Portree to Ft. William, Ben Nevis Maps, Torlinnhe Guest House – Day 12

Portree To Ft William Driving Map
Our last morning in Portree, we woke up to rain. I wanted to sleep for several more hours, but yanked myself out of bed. We enjoyed another wonderful Scottish breakfast and then hit the road.

Eilean Donan Castle, Scotland

Eilean Donan Castle, Scotland
We stopped at Eilean Donan Castle for coffee. There had been a power outage, so the Cafe was just opening. Glad we got there when we did and not an hour earlier! We enjoyed our coffee while staring at the beautiful castle (see above). The rain was relentless, but the added mist in the air was quite romantic!

Back on the road, the rain picked up momentum and was now coming down a hard drizzle. Scottish mountains are just huge water extractors. As we passed the Five Sisters, water cascaded down the slopes helter- skelter. Every 20-100 meters there were waterfalls! I’ve never before seen such a mad rush of water.

Loch Garry, Scotland
When we got to Loch Garry, we got out for a leg stretch and took this beautiful picture. The rain had slowed down to a sprinkle, so the drive from here to Ft. William was much more enjoyable.

We got to Ft. William a little too early to check in, so we parked the car and walked around town center. In the visitor center there were many pamphlets regarding Ben Nevis, the highest peak in the UK. We were given directions to the Ben Nevis Ranger Station should we need to follow-up with more detailed questions.

Navigation on Ben Nevis, A free and super helpful pamphlet!
Navigation on Ben NevisAerial Picture of Ben Nevis Summit

Topo of Ben Nevis Summit

Ben Nevis Safety Information:
Ben Nevis Safety Information

For a couple pounds I got this one page, laminated topo. It includes GPS waypoints, emergency numbers, and route information on back! Super cool!
Ben Nevis Topo Map - Laminated

We then drove to the Torlinnhe Guest House. Sue greeted us with tea and snacks. We had a sit down in the lovely living area and she explained the “need to knows”. It was by far *the* nicest B&B of our trip. Sue is a very bright and lively conversationalist and we both enjoyed our visit with her immensely.

Our comfy room:
Torlinnhe Guest House - Twin Bed

Sparkly Bathroom, with large shower:
Torlinnhe Guest House - Twin Bed Bathroom

Bedroom Window View – Nice!
Torlinnhe Guest House Twin Bedroom View

We drove over to the Ranger station for more Ben Nevis information.

The first Ranger we spoke with was relaxed, laid back, and friendly. He gave us lots of information about the hike up Ben Nevis. Then, while the three of us were in mid-sentence, another Ranger dude broke into the conversation.

He was obviously used to talking with newbees, and at my mention that we didn’t bring rain pants, he just had to butt in. He told us that if we didn’t have waterproof pants we would die. The drama was a little overboard, but I’m sure they get all kinds of people wanting to hike it who have no business being up there.

Even though altitude is not a problem (like it is in CO), Ben Nevis is still a serious mountain. Bad weather can sock in the summit area which is surrounded by cliffs. There are many hikers every year who wander off of one or become lost and try to descend on of the 4th/5th class gullies.

We were planning to wear knee gaiters. Our jackets protected our legs down to mid thigh. So with just that little exposure I figured we’d be okay. The coldest the summit would get was in the mid 30s, and that was in the middle of the night. Even with rain/wind, that temperature would be tolerable.

Heck, I climbed Grey’s Peak (a 14’er) last December in minus dF temps, in knee deep snow, with 30-40mph winds…So, how bad could Ben Nevis (4,406 ft) be in May!

Our exposure time wasn’t expected to be long at the summit, we knew better than to hang around summits! We had plenty of items to keep us warm, lots of layers, etc. I was confident that we would bag the peak, barring extreme wind. Eventually, I was able to calm the Aggressive Ranger down and convince him that Dennis and I were not going to die and that we would be fine.

Later that night, we spent an hour preparing our gear and reviewing compass navigation. Boy was I excited!

We went to dinner at The Grog and Gruel, but we didn’t drink grog or eat gruel. Since we planned to hike Ben Nevis the next day, we were looking for a healthy-ish well rounded meal. I got chicken wings as an appetizer and the poached Salmon dinner. Dennis got a vegetable taggalatelle. The food was excellent. But, I wouldn’t recommend it because of the crappy service. We had to ask 4 times to get the tab, they were ludicrously rude…We wondered why.

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