise that to be up in that country at that time of year is a privilege and in the general scheme of things does it really matter?

I’ll be leaving Strathcarron around the 15th December and if all goes to plan arriving at the cape on Christmas day itself - an amazing experience. So many lessons have been learnt and the route has been totally revised (I will post this as soon as I can).

This one’s been hanging over me for two years now, so it feels like an immense relief to know that I’ll be back out there very soon, facing the elements, my boots pointed inexorably North.

A few words on this blog…I’ll be trying to keep it updated as much as possible but work commitments may mean that I can’t do this as often as I’d like. In the meantime, you can follow me on Twitter, where I’ll post some Cape Wrath musings as well as some inane ramblings about life (and my new mountain bike - you’ve been warned!).

With planning for this winter starting again, I was reviewing my kit list and looking at the things that worked well and what is firmly getting left behind next time. Without doubt the stars of the show were my Paramo smock and salopettes and my PH Designs down sleeping bag. Paramo seems to be one of those “marmite” brands that people either love or hate. All I can say is that I’ve tested mine in what must be some of the most extreme conditions you can find in the mountains and they came up trumps.

Yes, the smock is heavy and warm, but I wear it with just a merino base layer underneath and that suits me fine, even in a blizzard. No waterproof garment will keep you 100% dry when you’re sweating buckets in torrential rain, but I find the Paramo “clears” quicker than Goretex when rain lifts or you stop. The salopettes and smock will be the first items in the bag when I pack again.

The same goes for my PH Designs bag. Rated to -11, it kept me warm enough to sleep when temperatures dropped below -15 (albeit fully clothed). I was worried how it would live with the damp, but it has a water resistant outer that works remarkably well. I have since invested in a few other bits from PH Designs and I love the fact that they are a British company leading the way.

The trusty Hilleberg Akto has also stood the test of time. When I did the recent Saunders Lakeland Marathon the overnight site was inundated with Terra Nova Laser Comps. For me they look a bit flimsy for comfort, but I know lots of people love ‘em. But you know where you are with the Hilleberg, and I always sleep soundly knowing it won’t let me down when the gales blow.

So what didn’t work so fantastically? Well, I got my food supplies a bit wrong and ended up carrying too much of the stuff. Although Wayfarer meals are undoubtedly tasty, they are heavy for a multi-day bakpack. Recently I’ve been trying some of the freeze dried offerings from Expedition Foods and Be Well, which are pretty edible (tasty would be too far to go) and will almost certainly replace the Wayfarer’s in the future.

I’m also going to re-think my boot choice. I went for a sturdy leather boot and Berghaus Yeti Extrem full gaiters. Although the gaiters worked superbly, dampness inevitably sets in after multiple river crossings and it took a week for the boots to dry out fully on my return. With that in mind, I’m going to experiment with a lighter boot (quite possibly something radical like the Montrail Hardrock Mid) and a Gore tex sock combination, with a simpler gaiter. The idea being if you can’t avoid the wet, at least have something that dries a bit more quickly. The lighter boot will still take my Kahtoola crampons which I was glad of on the snowier passes at Christmas. The lightweight Camp ice axe I took proved unnecessary.

And the award for the worst bit of kit? It has to be the Paramo balaclava. The face drawcord is positioned just below where your lips protrude. If you tuck this inside it is uncomfortable, if you leave it outside the balaclava it whips you viciously in the eyes in any gust of wind. Not really sure who field tested that one?

Well here we are in mid-summer again, sun streaming through the windows and memories of shivering in arctic bothies far away…sound familiar? Anyway, thanks to those of you that got in touch following my last post. It now looks like I may well have a companion for the next attempt on the Cape Wrath Trail this winter. So, at last there may be a few more things to post about on this blog, and fewer tumbleweeds blowing through the place.

It is looking like the winter trip will start from Strathcarron and head northwards to the cape. I’m intending to do the Strathcarron to Sourlies section some time in October, walking South. That way if I actually reach the cape this time, I can definitively say I’ve done the whole thing. Not quite in one go, but as I’m realising, to finish this route at all is a considerable achievement. To do most of it in mid-winter is slightly crazy.

So the inordinate amount of planning starts again, checking maps, train timetables, grid references and distances. While all this goes on I’ve been getting some inspiration from Roger Boston’s website. A veteran of The Great Outdoors Challenge which covers much of the same territory as the Cape Wrath Trail, this makes for fascinating reading with some great photos. Cracking stuff.