Over The Hill

Walking 96 miles along the West Highland Way in 5 days for charity is fairly common. Add in a climb of Ben Nevis on day 6, not so common. Elect to climb Ben Nevis via Carn Mor Dearg and the Arete, not a popular choice at all. Guess which one Jim decided to do? While we were content on letting him do the walk all by himself, we were not going to miss out on the chance to bag two Munros, and do the arete, so we decided to meet Jim at Fort William on Friday evening at the end of the walk, and join him for the climb up Ben Nevis on Saturday.

The weather forecast for Saturday was not looking good at all, with 80kph winds, gusting to 95kph at summit level, and a visit to the Ben Nevis Information Centre late Friday confirmed the winds, and expected heavy rain. No conditions in which to tackle the arete, so unfortunately and very reluctantly, we settled for taking the mountain (or tourist) track instead.

So just before 9 0'clock on Saturday saw us parked up and leaving Achintee car park and heading up the winding and stone-clad track towards Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe in company with a multitude of other walkers all with the same intent, getting to the summit. The path is steep, but well made and progress was quick, in fact I was quite surprised as to just how many groups we overtook, possible because Jim was setting a cracking pace, having ditched the larger and heavier pack he had been carrying for the previous 5 days on the WHW for the lighter day pack he was now carrying.

We walked through a continuous drizzle of rain heading up into a cloud base that was hovering around the 600m height, occasionally dropping much lower and shrouding the whole of the hillside and below to Glen Nevis in mist. The steep stony path gives way to a broad gravel path that transverses the upper reaches of Red Burn heading northeast across the flatter ground to the south of Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe before swinging south to the western slopes of Ben Nevis and the infamous zigzag path leading to the summit plateau.

With my wife, Muriel, I had previously climbed Ben Nevis some 30 years ago, and was quite amazed at the quality of the maintained path from Achintee to beyond Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe, but was even more surprised to find that extensive work has been done to improve the path that now leads up the zigzags and over the summit plateau. It is now much broader and while not of fixed stone in the upper stretches, it is still well defined and an easy path to walk on, apart, of course, from the steepness, which I doubt any amount of path construction will overcome.

The final kilometre, from the 1200m height, now heads directly over the summit plateau, and is lined at intervals with large marker cairns to assist navigation in the notoriously poor visibility often surrounding the summit, and in particular, when covered in snow in winter-time.

It was an exceedingly busy, and very multi-cultural summit, with many groups jostling for a spot on the summit cairn for the obligatory photo call. We just muscled in, took our pics and headed for a sheltered spot out of the quite severe wind to grab a quick drink and some food, as we had not stopped since leaving Achintee, some 2 hour 50 minutes earlier - not a bad time for the ascent - Jim really was pushing it.

Break over, it was head down and into a very strong west wind and rain which battered us for most of the descent until we reached the lee of Meall an t-Suidhe, which offered some shelter for the last stretch back to Achintee.

As we approached the lower levels of the zigzags, and were feeling we had done well, the big boys arrived. It was the Ben Nevis Hill Race, which had started down in Fort William and we meet the runners, some 500 of them, as they climbed up the Coire na h-Urchaire heading directly for the summit. These men & women are quite amazing to watch, the way they run and scramble up the hillside, we stood with some of their supporters and members of the local Mountain Rescue teams, there should they be needed, and watched their progress, taking the opportunity for our second break of the day, before heading for the car and the end of Jim's journey.

It was a great day even if we did have to forego on the arete, and of course it was rounded of with the customary watering stop, again in the Bridge of Orchy Hotel, where a nice pint of Northern Light, an Orkney Brewery ale, went down very well.

Well done to Jim - a great achievement, CHAS will be proud of your support.