A few years ago now I asked my neighbour Susan if she would like to climb Ben Nevis with me, this would have been on the Thursday and we would go on the Saturday. Susan did a lot of walking but not much up hills, anyway she agreed to come to Ben Nevis with me even when she knew we would be leaving at 5am . I had climbed Ben Nevis in 2004 and found it a slog, especially on the way down, very sore on the knees. My intention was to climb Ben Nevis and then across the Carn Mor Dearg arête to Car Mor Dearg as I had not yet climbed it at this point in time.
We set off at 5 am as planned as it's about 125 miles to the car park at Ben Nevis-free to park then but not now, and takes about 3-4 hours to get there. We had left Alford and gone over the Lecht to Aviemore and as we went over the bridge just before the Grantown on Spey bypass there was a loud bang from the passenger rear side. There was a big hole in the road where the expansion joint in the bridge was, at the time it didn't seem to have affected the car. Anyway carried on towards Aviemore and the A9, we by- passed Aviemore on the A9 heading south to Kingussie and the turn off for Fort William Fort William Ben Nevis car park around 8.30am and got a parking space no bother as not many people here yet. First stop the facility . I returned first to find the rear passenger tyre flat as a pancake ((word) not that one). After using some colourful language I got the spare out of the boot. Susan returned from the facility, "Oh you've got a puncture". "Yes and I am changing it now not when we come back from the hill". said I. Got that sorted and Susan and I kitted up to go. Now this was 2007 and I was still getting the weather from the BBC and they had said light winds for the Fort William Ben Nevis . We pondered whether to go up or not. "Well were here might as well suck it and see". Still wondering where to get these darn weather reports, crossed the bridge to the path up Ben Nevis . The car park is at 25m above sea level with Ben Nevis 1344m and it's all up - a big climb.
The path follows the river south for a short while through the trees and then turns east towards Meall an t- Suidhe, about 240m up this track there is a style you have to climb over and on your left is a pub. Many a weary walker ended up here I am sure The Ben Nevis Inn I think. Here is where the big up begins, by this time the tourist path as it's called up Ben Nevis was getting busier. "Can be a bit like a town centre pavement on a Saturday". I had suggested to Susan that she take 2 ltr of water with her as there's not a lot when you get further up. As we climbed up the rocky path I could see Susan struggling with the extra weight in her rucksack, I had loaned her a set of walking poles to help here. We had a few breaks to let Susan take five and get her breath back.
I took Susan's 2ltr bottle of water and put it into my rucksack 2kg more to carry and I noticed it. That made a big difference for Susan as I think the bottle had been moving around in her rucksack and shifting the weight from side to side. She has since bought a much better rucksack. We made better progress after that, roughly going with the flow of people now climbing up the tourist path.
Susan turning on one of the many changes in direction as the path climbs to Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe. You will see by the photo how rocky the path is. We had been sheltered from the wind climbing up the west side till we reached 563m where the path flattens out beside Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe, but it's not that flat still uphill. About here we ended up walking along side a bunch of loud mouths slagging off the Scottish government - they were not from Scotland Nevis was in the cloud and decided to take the other path round by the loch and head for Carn Mor Dearg. Not many going this way, so it was nice and peaceful, apart from the wind noise and the loud mouths headed up the tourist route.
Susan at Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe wind blowing from the left quite hard now.
The path more or less follows the 600m contour round the north side of Ben Nevis into Corie Leis, it's about 2km round to the corie from Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe and the path goes along the north east face of Nevis . This is the most interesting side of Nevis , steep crags tower above you disappearing into the mist most days. There are climbing routes up through Tower ridge and Zero Gully. Climbers go this way. I don't fancy it much, might be interesting though.
If you want to scare the pants off yourself watch this video.
http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=59513
By west coast mountain guides. A winter climb of Tower Ridge. Scare factor 10ish .
The north east face of Ben Nevis from Corie Leis.
You follow the burn which you have to cross further up the corie, (yes the dreaded river crossing coming up), to the Mountain rescue building and one of the biggest collection of Calor gas bottles I have seen. A bit like a rash of red on the hill side.
There were a few people climbing up in front of us and we all seemed to meet up around the mountain rescue post.
We passed the post and looked for a place to cross the river, the group we had ended up with crossed and we decided to cross in the same place as there were plenty of rocks. The little river is fast flowing and I managed to stay out of it - I know not like me!
Me with dry feet for a change with the river where we crossed behind me. Guess which direction you have to go from here? You're right - straight up a steep climb to the top. Where we crossed is around the 750m and the top is 1220m. A 470m climb in around 800m distance and its grassy till you get further up where you get onto the red rocks. ( dearg is red in Gaelic)
Susan making here way up the steep bit, don't think she liked this bit much. I found it not to bad. Near the top we met up with a bloke and a girl from Dundee university. Now the wind had really picked up by this time hitting 60mph ish so you were having to lean into it. The girl was only about 5 foot tall and had been blown over 3 times by this point and wasn't a happy bunny. The bloke wasn't much bothered and was going for the arête over to the big ben which by the way was still in the cloud where as CMD was clear. The three of them huddled together to stop being blown over and the bold me headed the 20 foot or so to the cairn.
The three of them bracing against the wind.
I scrambled up to the cairn which has steep drops on the east side and sat down for the obligatory photo.
Me at the top keeping low in the wind.
That's as far as Susan wanted to go in the strong winds.
Now the options to get back to the car were to go across the arête which is narrow and up to the top of Ben Nevis or back the way we came. After a chat with two blokes that had just come across the arête Susan did not want to go across it in the strong wind and she was not at all keen on going back down the same way we came up due to the steepness. There is a path heading north and down so we took it and made our way down to Carn beag Dearg at 1010m. We had great view over to Loch Eil and Corpac during the day but the mist never lifted off Nevis sitting just above Carn Mor Dearg. There would have been no views up there and the wind would have been very powerful.
We headed west back down into Corie Leis which was still steepish and I went on ahead a bit down the path. I had to wait for Susan and when she came into sight one of the walking poles was bent, she had had a fall. She showed me the pole, I think feeling a bit guilty at bending the pole and asked "What to do about this"? "No problem". I said and took the bent pole and straightened it over my knee. All those years plumbing and bending copper came in handy.
Now after this Susan seemed to be nervous of falling and took it very canny down to the river.
Susan with bent pole descending.
We got down to the river and stopped for something to eat. Where we had come down the river was too wide and fast to cross so we headed back up Corie Leis a good bit to find a place to cross. Found a not too bad place where we had to cross a burn coming down off CMD and then the river, I crossed first staying dry again and held out my pole for Susan to hold onto as she made her way across to where I was. A wee bit nervous going across here, we got across and back onto the path round to Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe
It was getting on a bit now around 6.30 pm and we had a fair way to get back to the car, and yes I had taken a torch this time. I informed Susan we should try and hurry up a bit to get to the car before dark. After a while we came on the tourist path down from Nevis summit and joined onto it at Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe. Not many people about now. Susan did not like the rocky path down from here and was taking it carefully as she made her way down, quite tired by this time. As we walked down a fell runner came belting up past us at a good rate with a comment from Susan something like B****y H**l as she carefully picked her way down the stones and the guy leapt from stone to stone as if it were a flat path. I went ahead trying to encourage Susan to speed up a bit but I think her brain had decided fast means fall and was not having it. Slow progress down the tourist path with the fell runner passing us on the way down just as fast if not faster than when he was on the way up. On one of the bends there is a seat so we stopped there for a last fly cup and a rest for 5 minutes. Getting late now and I informed Susan we really don't want to be going down this path in the dark. We reached the style about 9.30pm and it was hard work getting up the steps and down the other side. Followed the path back to the bridge and reached the car around 10pm just as it was getting dark. "Phew". The facilities are open all the time but the lights come on when you enter and are on a timer so don't sit too long or you will be singing in the dark.
Kit changed we set off on the long drive home to Alford around 10.30pm . 125 miles to go. I was a wee bit tired by this time but drove on, Susan yapping to me to make sure I was still awake. About 5 miles before we got to Newtonmore we came round a bend to see 2 young blokes, one standing up straight and the other oddly in a crouching position with his trousers and pants down round his ankles. Bare backside in our faces as we drove past thinking what the **** was that about? Not what you expect to see in the middle of the highlands at 11.59 pm'ish on a Saturday night. Or maybe it was normal for round there? After all that hilarity we drove on chuckling to ourselves for a while. Now when we got near to Grantown I was pretty tired so I decided to pull into a layby on the bypass. I got out in the dark to get some fresh air and have a wee walk about, next thing there were people running across the bypass shouting at each other - eventful night. Don't think it was a full moon but should have been, I went straight back to the car and drove off. Susan yapped to me all the way home to keep me awake, got home about 1.30am and dropped Susan off at her house and got home shattered.
Slept well that night for some reason can't think why!
No comments:
Post a Comment