Scotland - Days 12 & 13
We had a lie in on Monday followed by a nice drive to Fort William where we bought 3 litres of Wyld Wood organic cider, some All Bran, some more junk food, and the official Scottish Mountaineering Club book on The Munros as recommended by Anne. Not all from the same shop I should add.
We then checked in for the night at Linnhe holiday park for the night, had showers, and started on the cider and the Munro book.
The weather forecast was amazing for today (Tuesday), so we decided that today was the day that Ben Nevis was going to be ticked off our lists. You may recall a previous blog from our spring holiday, where we failed to bag Ben Nevis after having to turn back when the Carn Mor Dearg arête looked too risky in the snow. Although there was hardly any snow today, we decided to take the "tourist route" also known as the mountain track. The reasons for this were threefold. We had started a bit later in the day than we would have liked and were a bit concerned about having enough daylight; we needed to do a recce as Claire may be taking a group up that way next year; and I think Claire still thought the arête was a bit risky even without the snow.
Our route started from the visitor centre car park in Glen Nevis - a mere 15 metres above sea level. So only 1,329 metres of ascent to do, and 18 km of walking. On paper, that is nowhere near as hard as the Yorkshire Three Peaks, which is nearly 40 km with about 1,600 metres of ascent.
I soon realised that I'd chosen my clothing for the day poorly - my thickest most durable mountaineering trousers and a thin long sleeved top, as my arms have been cold all holiday. I was boiling within about 10 minutes. The mountain track was not as easy as I expected, as the lower section in particular is in need of repair and was quite rough underfoot. Although it was hot and the sun was out, there were a fair few clouds around and the summit was in and out of cloud when we set off, which we hoped would clear before we got up there.
It was a long hard relentless trudge all the way up, and not a particularly interesting path. We felt dwarfed by the hill towering over us at the start of the route, which I later discovered is about half the height of Ben Nevis! The views were good but did not open up until near the summit and I was starting to wish we hadn't bothered by about 500 metres. It was only the prospect of a dual list tick that spurred me on.
Things got a bit better after lunch (I find that's often the case) as the path improved and we could see more of the mountain, of which there was still a lot of above us. The last few hundred metres of ascent were quite tough, as we were approaching the summit which is capped by loads of ankle turning rocks. The last section was quite barren and I had to keep turning round to look at the view, which was starting to become quite promising and cloud free.
The summit itself is a large plateau containing some ruined buildings, a shelter which we didn't go in as I'd read in Trail magazine that it smells of wee, and an impressive summit cairn with a trig point on top. We took a couple of summit selfies wearing our new CrossFit VUF T Shirts (in order to enter a competition for the best travelled t shirt), and then asked a lady to take some of us from further away. It would have helped if Claire had taken the camera out of selfie mode, but we got there in the end.
After that we put some more layers on as it was quite chilly on the summit, and found ourselves a big flat rock overlooking the most stunning mountain view ever. We must have been on the summit for an hour before we eventually tore ourselves away from the scenery and headed back down.
The route down was just as tough as the route up, maybe more so as my knees are much better at going up than down. We made quite good progress though, and eventually stopped at an altitude of about 300 metres for the second flask of coffee and the last of the food.
We were quite concerned by the amount of people on their way up as we were coming down. A lot of people were not carrying anything (not even a drink) and if they continued to the summit at their current pace would not make it back down (or even up for some of them) until well after nightfall. We hoped that they would have the sense (or be too tired) and turn back before it got too late.
The views as we went down lost their earlier haze and became quite clear, with excellent views across Glen Nevis to the Ring of Steal, which is a horseshoe of mountains involving a multitude of ticks that we are contemplating for our next excursion.
We collapsed back into George soon after 6pm, and found ourselves a free overnight spot on the other side of Ben Nevis. I was pleased to see that in the evening light, Carn Mor Dearg really is a red colour, although so were most of the other hills nearby including Ben Nevis so maybe they should all be called the Red Hill.
We could hear a helicopter flying over towards Ben Nevis, and hoped that it wasn't going out to rescue some of the late ascenders we'd seen earlier.
All in all, we enjoyed our trek up Ben Nevis even though the effort to reward ratio was not favourable until we reached the summit and took in the views. We're glad we've done it though as it was becoming a bit of a bone of contention for us after our previous failure. There's no way I'd want to go up if I didn't think I'd have a view from the top though. Overall, I think it was easier than the Yorkshire Three Peaks. My feet and legs are certainly hurting much less, hardly at all in fact so long as I don't stand up. But it is not for the half hearted. The ascent is relentless and you get no respite until the summit as there are no easy sections or flat bits. But if you're into mountains then it's one that has to be done.
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