Ben Resipole

Ben Resipole

climbing Ben Resipole

During lockdown we tried to use our weekends as productively as possible and get in as many walks as possible, to keep up our fitness for when we would back to changeovers!

Ben Resipole was done on a Saturday back in early March. It had been a good few year’s since either of us had climbed it and Coll decided last minute to sit this one out. However, it would be Oran’s first big climb.

Having checked the weather and hoping for the mist at the top to clear later in the morning we headed of to Resipole Campsite to start our climb. Resipole Farm have done a power of work improving all the lower paths. We were incredibly lucky that the weather had been so dry in previous weeks so the path was not too boggy, though in places you could see that it could be if the weather was wet.

The first part of the walk takes you through woodland and once you get through this you start to see Loch Sunart , with the Ardnamurchan peninsula on one side and Morvren on the other if you look back.

We had hoped we might see some red deer the further up we climbed but had no luck with them but did see a couple of eagles near the summit off to the right from us. About two thirds of the way up we started to come across patches of snow, normal for the time of year, we just made sure we worked our way around them. Towards the summit the path did get a bit icy, so care was needed.

Unfortunately, the last 100 feet or so was in mist and at the top where the cairn is there was no visibility, so we did not hang about long. Instead, we made our way back down till we cleared the mist and sat looking out over Loch Sunart and Loch Shiel having a sandwich to fuel up for decent down.

At this point, we were looking down on some hill lochs, out over Acharacle and down towards Loch Moidart. The visibility was not the clearest so further out to any of the islands was not to be seen on that day, however on a clear day you can see out to Mull, Eigg, Muck, Rum and Coll.

As we finished up our snack looking back up to the summit was now clear of mist – but we didn’t feel the need to go back up!

We were back down to the car in just under 5hours, had the visibility been better, we may have hung around longer at the top. The great thing about Ben Resipole is that you start at sea level, so you get the satisfaction that you have climbed the whole mountain from top to bottom. It may not be a Munro, but it is a great climb, with good views even on a poor day – oh and you get to see Garmoran if you look really closely!

For a detailed guide see walkhighlands  Beinn Resipol from Resipole campsite (Walkhighlands)

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