Jen Does Ben Nevis!

We had a quiet afternoon lined up on Thursday so I decided it was about time I took myself up the ultimate Scottish mountain, Ben Nevis. The weather wasn't looking too good up high but the cloud was forecast to lift later on so once all the jobs were finished in the hostel I headed off in the van towards Fort William.

I parked and had a quick look at the noticeboards, which informed me it would take me around 4 hours to reach the summit. With a very obvious tourist path, route finding was clearly not going to be a problem! I set off, and found the going was fairly easy early on, but after about half an hour I was really starting to tire. Luckily there were also plenty of other people on the path slower than me and I didn't feel too pathetic!

After another hour I relaxed as I hit the steep slate slopes that I hoped meant I was nearing the summit. The cloud still hadn't lifted, and as I headed upwards I soon found most of the views had disappeared and visibility had reduced significantly. Thankfully the cloud soon started lifting momentarily giving me glimpses of the path ahead. As I reached a steep corner with a cairn marking the way, I decided I must be close to the summit now. I turned the corner and saw the path disappearing off into the distance and my heart sank a little. There was a snowfield ahead covering the path, and I panicked a little as I wondered whether my running shoes would cope. In fact when I reached the snow it was crunchy and full of deep footprints for me to step in, so I breathed a sigh of relief and continued the upward slog to the summit. As I reached a snow covered plateau I looked to my left to see huge snow cornices overhanging steep cliffs which dropped away ominously into thick mist. Making sure I avoided them carefully I followed the edge of the snow and saw the remains of the famous summit meteorological observatory buildings ahead of me - I'd arrived!

After a five minute break on the summit to eat some food and pull on extra layers, I was heading back along the path and sliding my way down the snow. Now that I had gravity on my side I started to run back down the rocky path, making up for my slow plodding on the way up and earning me a few encouraging comments to help me on my way. Now that the hard uphill was done with, I relaxed and enjoyed the run down. The sun soon began shining and by the time I reached the bottom I was beginning to worry about sunburn! I think I made it just in time, 3 hours 20 minutes after I'd set off - a fairly pleasing result for me, especially given my slow uphill slog. In a few weeks perhaps I'll try again and see if I can shave a few minutes off!

Jen x