Kings House to Kinlochleven 6/6/17
Distance 11 Miles
Total Ascent 1441
Weather Rain with more rain
Difficulty Moderate
Total Ascent 1441
Weather Rain with more rain
Difficulty Moderate
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At breakfast, our host was his usual happy self but the food could not be faulted. Afterwards I had a quick walk out to take a couple of photos before we left to recommence our walk. Ballachulish is an attractive little village originally built to house quarry workers. Its just a pity that the people we met there were not as welcoming as in all the other places we visited. When the minibus arrived and had been loaded, we said our goodbye's to Patrick who was to take the train home, before we set off for Glencoe Village to pick up another couple who were going our way and then continuing up the glen in what was now a steady downpour. Once we were ready to start, our driver took a group photo for us before driving off as we began the shortest leg of the walk. We were probably only a mile or so from the start when Big John strayed off the footpath slightly and was immediately up to his knees in mud. Unfortunately he managed to extricate himself before we could get out our cameras. Geoff was waiting for us at Kings House and we then carried on more or less parallel to the main road as far as a cottage (Altnafeadh) where we turned off to begin the climb up the 'Devils staircase'. I had been expecting a really tough climb but quite honestly the only problem I found was that it was a bit of a bottleneck and I was held up by other walkers from time to time. If I remember correctly we climbed a little over 800 ft in about 1 mile. After a short break at the top we began our descent to Kinlochleven, unfortunately the views were partly obscured by cloud but the rain eased for a while. We arrived at Kinlochleven at about 1;30pm and thought that it was far too early to inflict ourselves on the guest house proprietors so we all went to the Ice factor building where we spent an hour or so over a couple of cups of hot chocolate before making our way to The Edencoille Guest House For the night.