Four by Four (Ben Nevis) - Photo Gallery

I had been looking forward to a Ben Nevis weekend for a long time, it had been in the Linlithgow Ramblers diary all year but suddenly got cancelled because it clashed with the Ben Nevis fell race. John and Maria came to the rescue though with a more challenging alternative to the tourist path to the Ben. Accommodation in the area was a bit of a problem so we had to stay at Crianlarich Youth Hostel where the midges were biting well on Friday evening. Driving through Glen Coe was a bonus on a sunny Saturday morning, Buchaille Etive Mor looked its most inspiring.

Even with an early start from the hostel it was still 9 o'clock by the time we got to the last car park on the road up Glen Nevis. There was an urgent need to get moving, the calm warm conditions meant that the midges were waiting for warm blooded creatures to stand still long enough for breakfast. The walk up the glen from there is inspiring, below the path is a precipitous drop to the rugged valley bed of the Water of Nevis, a steep sided canyon where the strangely smoothed rocks show just how much water crashes downhill sometimes.

Then suddenly a hanging valley opens out into a broad strath with swampy ground either side of the stream. This dry day was still very wet underfoot until after crossing a footbridge over Allt Coire Giubhachan we got to the obvious ruin of Steall. This was the end of level ground for the day, for now it was up the steep green slopes with rough grass at least giving non-slip footholds. After the initial steepness it got steeper and then further up it got steeper still until the final climb to the ridge was a true forty five degree slope. Finally you get to something like flatter ground but it is a short respite, sweeping curved rock strata point the way up to Sgurr a' Bhuic.

Ben Nevis has showed itself before but from now onwards it dominates the skyline, it looks far bigger than anything else. Sgurr a' Bhuic has a fine rocky ridge leading to an impressive mountain top, it has taken a lot of effort to get to 963 metres and it isn't even a Munro, it would be a fine mountain in different company. It is an interesting rocky descent to the col from which you first you clamber over and through large boulders before you get to a slog up a broad green ridge, or rather the edge of a broad green ridge, it's a long way down on the right hand side.

The summit of another top, at over 1000 metres Stob Coire Bhealaich doesn't get a Munro classification, and then more of a slog to the broad top of Aonach Beag. Doesn't your camera always choose to run out of battery at the most inconvenient time? Ben Nevis and Carn More Dearg now provide a spectacular mountain view and even though you are at over 4000 feet you still feel overlooked. I had been in tee shirt and shorts all morning feeling warm on the climb but the increasingly cool breeze made me put on a windproof jacket and gloves.

There is a steepish but not difficult descent to a col before another walk up a reasonable slope but I was suffering a lack of energy and it felt a long way to the broad flat summit of Aonach Mor. Walking back to the col the next climb looked long and hard for legs that were already aching. Before you begin to climb Carn Mor Dearg you have to lose a whole lot of height, the descent would seem to be impossibly steep but there is a path and it isn't as bad as many eroded descents. You get down to a high watershed at the head of north and south draining streams where a short and apparently pointless wall provides shelter for walkers from the cool breeze.

The way is up over boulders onto a ridge that narrows as it gains height, you can see one of the northern ridges of Carn Mor Dearg, spectacular shapes and very red. My lack of energy made this hard work, the bouldery ridge is my favourite kind of climbing but I found it very strenuous and Ben Nevis looks a big climb from here. Eventually I got to the summit and it's a wonderful place and the sun was quite warm too, Ben Nevis still looks big.

Then the Carn Mor Dearg arete, it is not as narrow or exposed as I expected but it is good fun to clamber over boulders, just don't look down either side it is a very long way down. The ridge is broader and more bouldery than I expect an arete to be, in dry conditions it is as safe as you can be with at least a 200 metre drop on either side. It is quite a long ridge and unlike most ridges there are no pinnacles although there is a sloping slab making a rock bridge that might be interesting in wet weather. Then there is another big climb, steep boulders like a full sized Scafell Pike but steeper, higher and harder. I couldn't not climb Ben Nevis having got so close, I had to dig deep and force my legs up and over the large rocks until reaching the suddenly wide, flat summit plateau.

The summit of Ben Nevis is quite a surprise really but not really, with all those stones around it would be perfectly natural to build an observatory out of them and then let it fall into ruin. The puzzling bit is why people think it is alright to stuff rubbish and worse into every nook and cranny and why those responsible for tourism in the area don't feel it necessary to attempt to clean it up. It was 6:15pm and it was a lovely warm evening when we started the descent back to Glen Nevis.

The previous evening's route planning meeting talked about using two cars and making a safe descent down the tourist path or being clever and taking a little used but documented route directly back to Glen Nevis. It seemed a good idea at the time but with two hours of daylight left it had better be a quick descent. We set off southwards down the boulders, it was steep and strenuous and some of the boulders were large enough that you wouldn't want them to wobble but they were wobbling. It took almost an hour to get past the boulders and amazingly we found the path that we had read about heading east, steeply heading down grassy ridge.

It was going fine until the path disappeared in a swampy area and the ground fell away steeply, this was not good with no obvious path, a long way still to get down and beginning to get dark. We zigzagged around the sloping slabs of lichen and algae covered rock until there was no way round and then we had to get down them on all fives, fortunately they were mainly dry. Then we got to plain grassy slopes, do we follow the stream steeply downhill or traverse downwards across the contours looking for a path to make an easier and hopefully safer descent.

It was not easy over steep rough ground and then it got dark, we found a path going in the right direction but it just meant it was muddier than the surrounding area. I put a foot in every muddy hole and struggled across streams and crashed through bracken disturbing the midges who took appropriate revenge. It was with a good deal of relief that we got back to the car park twelve hours after setting off, we stopped off for food at Fort William and got back to the hostel at 11:30pm.

Next time we'll take two cars but I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Andy Wallace 3rd September 2005