Ben Nevis

 During our daily weather check we noticed that there was going to be a break in the rainy weather. We decided to make a run for Fort William which is at the end of a long loch, the beginning of the Caledonian Canal, and at the base of Ben Nevis, Great Britain’s highest peak. “The Ben” is famous for its winter climbing and has always been of great interest to Nico. We tied up at the handy town pontoon and scouted the best route for the climb. There is the main route that most people take but we were advised to go to the north face trailhead, hike the long easy trail to the winter climber’s cabin, the take a route around the shoulder of the mountain to meet up with the main trail to the summit. The next day we took a taxi to the trailhead and hiked in, seeing only three other people on the hike. It was perfect! Pictures do not do the sheer verticality of the north side any justice! 

I’m writing this in a pub on my phone and it is a challenge. I uploaded the photos in reverse order. 

We then hiked around the shoulder over to the south side of the mountain.

We then joined the main trail that zig zags up the more gentle south side. We encountered hundreds of people taking advantage of the sunny, calm day - and this is not an easy climb!

There was about 6  - 7 inches of snow on the summit and it was COLD! We had lunch and hustled down.

It was a nine hour hike down to the base and then we had another 2 km to walk to the boat. According to my phone I hiked over 46,000 steps! The amazing thing is that we could go from our boat to the summit! We were so lucky to get a clear day at the summit. It felt like a great accomplishment - although Nico would love to give it a try in the winter.