Ben Wyvis – Glas Leathad Mor – near Garve in the Scottish Highlands is my local Munro and a summit I have hiked and run to many times. The route I usually take from the Ben Wyvis car park, south of Garbat, includes a Munro Top, An Cabar, at 946m elevation, before a long, wide ridge leads to the Munro summit of Glas Leathad Mòr (awesome mountain) at a height of 1046m.
But there are two other Munro Tops, which I had ear-marked for a good weather day. The opportunity for a longer run-hike came on Saturday when the forecast was to be cold but sunny and with little wind. If you have ever been on Ben Wyvis you will know it is often windy!
Run to An Cabar and Ben Wyvis
My friend David and I arrived at a packed car park at about 9.30am. We set off at a gentle run, knowing that we had many hours of run-hiking and elevate gain ahead.
The first couple of kilometres provided a good warm up as we ran south-east along an obvious path that undulates and rises fairly gently. At a junction, the path to Ben Wyvis heads north, while a less defined path continues more easterly along the bank of the burn. I have followed this latter route before to reach the summit of the neighbouring Corbett, Little Wyvis.
David and headed north and started the climb, which gets steeper and steeper, towards the first top, An Cabar. There are well-laid steps at intervals between the stony path and I felt my leg muscles start to burn as we pushed on at a brisk pace.
David told me he used to be able to run the full path uphill but we progressed at a fast hike this time.
A large rock is located at about 700m elevation and we stopped for a short breather before pushing uphill again.
We were hoping that the earlier cloud that covered the Wyvis ridge would dissipate and as we reached An Cabar, we were pleased to be treated to a clear view. It felt cold and windy, so we didn’t hang around for long.
A run along the ridge
A wide ridge continues north-easterly. The incline is gentler and we ran the next 2km, passing a subsidiary cairn at 980m and then to the trig at Glas Leathad Mòr at 1046m elevation.
The snow and ice that I had worried about earlier in the day – I took microspikes in my running pack – was almost non existent and easy to avoid even on the high ridge.
In fact, the ground was nicely hardened by the cold and frost and it made for a good running surface.
By the time we reached the Munro, the wind had suddenly dropped and we found ourselves enjoying a “winter warm” and sunny day.
Munro Top number two
Tom a’ Choinnich, the second Munro Top of the day, was less than 2km away although we needed to drop 200m first. A small cairn marked the col before we started to climb again. There was nothing onerous about the next section and before long we were at the 953m summit.
It would be possible to head down the north-western slope to reach a track low down the glen and then return to the car park. I stored that in my memory for another outing.
Munro Top number three
Instead, David and I headed NEE to descend Tom a’ Choinnich and then started the much longer run-hike towards the third Munro Top.
I made sure that I kept eating bits and pieces of food, running where I could and hiking on steeper inclines. It was around 3.5km to reach Glas Leathad Beag, although we missed the cairn at first and headed to a further point where there was another cairn. The view over the surrounding landscape and across to the Cromarty Firth was wonderful.
We retraced our steps, making sure we tracked further south to reach the Munro Top at 928m elevation.
After a quick stop for some more food, we started to head back towards the main Ben Wyvis ridge.
Retracing our steps to the Wyvis
We lost quite a lot of height, crossed a narrow burn and then began walking uphill again. There was more snow on this slope but it actually aided our progress rather than hindered. The snow was firm and quite grippy so we avoided the usually boggy ground of many Scottish mountains. We were both wearing grippy trail running shoes, which helped with traction.
We skirted south, below Tom a’ Choinnich to eventually reach the cairn marking the high point on Glas Leathad Mòr again.
After leaving this summit the first time, we met only one other person. Back on the wide ridge, we again found ourselves amid many hikers. This is a popular mountain, although, as I discovered, the two further flung Munro Tops are far less visited.
The final part of our adventure followed the same route as the start of the outing.
The total distance was just over 25km and with around 1600m of ascent.