Trip report: Scottish highlands
Friday Seemingly a rare thing, but I don’t have to be on a customer site this week. So I am working from home. In these situations I tend to start work at 05:00, effectively working middle-eastern ...
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Sunday
The alarm went off at 05:00 after a night of high winds and rain.
A quick breakfast and we were at the bottom of the trail to Ben Nevis.
There were two places we could start – either turn left out of the campground and walk half a mile to the visitor center to join the gently sloping start of the official trail, or turn right and walk half a mile to the youth hostel and take a track that heads straight up intersecting the above mentioned official trail. Stupidly we chose the latter which was a very steep climb right away when your muscles are still cold.
Once on the official trail Sally, who is usually very fit and does a lot of hill-walking, started having difficulties. Probably a combination of the abrupt start of the climb without a warm-up, having made a donation at the blood bank a couple of days ago and having changed her meds at the same time. This meant a lot of stopping and resting on the upwards journey. I took Sally’s pack off her for the 2nd half of the climb and that helped.
The weather didn’t help though. After 1 hour we were in the low clouds with no view and getting pretty wet. As we climbed it got windier, wetter and colder. The summit was not a pretty sight.
The summit contained a geological marker, the remains of a collapsed building and a stone shelter with a steel door – an emergency shelter.
A young woman ahead of us climbed up to the shelter and opened the door for a look. She cried Eurgggghhhhh and backed off quickly.
I didn’t ask her, but I suspect someone had used it as a toilet. I can’t imagine any experienced hiker despoiling an emergency shelter by using it as a latrine, but when the weather is good (it happens some time) tourists are tempted to make the journey up and they probably wouldn’t be aware of the life-saving nature of the building in the winter.
We didn’t stay long on the summit, returning quickly to get out of the rain. Returning down the trail was horrible since it had been ‘improved’ with the use of rectangular stone blocks which formed overly tall and slippery steps punishing the knees.
The worst part was again that final section down to the youth hostel (we didn’t learn from our earlier mistake). The steps were very steep, very wet and sloped downwards. We slipped several times. What an irony if you nearly completed the entire hike, only to be injured during the last half mile.
It was not lunchtime, so we treated ourselves to a hot meal at the café below the mountain. Everyone else there was dressed for a normal lunch, while we were soaking wet, carrying back packs and looking a real mess.
Thankfully the campground had a DIY laundry with large drying machine. It also had irons and ironing boards – I guess in case you wanted a nice crease pressed into your walking trousers. We also made good use of the campground’s hot showers that afternoon.
Stay tuned for more…
The alarm went off at 05:00 after a night of high winds and rain.
A quick breakfast and we were at the bottom of the trail to Ben Nevis.
There were two places we could start – either turn left out of the campground and walk half a mile to the visitor center to join the gently sloping start of the official trail, or turn right and walk half a mile to the youth hostel and take a track that heads straight up intersecting the above mentioned official trail. Stupidly we chose the latter which was a very steep climb right away when your muscles are still cold.
Once on the official trail Sally, who is usually very fit and does a lot of hill-walking, started having difficulties. Probably a combination of the abrupt start of the climb without a warm-up, having made a donation at the blood bank a couple of days ago and having changed her meds at the same time. This meant a lot of stopping and resting on the upwards journey. I took Sally’s pack off her for the 2nd half of the climb and that helped.
The weather didn’t help though. After 1 hour we were in the low clouds with no view and getting pretty wet. As we climbed it got windier, wetter and colder. The summit was not a pretty sight.
The summit contained a geological marker, the remains of a collapsed building and a stone shelter with a steel door – an emergency shelter.
A young woman ahead of us climbed up to the shelter and opened the door for a look. She cried Eurgggghhhhh and backed off quickly.
I didn’t ask her, but I suspect someone had used it as a toilet. I can’t imagine any experienced hiker despoiling an emergency shelter by using it as a latrine, but when the weather is good (it happens some time) tourists are tempted to make the journey up and they probably wouldn’t be aware of the life-saving nature of the building in the winter.
We didn’t stay long on the summit, returning quickly to get out of the rain. Returning down the trail was horrible since it had been ‘improved’ with the use of rectangular stone blocks which formed overly tall and slippery steps punishing the knees.
The worst part was again that final section down to the youth hostel (we didn’t learn from our earlier mistake). The steps were very steep, very wet and sloped downwards. We slipped several times. What an irony if you nearly completed the entire hike, only to be injured during the last half mile.
It was not lunchtime, so we treated ourselves to a hot meal at the café below the mountain. Everyone else there was dressed for a normal lunch, while we were soaking wet, carrying back packs and looking a real mess.
Thankfully the campground had a DIY laundry with large drying machine. It also had irons and ironing boards – I guess in case you wanted a nice crease pressed into your walking trousers. We also made good use of the campground’s hot showers that afternoon.
Stay tuned for more…
