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Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Ben Nevis

This weekend the weather forecast was good, and my other having been driven half demented by not having been to the hills for a while, we went to Ben Nevis.

We ascended the Ben by Number 5 Gully to Carn Dearg. My legs were not quite ready for 450m of front pointing, and I was quite aware of it being a very long way down to be balancing on nine little metal points.



Having topped out with daylight to spare we went to the summit to enjoy the view and a cup of tea.



We then descended into the setting sun via the tourist path.



We cooked dinner in the van at the Visitor Centre car park and made free with the facilites (which are quite well heated). My apologies to the gentlemen who wished to use the toilets while we were washing up. One at least had the sense to go in a cubicle.

We headed to Ballachulish on Saturday night and parked the van at the carpark for Sgorr Dhonuill, Sgorr Dhearg and Glen a Chaolais. We followed the signs and did Sgorr Dhonuill first, but in hindsight it might better to go the other way round in winter and ascend the frozen, scrambly scree bits. The views to Ben Nevis and Glen Coe were fabulous.