To the Ben

I had made a mistake. 

For some bizarre reason, I had thought that there was one more day of walking on the West Highland Way until we returned home. If we hadn't noticed the error we might have arrived in Fort William and found ourselves without a roof over our heads for the next evening. Fortunately, some weeks earlier  Jerome spotted the gaping hole between the date of completing the walk and our flight home, and we decided to spend one last full day in Fort William.

What to do on this day was a matter of debate. Jerome and Chris both favoured walking up Ben Nevis. I was less keen, mainly because I had climbed it back in 1974 on a dry but dull day. Back then I was enthused because the top of Ben Nevis was in the clouds and I thought it would be exciting to walk through them. What I failed to realise was that I had walked through clouds many times before - when it's foggy. And I can reveal that Ben Nevis in the fog is just a slog.

I was prepared to walk it again if that was the people's vote. That evening, as we watched the weather forecast on TV, I was interested to see that the wind direction, which normally carries clouds thick with moisture from the west, was changing overnight to a brisk northerly

The next morning, as we walked into town for breakfast, there was a canopy of thin, high clouds and we decided to go for it. We took a taxi to the Glen Nevis Youth Hostel and to my amazement as we took the group photo at the bottom of the path, we could see the peak of Ben Nevis behind us. If the weather continued like this, we might even be rewarded with a view.

Men for the Ben

Another memory I have of the walk up Ben Nevis was that it wasn't difficult but it was unrelenting. The first five hundred feet of climb on the path from the Youth Hostel are on a one-in-three incline and are the steepest part of the route. At a junction after about half a mile, this path joins the main route up from Fort William, and the rate of climb becomes a little more forgiving. 

At this point, we joined a large line of people with different abilities and ages, all striving to conquer the Ben. At the same time, we weaved through runners and walkers tumbling down from the peak. It was less than ten o'clock in the morning but some of these athletes had completed Ben Nevis and were now heading south to tackle the three, four, or even five peak challenge. (3 peaks: Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike, Snowdon, 4 peaks: + Slieve Donard (Northern Ireland) 5 peaks: + Carrauntoohil (Eire)).

The vibe of this walking group was very different to the walkers on the Way. There was a large colourful group on a work bonding week-end, all with bright new gear and poles. There were smaller groups of day-trippers who were less well equipped and then there were a few who were just annoying.

Everyone on the trail had to stop occasionally and get our collective breath back and generally a small amount of friendly chatter broke out between the various groups.  However there were two walkers with whom we shared observations who would, once we had advanced further up the track, burst out laughing with their own private joke. Chris dubbed them the 'Fun Boy two' and we became weary of being the object of their unsocial humour.

The FB2s

Around the two-thousand-foot mark, the path levelled off for a short while as the route turned beside Lochan Meall an t-Suide. Here there was the possibility of finding a place for a comfort break out of sight of the many walkers. However the short journey away from the path to discover a suitable spot was very boggy. 

Lochan Meall an t-Suide

Around this point there Is an alternative route that shaves off a few hundred yards but only by increasing the incline to greater than one in three (and the last hundred feet of climb is more of a scramble, so it is doubtful that any time is saved). When the two routes rejoined it was plain to see that those that had taken the short cut were paying the penalty in loss of stamina. 

No loss in stamina for Chris & Duncan

From here the route was on the scree face of Ben Nevis and it zig zagged slowly toward the summit. On my previous visit I was already in the clouds and so the landscape was completely unknown to me. The view, gradually unfolding west and north as we cleared Meall an t-Suide was crisp and clear. 

Zig-zags on the scree face

The path became increasingly stony as we zig-zagged eight times up the face of Ben Nevis. On the ninth turn the route became more direct until the stone filled plateau opened up before us. Finally the observatory hut and trig point appeared. In three and a half hours we had climbed Ben Nevis.

We could go no further