Now I’m a freelance, I can (kind of) afford to allow myself time to complete the Trail in my own time, at a pace that suits the conditions and my own fitness. There’s really no shame at all in deciding it’s unsafe to proceed, even though the immediate feeling of failure can be all-consuming. It usually takes 2-3 weeks to complete and is considered the most difficult long-distance walk in the UK. I have always been drawn to those remote and hard trails – maybe it is my need to feel that I’m on the edge and pushing my survival limits – so the Cape Wrath Trail became my goal in the UK. But here’s where things went badly wrong. It typically takes between two and three weeks to walk. Travelling through the wild and rugged landscapes of Morar, Knoydart, Torridon and Assynt, it will test the limits of your endurance. Posted on May 18, 2017 November 13, 2019; by Roel; In this series, I look back on my three-week solo hike along the Cape Wrath Trail: Scotland’s most challenging long-distance trail. All of that – my hopes, my enthusiasm and my self-confidence – lay rotting in a snow hole, high on a hostile mountain. The Cape Wrath Trail is often referred to as Britain’s toughest long distance trail, and is an unofficial route through some of the most spectacularly wild parts of Scotland. If you are a WordPress user with administrative privileges on this site, please enter your email address in the box below and click "Send". An enjoyable read and a timely reminder for myself who hopes to attempt it next Spring. The Cape Wrath Trail is one of the world's finest long distance walks. You will then receive an email that helps you regain access. What’s the difference? (HTTP response code 503). Coupled with the two Harvey’s maps (Cape Wrath Trail South and Cape Wrath Trail North) this was all I needed to get me through the whole thing. Disappointment and failure are bitter, and it took some time for me to start seriously reviewing what had led me to my accident. Cape Wrath Trail Tip 15 – Pack One Gas Canister and Refuel on the Trip You can buy additional gas canisters at London stores in Rhiconich; Ullapool (there are two hiking shops so you can get most things inc. tent repair splints); the shop at Kinlochewe (9am-5.30pm) and the garage/campsite shop at Shiel Bridge (closes at 6pm). It’s good that you got back safely. „Trail“ in diesem Fall mit „Weg“ zu übersetzen mag aber bereits irreführend sein. In it, I saw an opportunity to better my exhilarating hike along the Pennine Way, and to create new stories for myself about my own confidence and resilience. they don’t collect their advanced food parcels. Based on evidence from Kinlochewe Post Office approx. The following day – supposedly my rest day – I realised I couldn’t risk pushing further into remote terrain, and made the agonising decision to withdraw from the Trail. A white-hot ball of pain erupted in my knee. The Cape Wrath Trail The Cape Wrath Trail is not an official long-distance route. Overall I was happy with my gear selections on the Cape Wrath Trail. It goes through ten places that could loosely be termed towns or villages in its entirety, but few of these will coincide with the end of a day’s trekking. After months of preparation, I have a near-final gear list for next month’s winter Cape Wrath Trail attempt. I did the Scottish National trail in August 2018 which encompasses the CWT and then I did the CWT again in 2019. Other resources online make it sound incredibly hard, but I think it is manageable for any prepared hiker. I was to reflect on my own accident, and interview mountain safety experts on the psychological and practical factors that can lead even the most experienced hikers and mountaineers to grief. There's nothing else in Britain like it. Hopefully I’ll be striding back towards the hills a little later in 2020. Having left Bob with some of my nonessential kit to post home, I strode out into the drizzle. Deep down, I know I should have rested overnight at Sourlies. Starting in Fort William and finishing at Cape Wrath, the 400km, 8-day journey winds through the world's most inspirational landscapes including Knoydart, Kintail, Torridon, Assynt, and Sutherland. A comprehensive guide to the Cape Wrath Trail, one of the most challenging long distance walks in the UK, published by Cicerone and now in a fully updated Second Edition. Here are a few thoughts on the gear I’ve selected and why. Pack light. From Laggan Bridge the routes are identical, insofar as they are routes at all. Your access to this service has been limited. Here’s what to expect: 1.Wet feet. Walking the Cape Wrath Trail by Iain Harper (published by Cicerone) is invaluable. 2. The Cape Wrath Ultra® is Scotland’s finest multi-stage ultra running event. A’ Chuil bothy, a key stop on the Cape Wrath Trail in Glen Dessarry. I did not use leather boots for the CWT or Scottish National trail I use cloth based boots\trail shoes. It came to prominence in the mid-1990s due to various publications, but there is no one recognised path, and it certainly isn’t waymarked like, for example, the Pennine Way. He was walking the Cape Wrath Trail but reckoned it had done him in and he was too old for it. I walk alone out of choice I take a Personal locater Beacon and I also use a Garmin Inreach to allow a pre formatted message to be sent to my wife ; ‘saying I’m ok’ every day, the message contains a link to a map giving co-ordinates. T he Cape Wrath Trail is the best long-distance hike in the UK. The idea was to hike up from Glenfinnan to Morvich and then take a bus to Portree through Kyle of Lochalsh. It takes place annually in Read on and watch my short film about the walk before you decide if it’s a plan to be borrowed…, A roaring fire welcomes hikers at A’ Chuil bothy. I was planning on completing the West Highland Way, which I did, and then hoped to do parts of the extremely difficult Cape Wrath Trail. Shortly after I returned from Scotland, Trail magazine commissioned me to write about mountain safety. I pressed across carefully, using my trekking poles to help me brace against the fast water. Even to start it is to participate in an incredible adventure. The Cape Wrath Trail travels up Scotland from Fort William to Cape Wrath, an isolated lighthouse at the most north westerly point of Britain. On the opposite side of the glen we could see torches shining high on Sgurr Còs na Breachd-Iaoidh – carried by hardier souls, presumably, camping on top of the Corbett. Wordfence is a security plugin installed on over 3 million WordPress sites. It was 11am and I had covered a grand distance of a quarter of a mile. The route leads you across most of the north west coast of Scotland via Morar, Knoydart, Torridon and Assynt, winding through its most beautiful glens and mountains. My Cape Wrath Trail took me the better part of 8 months of planning and preparation. I decided that I had to do it. Still, my mood was buoyant and I felt strong. I lived and learned. I reached Barisdale bothy well after nightfall, grateful for the bed space and a chance to demolish my pack rations. A month has now past and I’m back in West London thinking about how and what I’ll do differently next time. It is also available as an eBook if you cannot justify the 240g that it weighs. Some of the comments below give good advice for anyone considering an attempt. Hope your knee has fully recovered. The Cape Wrath Trail takes you to beaches, glens and mountaintops that see very few humans pass by in a year. The owner of this site is using Wordfence to manage access to their site. I paused to stab my trekking poles into the frozen lake at the high point, and slushy ice gushed out of the hole. I’m a cautious planner. Well, I had hoped to be back on the trail between March and April – but the coronavirus outbreak stalled my plans. Six months on, I feel ready to start preparing myself for the difficulties I know I will face next time, and part of that preparation is a thorough review of what went wrong. Thankfully the injury wasn’t as serious as it felt at the time; after six weeks or so of rest I was back in the hills. We found the bothy attended by a 71-year-old MBA volunteer (Bob, who had stoked a roaring wood fire in the cottage’s stone hearth), a group of German geology students and their husky, Aisa. I set foot on the Cape Wrath Trail. I tried the ultra lightweight Montrail Hardrock Mid boot, a very light and fast drying boot. The short story I told in Trail’s September issue is simple: I hurt my left knee after falling on snow below the Forcan Ridge, having decided – madly – to try to complete two of my planned days in one. If you think you have been blocked in error, contact the owner of this site for assistance. 320 km langer Weg durch die nord-westlichen schottischen Highlands von Fort William bis nach Cape Wrath ganz im Nordwesten. Ein Weg, dem der Wanderer einfach folgen könnte, ist nur im geringen Maße zu finden. I felt happy to have the bothy’s warmth. Around midday it cleared up. I thought he looked in better condition than me. As I walked between the quiet houses scattered around the valley floor, the sense of isolation started to bear down on me. Hi Peter – I hope you’ll forgive the delayed response. Beyond the river lay another 16km of almost entirely unmarked terrain. There are no signs or posts to show you the way; navigating this trail is one of the things you’ll have to take care of yourself. Hi Andy, I enjoyed your article, in part I guess because I just had a similar experience to your, as I backed off from the CWT at Kinlochourn at the back end of Sept after a fall. Cape Wrath (Schottisch-Gälisch: Am Parbh, An Carbh in Lewis) ist ein Kap in Sutherland, Highland, im nördlichen Schottland.Das Kap stellt den nordwestlichsten Punkt der Insel Großbritannien dar.. Der Name Cape Wrath (auch englisch für Zorn oder Wut) stammt vom altnordischen Wort für "Umkehrpunkt". I picked my way along the snow as carefully as I could, but by now I was tired and frustrated; every few steps I slipped just a little, and although I used my poles to test for voids in the snow eventually I missed one. We have all done it. Access from your area has been temporarily limited for security reasons. Despite some wet and wild weather, I was never uncomfortable during the hike and felt prepared for any meteorological scenario that may have occurred. To add to the challenging distance, the only bridge across the notoriously treacherous River Carnach had been taken down for maintenance, imposing the need for a river crossing. Located in Scotland, it runs from Fort William, through the Highlands and Western Scotland, to the lighthouse at Cape Wrath, the northwestern-most point of Scotland. I guess my misanthropy is softening…. Hiking the Cape Wrath Trail – Part 5. Gales Force winds and rain combine to exacerbate difficult terrain perhaps break stages down into smaller sections when this happens. The Cape Wrath Trail is regarded as the toughest long-distance route in Britain and offers unparalleled freedom and adventure to the experienced and self-sufficient backpacker prepared to walk for many days in remote wilderness. I started to wonder if I could bank a rest day by pressing on to Shiel Bridge. Many trail walks end in a fluster, a scuttle or even a bit of a struggle. Der Cape Wrath Trail ist ein ca. Thank you for this article. The path is not waymarked and has many variations. I'd read tons of trail descriptions and copied multiple ones to my kindle. We don’t hear enough stories about that, falling into the horrible belief that we must press on, never quit, leading to possibly dangerous situations. The next day dawned dreich. General gear considerations . By now I was beyond tired – weary and demoralised. Like you, I think that once you’ve been there you know there’ll be a next time. This is a variation of the Cape Wrath Trail which normally starts at Fort William. Only two days were “mostly sunny”. I look forward to seeing you make it all the way. What remained of my Cape Wrath Trail was an agonising descent from the mountain. As I entered the Rough Bounds I realised my 15.4kg pack was too heavy (you can see my pack weight on LighterPack – a fantastic resource). I appreciate the solitude, and I think there are some experiences you simply cannot have unless you’re completely solitary: I remember, for example, wild-camping on Ickornshaw Moor on the Pennine Way, and spending a night listening to lapwings swooping above my tent, snipes diving and drumming, and the mournful call of a curlew. 50% of people that attempt the trail give up there i.e. The Inreach can be used where there is no phone signal. I walked the Cape Wrath Trail in the summer of 2017. Although 2019 had been unseasonably mild, 700m is well above the snow line in April, and the bealach was almost in winter conditions. Boots One of the features of the Cape Wrath Trail is frequent river crossings, making the choice of boot particularly important. We shared whisky and mountain tales, huddled around the fireplace. In my keenness to make progress I ignored my pre-hike caution and paid no attention at all to the likely difficulties presented by a mountain climb on top of an already taxing day. I usually hike alone. The route is roughly 230 miles, and it took me 15 days to walk it north to south. The book. From Kinloch Hourn the path lofted high into the wild terrain of Kinlochourn Forest, leaving behind the mineral scent of the sea loch. One week ago I completed the Cape Wrath Trail, a unofficial & unmarked route from Fort William to Scotland's most North-Western point, Cape Wrath. My variant - taking in the Beinn Eighe alternative & the roadwalk to Ullapool - was roughly 360 km. Thanks Robin! I was in an odd position, not to mention an altered state of mind. The Cape Wrath Trail doesn’t exceed 750 metres of elevation at any point – but you’re not in for an easy ride. There is a direct correlation between pack weight and giving up. It’s not actually a trail though, but a route. 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