Silven Climbs Suilven: Honouring Glen Prince

Earlier this year, Glen Prince, one of Silven’s founders, unexpectedly passed away from a heart attack at the age of 57. As a tribute to Glen and to celebrate our 10th anniversary, we decided to take on the challenge of walking Mount Suilven – his favourite mountain and Silven’s namesake – to raise money for the British Heart Foundation.

Here’s how the journey went…?

The beginning of the climb?

You probably already know that Silven aren’t based in Scotland. So myself and 12 other team members, as well as Sara Prince (Glen’s wife) and her two friends, had to take a tiny plane from Manchester to Inverness.

The flight took about an hour, and as soon as we landed we got settled into our hotel. Next thing you know, it’s 7 am and we’re outside coating ourselves in midge repellent – safety first! Once we were all covered in insect spray, we set off for Mount Suilven.?

I’ll be honest, the weather wasn’t great at the start of the day. Visibility was pretty low due to the fog, but at least it was dry and warm(-ish!). It didn’t take long for our big group to part ways. Six of us (including me) got split off from the rest – we were far too keen and practically ran ahead!

As you’d expect from a load of newbies (aside from Sara who’s climbed Suilven three times before!), we ended up about a mile away lost in a bog in dense fog. Oh, and Hannah lost her boot in the mud. It was a bit chaotic, to say the least!??

All that aside, the scenery was absolutely stunning. As we walked up to the base of Suilven (yes, we hadn’t even started the official climb yet!) there were lots of rivers and lochs. We even swam in one on our way home – more on this later.

The trip up Mount Suilven?

Walking up the side of Suilven was hard – like, really hard. I won’t lie, it nearly killed off at least three of us! It was a near vertical climb. As you’d imagine, there were a lot of hands and knees scrambling up the small path.

Around one-third of the way up, the fog cleared and we saw the mammoth task ahead! It was incredible. Gilbert and I made it to the top first (me very first). Jez followed ten minutes later and Ian five minutes after that. Everyone else arrived over the next 45 minutes.?

If you’re unfamiliar with the mountain, Suilven has two summits and a plateau. All of us made it to the plateau between the two summits where we sat for a couple of hours, toasted to Glen, and enjoyed the views on our own. The weather had totally cleared by this point and we had completely uninterrupted views!?

Jez, Amy, Gilbert, Rob and I then went up to the North Summit. We just couldn’t get enough. This was another precarious climb which took around 20 minutes.

The way home?

Thankfully, the journey home was pretty uneventful – although a couple of people toppled over on the way down. At the base of the mountain is a large loch where some of us went for a swim to cool down before completing the six-mile walk back to Lochinver. It was so surreal!

In total, the climb took us about eight hours (14 miles), and of course we topped it off with a couple of well-earned pints in Lochinver in the sunshine. We couldn’t resist!

Make a donation?

Whilst I unfortunately never met Glen Prince, I’ve heard many fantastic stories about him, and the trip up Suilven is one I’ll never forget. It was great to complete a real challenge with some of my closest friends. I’ve really caught the bug for it and will definitely be doing more in future!

Huge thanks to our generous donors and our fantastic team for their support – we raised over ￡3,000 for The British Heart Foundation. If you’d like to make a donation, we’d really appreciate whatever you can spare. Visit our JustGiving page – every penny counts!