Climbing Ben Nevis

Having purchased my awesome new North Face Verto S4K GTX grade II mountaineering boots yesterday evening, I was DYING to test these bad boys out, and within about 10 minutes had decided I was off to climb Ben Nevis the next day - the highest mountain in Britain. Towering above the West of Scotland at an impressive 1,344 metres, Ben Nevis is a little over a third of the height of the Abeni Flue that I will be tackling next month, so I figured it would make for a good warm up climb. 

So at 6am this morning, I set off from Edinburgh, arriving at the foot of the Glen Nevis range three hours later. 

The climb started off well, and I was pleased to see that my casual walking pace was faster than the majority of people setting off at the same time as me; it seemed my training had done some good. 

Beginning of the walk up Ben Nevis, running paralel to Glen Nevis Valley

I noticed a macho looking group of lads not far ahead, and decided beating them would be my target for the day. As I passed the lad group a few minutes later, I heard they were all talking with Glaswegian accents; suddenly this was no longer simply a challenge, this was a matter of national pride! 

The lad group struggling to keep up 

Views over the valley 

The path snaking its way up the mountain

About halfway up the mountain, the temperature dropped significantly and the air became much lighter, making climbing a lot easier. I was surprised at how tough the walk was, I had expected the path to be much less challenging. It involves quite a bit of scrambling over rocks in places. I was really amazed at my new boots - the grip was unbelievable! Whatever I threw at these boots they 'took in their stride' (no pun intended :P) - rocks, mud, streams, no problem. They were very comfortable and felt great instantly - no wearing-in needed. The support on my ankle was phenomenal; I've no doubt I would have had a badly twisted ankle were it not for this. Their grip held strong where I noticed a lot of others on the path slipping. I chatted to a few people on the climb up, and exchanged stories with fellow climbers and travellers, it was nice. A lot of people were climbing Ben Nevis for charity, and were surprised to hear that this was just my pre-charity climb :)

Time for a quick photo stop. 

Pausing to reflect on life and watch the world go by

Admiring my progress

Once I reached cloud level, the walk became very peaceful, if not a little eerie. Everyone else had disappeared, and all I could see in all directions was white. There were no birds this high, infact I have never experienced such intense silence. No animals, no traffic, no wind, just complete silence. 

The path become very rocky

 

Climbing into the cloud

The approach to Mordor was a little glum

A hole in the cloud appeared for a couple of minutes to give me this staggering view

A loan hiker does her best to escape the Dementors 

I was disappointed to discover that I had eaten both my food supply for the day and my emergency rations (incase I got stranded on the mountain) by lunchtime, and hadn't left any for the return journey. I really must get better at rationing. 

The approach to the summit involved crossing a large snow patch. I was very excited by this as I have never seen snow in the UK in summer before, I wasn't expecting to see any! 

Standing on the edge of the snow patch. 

EXCITED by seeing snow in Summer!! 

A final short trek that ran a few metres parallel to the the magnificent and perilous North Face was all that was between the summit and I, and I could see the entire summit was covered in snow. 

The final stretch! 

Cloud parts to give me this amazing view! 

Watching the clouds roll around 

The infamous and deadly North Face - the highest cliffs in the UK

Standing infront of the North Face 

I had expected reaching the summit to be a euphoric moment; an overwhelming sense of achievement . I envisioned a handful of proud blokes shaking each others' hands and high-fiving each other. The reality when I got there was around 100 people hanging around the summit, including a tour group of about 50 teenagers, loitering around shouting in a foreign language and smoking. This was NOT what I had expected! Hopefully the Abeni Flue summit will be a little less popular. 

I gave my Dad a quick call from the top to wish him a happy fathers day. He sounded surprised when he asked what I was up to, and I casually replied with "oh I'm just at the top of Ben Nevis."

As I was leaving the summit I passed the lad group arriving, looking red-faced and out of breath. Victory! 

The summit of Ben Nevis - crowded with people

The brave little dog make it to the top! 

Made it! Ben Nevis - conquered! Next: Abeni Flue :P 

The climb down was torture, much much harder than the climb up! Most of the top half of the path is covered in loose shingle and rocks - these were easy to navigate on the way up, but coming down meant my foot would land in one place and end up in another, putting a lot of strain on my ankles and knees - particularly the knee with no ligament which gives me stability issues! 

The lower part of the climb is big solid rocks. However it had started raining, which had caused these to become extremely slippery. 

Three hours later I arrived happily back at my car and sank into the drivers seat. The drive home was possibly the hardest part of the day - I was exhausted, and could barely work the pedals. 

I'm doing all of this to raise money for Make A Wish charity - a truly wonderful cause. Throughout the climb I kept reminding myself that no matter how hard or exhausting it was, it's not nearly as bad as what a child undergoing chemotherapy has to go through. If you'd like to sponsor me, just go to www.justgiving.com/joe-goes-up  - every penny you give goes directly to the charity. 

Joe x