Last May I walked the Cape Wrath Trail, which had been one of my goals ever since I got to the UK; needless to say it was an amazing adventure, but it caught me off guard. I was partially unprepared, partially overwhelmed and mainly – I didn’t quite make all the way: I skipped a couple of 10 miles sections due to injuries. I managed to get from Fort William to Cape Wrath in 10.5 days, a great result I was happy with, until the details about the Cape Wrath Ultra became known – an 8 day challenge – and I got hooked.
On the Cape Wrath Trail on one of the better days
For some unknown reason beyond the need to just try, I have decided to take on the Cape Wrath Trail again in April 2016 as it falls on a unique time in my life that will allow me to aim for an 8 day unsupported walk of the whole Cape Wrath Trail (no skipping this time!). Yes, I want to try to do what the fully supported ultra race runners do, all by myself; it is a weird test of endurance and preparation.
I planned very well for my last Cape Wrath Trail trip and I have written about it many times, but this coming trip will require more than a few changes, from menu to gear to training. The shorter time I’m hoping to achieve and my experience of having already done the trail once are leading to the following changes (most are still in planning stages):
Menu
The menu is one of the parts that will see the most change, though it is still not quite all figured out. Last time I had roughly 3500 calories per day, but still ended up losing about 5 kg (more than 10lbs) during the trip, so I need to have more. A big part of my problem was that I lost my appetite on days with very bad weather, as the idea of dealing with trail mix or jerky strips while on the move was just not appealing.
My last 11 days menu
This time I plan also on only boiling water for coffee in the morning and doing the bulk of my cooking during the evening, after I have reached my campsite or the bothy for the night. This is in order to use a simpler and lighter stove and eliminate another unnecessary breaks during the day. I will be relying more on protein and energy bars as they provide a great boost while being easy to eat on the go.
I will also need to increase the use of powders (protein, energy etc) for more adding more calories, fat and protein to my diet without ending up carrying too much weight. I’m hoping to create a menu that will offer 4500 calories while keeping the weight to about 500g per day as I will be carrying food for 8 days and 8 nights. As I finalize my menu I will post it in detail including the research I relied upon to make my decisions. My process for the best balanced menu is still in progress, but the first step is in place.
Gear
As much as I love my Nordisk Telemark I tent it will stay home due to too much condensation
The bulk of my gear will remain the same as my last trip, though I’ll be leaving more gear at home as part of my new skills from practising ultralight backpacking. I’m hoping to reduce my base weight enough to allow an easy carry of all the food I will need for the whole trip while keeping the pack weight at a comfortable range. The main changes are:
- I’m leaving the camp chair at home – most bothies have a few and the 420g are really not necessary.
- Despite the Reactor‘s great performance, the weight and the reduced cooking time means that I can cut much of my weight by using a simple alcohol stove; I’m thinking to adopt Andrew Skurka’s “Cadillac” format.
- I’ll be replacing my Nordisk Telemark 1 ULW tent with a MLD Trailstar. I found that the Telemark tends to have too much condensation if the weather is mild and I will have no time to deal with drying gear. The tarp setup is extremely durable and stable and I know I can try and rely on bothies for most of my trip.
- Winter gear as an option – with winter making a late appearance I’m concerned that it will stay present in April; I’m expecting to find snow on some of the passes so an ice axe and light crampons might be needed. This will be decided based on weather and snow cover reports.
- Different footwear. As I had so many injuries with such minimal footwear (the Inov-8 Trailroc 235) on such a harsh route, I will be using the Altra Lone Peak 2.0. This time I will also make sure they are in good condition before leaving on the trip.
developing and practising ultralight backpacking principles
There will of course be other gear changes: less clothes, a few more gadgets etc, but the above is the bulk of it. The list is almost there, but last missing items and minor adjustment will need to happen before I will feel I’m there.
Training
Over the last few months, I have been focusing on a more all round training program with a bit of emphasis on running. Mixing that with fast hiking along the Pennine Way allows me to have a more robust training program that doesn’t rely too heavily on going outdoors. The reason is that many times I’m just too busy and parenting is a time-consuming hobby and interest, so finding time to train outdoors is a challenge.
Regular running is a big part of good training for fast hiking
That aside, my running regime is now focused on increasing distance while trying to encourage a fast recovery. I had planned for that on my last Cape Wrath Trail trip, but this time it will become even more important. In the 2 months leading up to my trip, I will be moving to daily runs to encourage the all-so-needed recovery while increasing my mileage weekly.
I will also continue my monthly weekend endeavours, maintaining a good daily distance within the day light limitations, working mainly on keeping a consistent pace through long days. Another aspect of going outdoors through the winter is to feel more comfortable with the wide range of potential weather changes, which might include snow this time.
Unexpected snow on Pen-y-Ghent, England – easy to deal with if you are prepared
Navigation
On my last trip I took Ian Harper’s Guide to the Cape Wrath Trail by Cicerone and the Harvey’s 1:40000 two part maps for the trail. Both of the above were (and still are) very good, but I found a few things:
- 1:40k maps are not detailed enough for sections that require more serious navigation
- 1:40k maps are too detailed for many of the clear paths along the way
- The Harvey’s maps only showed the route itself and none of the greater surroundings
- The guide only has tiny map inserts that don’t always cover important details
- I rarely walked the daily sections recommended by the guide and found myself needing to jump between pages to follow the route descriptions
- At times I found that I needed a better description than the one offered by the guide
- The extra information offered by the guide was mostly used for planning and not actually in the trip, so I was carrying some unneeded weight.
Navigation tools for the 21st century
I’ve also been starting to hone my more technological navigation methods and I intend to use them more on the trip. I will be carrying the traditional navigation tools, but the maps will be maps I create for myself using OSMaps. The idea is to get the most value for the weight and the best tools for the kind of navigation needed on the Cape Wrath Trail – tools that allow for many navigation corrections, weather adjustments and long days.
Other issues to plan for
Wet, wet trails and potential snow in 2015. 2016 seems to be even less forgiving
Beyond the above I need to accommodate two more weather related issues:
- Snow – in April there is a very good chance that parts of the trail will be covered in snow, mainly some of the higher passes. This means that I will need to carry crampons and an ice axe and be skilled and comfortable with using them. I have done winter walking and glacier crossing, and I am comfortable in crampons, but it has been a few years so I will need to practice – this is part of my goal for my winter hikes. March 2016: this now seems very unlikely to be an issue, so no crampons will be needed.
- Floods – so far this year the winter has been very wet, causing repeated floods all across northern England and Wales. If this trend continues, there is a chance I will need to deal with very wet conditions and might even reach uncrossable water ways. The danger of that is that I will either need to find an alternative route, wait for the water to go down or just go back. Anyone of those options can easily eradicate my plan to walk the trail in 8 days.
the beautiful Cona Glen and the easy introduction it offers
Are you coming?
That is my first stage of planning as it stands at the moment. I will be writing a post about the final gear list and a post about the final menu choice to share with anyone else who might be interested in such an endeavour.
The Cape Wrath Ultra will take place about a month after I finish my walk, giving me some more serious competition. I’d love to hear if anyone is planning on doing this trip and how they are preparing for it – in terms of gear, menu and training. If you are going, leave a comment, and if there is somewhere you are writing about it, share it in the comments so we can all learn from each other.
You can also read all about my previous adventure and download the trip report here.
March 2016 update: final itinerary and GPX files
Two months have passed and the trip’s plans are clearer, though some issues have come up. My gear list is almost sorted and the menu is almost there, all made possible by finalising my itinerary. My planned days are long, mostly 40-50km, but one day will be 65km. My plan is to start at Fort William after arriving via the night train, which will influence my start time. If I arrive on time I will be taking the 10:00 ferry to Camusnagaul, otherwise it will be the 12:20 ferry. The time I catch the ferry will determine whether day one will be long or day two will be, as my goal is to be past Kinloch hourn by the second night.
Another factor is the firing range – there is training happening usually in April and September, and this year is no exception: they will commence on 11/4, which means that I might not be able to reach the Cape itself. This will only be solved when I arrive to the edge of the range and see if the flags are up. In any case, I plan on walking to the lighthouse and back to Sandwood Bay that same evening (it is only 10km each way), so if the range is empty that afternoon I will be able complete it without any problem.
From Sandwood Bay I will start walking very early to catch the minibus from Kinlochbervie to Lairg and on to Inverness, allowing for an easier retreat than via Durness.
My itinerary is:
| Day of trip | Start Point | End Point | Distance (KM) |
| 1a | Fort William | A’Chuil bothy | 51 |
| 2a | A’Chuil bothy | 10km past Kinloch Hourn | 40 |
| 1b | Fort William | Corriholly bothy | 37 |
| 2b | Corriholly bothy | 10km past Kinloch Hourn | 54 |
| 3 | 10km past Kinloch Hourn | Tea House bothy, Coulin | 65 |
| 4 | Tea House bothy, Coulin | Shenaval Bothy | 38 |
| 5 | Shenaval Bothy | The School House bothy | 44 |
| 6 | The School House bothy | Glencoul bothy | 47 |
| 7 | Glencoul bothy | Kinlochbervie Hotel | 46 |
| 8 | Kinlochbervie Hotel | Sandwood Bay, after a visit to Cape Wrath | 40 |
| 9 | Sandwood Bay | Kinlochbervie (catch minibus) | 12 |
Alternative A for days 1 and 2 are for the 10:00 ferry and alternative B is for the 12:20 ferry.
I will be spending most nights in bothies, just as last time, and my goal is to have two main “civilization” stops:
- Day 4 – stop for an hour or so at Kinlochewe and have a normal meal while asking to charge my electronics and chat to my wife. This is a short day (38km) and with an early start, so it should be simple
- Day 7 – a night in Kinlochbervie Hotel will allow me to sleep well, eat well, shower and charge everything for the last push. Hopefully that also means I won’t smell so badly on the way back home
Useful contacts
Ferry in Camusnagaul: 07826695160 or 07468417137 (Dougie Robertson)
Cape Wrath Range: 0800833300 (central line) or 01971511242 (on the ground contact)
Kinlochbervie Hotel: 01971521275
Final notes and a bonus
I’m happy with my itinerary as it mixes longer and shorter days. I will be going through areas I have missed on my last trip and I hope to get better weather. Snow and floods now seem very unlikely, so, potentially, an easier trip is coming up. I have created all the GPX routes I’ll be uploading to my watch, which I thought might be useful to you too; you can download them from here (note: they are compressed in a zip file).
Going on your own CWT adventure? Press the image to get the ultimate planning guide
Gilad,
I like your style – attempting this 8 day trip a month before the Cape Wrath Ultra! I wish you the very best of luck. I’ve signed up for the Cape Wrath Ultra, so I’ll be following your preparation and trip with great interest.
My background is in mountain walking and backpacking as a personal challenge, rather than ultra running or racing. I expect to be mostly speed-hiking rather than running in May.
My training blog is at http://www.ultra-one.co.uk
I did a 5 day solo backpacking expedition in 2013 which is perhaps more similar to what you are attempting this April. You can find that at http://www.mm120.org.uk
For that walk I set up a couple of intermediate food drops to reduce the amount of food I had to carry. You might like to consider something similar, unless you see that as “cheating”!
I think it’s extremely unlikely that you will need ice axe or crampons for your late April walk – but obviously you will keep an eye on the progress of the Scottish winter just in case the winter season becomes exceptional!
Good luck,
Paul
We seem to be coming to the Cape Wrath Trail/Ultra from the same perspective!
I will be keeping an eye on your training and hopefully will pick up some tricks. I’ve noticed your goal to manage long days during the winter – I find this very hard as there doesn’t seem to be enough day time hours. When I was working on distance building I was using simple trails like the South Downs and the Ridgeway, where trail finding is easy, while working on navigation focused trips separately.
For me personally the recovery is the big issue. Most of us can find the power to do 35-45 miles in a day, it is doing it day in and day out that is the problem, so focus on doing a hard training that increases in volume: a week of 5 miles daily, than a week of 6 miles daily etc, that is my plan from February.
Good luck in any case.
Likewise I’ll be keeping an eye on your training reports!
I’m lucky that I’m self-employed and work from home, so I can be pretty flexible about choosing times for my long walks.
40-45 miles is new territory for me, even for a single day, which is why I’ll be majoring more on “hours on my feet” than shorter speedwork during training. It’s probably not the most time-efficient program, but I have the time available, so this feels safer and less risky for me.
I’d be interested to hear any more thoughts you may have on footwear choice for this route – it seems to have a bit of everything terrain wise, so choosing one compromise solution for footwear seems a tricky problem!
Good luck with your training too,
Paul
I’m heading down to the self-employed route too so I hope that will allow me to crank up the training. I agree about the long days, as long as they work for you nothing else matter really. There is something about breaking that daily mileage that is a bit intimidating, for me it is 45 miles, I haven’t passed it yet.
Footwear is a challenge; I’ll say find a medium cushion shoe with reasonable grip, too much grip and you compromise comfort.
Let me know how the 45 miles day has gone, good luck.
Further to my other comment I went on the CWT 11 – 24 April 2015. The top of the pass next to the Forcan ridge was covered in snow- probably why I got lost – but other than that there was very little snow – certainly no more than 4 or 5 yards at a time that I had to walk over. 3 days of sun got rid of all snow, so much so that we could get right to the top of An Teallach and not encounter any. You are unlikely to need crampons as at that time of year – if there is snow it will be soft although in areas it might be deep. Several of my colleagues who are regular visitors to the Munros would confirm this as well – they tell me that even the first week of June 2015 saw very heavy snowfalls so who knows what 2016 will bring.
Hi David,
I always told my wife that this route is addicting and I finally meet a fellow addict!
Thanks for letting me know about the snow and the crampons, I’m hoping and guessing I won’t need them, but this winter been so weird that it will be by the door until I actually leave. Last April was amazingly warm and dry for the season and May was bitter cold and wet – who knows what this year will bring.
When are you planning on walking the trail again? I’ve done quite a few cuts on the drier sections and I’d recommend taking the detour to Ullapool and then the walk along Loch an Daimh, it was very pleasant and a nice break from the bog and hard conditions.
Last time I heavily relied on bothies and I’m hoping to do so again, but if the weather permits and I still have energy I might push further each day, including Kinloch Hourn; there was a little stalikng hut near Loch an Daimh that I hope is still there that I can use. At this point it is all a guess until actually out there and dealing with the weather and the changes the land so going through with the recent floods.
Thank you again for reading and I hope you enjoy the trip. Have you seen the 1:100k maps I made? What do you think about them? I found I very much needed an overview map after getting lost and reaching Loch Morar instead of Loch Nevis, so this time I’m planning on having them.
Thanks so much for sharing your adventures on the Cape Wrath Trail! I’m planning to backpack it later this year (aiming for July or August) with some friends. The resources you’ve shared will be a great help as we start to plan our trip. Looking forward to hearing more about your April walk!
Hi Jen, I’m glad you enjoyed it and found it useful! I’ll be continuing to write about how I’m getting ready for the trip, so stay tuned….
The Cape Wrath Trail is amazing and you’d love it, just make sure to have plenty of bug protection for that time of the year!
Google ‘joint warrior 2016’. The MoD area at the Cape will be closed for the middle two weeks of April. GPS signals will probably be jammed too. Happens every April & October for live firing exercises. Good luck!
Thanks John, I wasn’t sure whether they released the dates yet, I guess a call is in place.
Cheers
Good luck and enjoy it. For what its worth my observations.
1. I wouldn’t bother with axe and crampons myself as you are not summiting but you might want to think about some micro spikes if ice and snow still an issue in april.
2. Its very very easy to get sick of protein bars etc (and sweet things in general) even for only 8 days. Mix it up with savouries such as salami and salted nuts which will add protein and salts to repair and sustain.
3. Don’t discount your Telemark, I used a Trailstar for a while but gave up on it. A light tent gives you an inner to protect from draughts (you’ll be warmer and sleep better – important) and condensation much less of an issue in April. I had an utter nightmare with a Trailstar in a Highland storm (but perhaps that’s just me …).
4. Fitness, fitness and fitness. Don’t neglect a decent programme of leg strengthening as well as cardio. The fitter you are the better it will be!
Good luck
Thanks Mark, I really appreciate the input.
I’m pretty sure by now that an ice axe and crampons are not needed (those were mircos anyway….), but again, not sure about the weather.
For the tent, I’ll have to wait and see how I feel and what the weather is; at the moment I think i will be in a bothy pretty much every night during the trip so the tent will be mainly an emergency option.
I’m ok on fitness but I’m working on better recovery with daily runs in which I’m increasing the daily mileage slowly to teach my body to get up every day to do it again – goes well so far (I’ll might write more about it as I’m really happy with it and i think it can be a great tool).
As for food – I’m on it. The menu is in final stage and I’ll write about it soon.
Good luck to you and Jim, will you be writing about your trip in March?
agree on the food you need to mix it up and make sure u have enough salt. I’m running the cap wrath ultra, and will practice mainly running on technical terrain to great “relaxed on it” here I am thinking mainly energy efficiency this is in any case my weak point haering out miles on the road is something I can do
Good luck Peter! This race is due to be amazing.
I’d recommend finding some boggy terrain to train for the race as this is the main problem you will encounter. What is your training plan? Any racing experience in this scale?
Some killer stages in that schedule!
In my limited experience (the two times I’ve been on this route) the Camusnagaul ferry schedule is not set in stone. Both times I’ve crossed at times that were not on the schedule. i.e. the ferry seems to make extra trips if there’s somebody waiting so if you’d be interested in crossing as soon as possible you might prefer to go straight to the ferry landing as soon as you arrive in town.
There are some killer stages there, but I hope they’ll be balanced with the shorter ones!
I’m hoping to just call the ferry operator when I’m approaching Fort William and arrange for them to wait a few minutes for me if needed. I also noticed that the Camusnagaul ferry works on a fairly “relaxed” schedule. I wanted two options for the first two days just in case there will be other delays; my cut off time for the longer first day is a start later then 11:30, though I would rather have a long first day and spend the night in A’Chuil bothy as it is much nicer than Corriholly!
I don’t know how important the actual route is for you but I might mention the option in the older CWT guidebook to reach A’Chuil: it goes along Gleann Fionnlighe and Gleann Camgharaidh and it’s about 35 km from Fort William to A’Chuil. It’s the route I’ve taken both times I’ve hiked there. It’s beautiful and wild. Good track along Gleann Fionnlighe, then faint track at the headwaters and finally off-track to cross to Gleann Camgharaidh first, then Glen Pean over two consecutive bealach. This is very doable from Fort William even after a late-morning ferry crossing.
Thanks for the tip! I had a look, but it seems to start with a long road walk, isn’t it?
I loved the Glen Cona part of the first day, so might still go for it.
yes, a road walk along Loch Eil. This actually helps explain the big difference in milage: it’s due to the Glen Cona section (of which I was not aware), not the Glenfinnan part, which renders my advice useless 🙂
Huh! Just shows how this route is evolving over time with the constant release of guides. I’m actually working on my own guide based on my route, which will only add more confusion to the mix!