The Tranter Round has always held an appeal – being such an elegant circuit of some great mountains and challenging terrain. Despite thinking we’d used up all the wet weather in recent weekends in the hills, the weather gods were still mixed, and we found our best window to be a 12 hour slot on Friday between weather systems of heavy rain and wind. Ever optimistic and supremely confident in the forecasts, we set off at 5:57am in an anticlockwise direction.
Throughout the first 5hrs and the last couple of hours, the tops were in mist above 800m, and waterproofs were on and off several times. We were lucky to get a 4 hour spell of clear weather from Binnien Beag over the Grey Corries where we enjoyed some great views and glimpses of sun. Helen’s parents met us at the col between Stob Ban and Stob Choire Claurigh on the Grey Corries where we refuelled and stocked up on spare food.
The clag returned for the last four tops and the promised rain started on schedule at 5pm, just as we approached the final climb of Ben Nevis. We didn’t see anyone else all day until the descent (even the summit was clear to our great surprise). Helen ran the day by feel and didn’t want to know split times or have the pressure of a schedule to keep to. Andy on the other hand quite enjoyed tracking time, and had a range of schedules to hand! We finished at 6:22pm to complete the round in 12hr25.
Andy & Helen
(Ed.) This time beats Jamsin Paris’s previous record of 12hr41. Tranter round details here