Day 59 – “Ben Nevis Day” (9.3 miles – side trip)

Ben Nevis Day (1,344m)

Today the weather was perfect for my expedition up Britain’s highest mountain. Everything was set, I could not pass up this opportunity, so I went for it!!

I set off at 9:30 leaving my tent, spare clothes and toilet bag behind. The initial climb from the youth hostel to meet the ‘tourist path’ was pretty steep, the sunshine quite hot, so by the time I reached the more gradual path, sweat was pouring from me.

I don’t mean to make Britain’s highest mountain sound too easy but from here it was really easy. Just time and a little bit of effort got me to 1,000m then the fun, I hadn’t expected at the bottom, started. The snow…

I couldn’t stop laughing to myself it was that ridiculous. In places the snow was 3ft deep. It was 1 step forward, slide back half a step. If I’d had walking poles this was the time to use them. There was a final really steep section through the snow before I reached the summit plateau & the trig point. It was 12:00 noon, it had taken 2.5 hrs to reach the top. (4.4 miles) Woohoo.

I stopped for only about 10 mins, it was pretty cold in the breeze. So having taken a few photo I began my descent. The bit through the snow was quite fun, it was a combination of running and sliding/slipping then worrying about the potential of injury then walking and still slipping. My feet were getting pretty cold as my boots had filled with snow by now.

I reached the snow line and started to pass some of the people I’d overtaken on the way up. Further down I felt certain people weren’t as prepared as perhaps they should have been. (Maybe they can’t read?, I’d been a little worried)

The descent is pretty tricky, by the time I reached the pub it had taken me as long to get down as it had to get up, Twas 2:40…

I’ll have a proper rest day tomorrow