17th February 2014 - An attempt on Ben Nevis

Today i was out working on the Ben track taking a group of three from Hull to make an attempt on the summit. I was joined by Paul who is in his third year at West Highland college studying adventure tourism management, and he was taking the opportunity to shadow me in winter ML terrain. We met Matt, Michelle and Craig at 8, and after a thorough kit check we headed in convoy to Achintee to begin our ascent.

The guys were great craic from the word go and we were soon enjoying the ascent with lots of banter and some interesting facts thrown in! We hit the snow just below windy corner, where we were also met by the wind. Cracking on, we made steady progress past the half way lochan, but began to slow down as we approached the red burn. As the guys had no experience in winter conditions, i opted to don crampons to try and give them a bit of added support on the coming challenging terrain.

We watched a pair attempt and fail to master the step, but went in for a shot anyway. I decided to go up first, making nice big steps for the team, and i dropped a sling down for a bit of added support. They all made it up with no problems, but as we started to zig zag our way up, using the red burn as a hand rail, it became apparent that the physical exertion was going to be too much for the team, and just shy of corner two we opted to go back down.

We quickly negotiated the tricky step, and battered on down to the half way lochan for a lunch stop. After this, we opted to ascend Meall an-t to try and get some views, but in the end only Matt and i made it, leaving the others in Pauls capable hands half way up. With a few photos taken, we rejoined the others and made our merry way back to the car.

Although we did not make the summit, we had a brilliant day, with very enjoyable company, challenging conditions and plenty of learning points. We made the right decisions and the team will definitely need to come back up and conquer the Ben next year!!  Well done team, and a massive thank you to Paul for all his efforts and encouragement - it was a cracking day!

Today i was working for abacus mountain guides.