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Scafell Pike

England’s tallest mountain

If you are considering a walk up Scafell Pike, this is the best place to start.

Towering at 3209 feet high, the summit of Scafell Pike in the heart of the Lake District is England’s tallest mountain, making it a magnet for climbers and sightseers alike.

Scafell Pike has something for everyone

To the intrepid walker, the challenge of climbing England’s highest peak creates an irresistible lure, drawing people from all walks of life and all corners of the globe.

For the more recreational rambler and sightseer, the mountain provides a spectacular backdrop to leisurely walks or picnics around the valleys of Wasdale and Borrowdale. Even for those who prefer not to stray from the car, it is still possible to get close enough to feel the mighty presence of Scafell Pike and the many surrounding Lake District mountains.

For those who undertake the climb and reach the summit, the sense of achievement is well deserved, and the effort is rewarded with magnificent views encompassing all four nations of The British Isles.

For those seeking a less challenging experience, including families, couples, and even the solo traveller, there is a great variety of things to see and do around Scafell Pike. From quiet romantic walks, family picnics beside meandering rivers, natural attractions including cascading waterfalls and imposing rock formations, or quaint traditional market towns to explore at leisure.

The valleys below

The remote and scenic valley of Wasdale lies immediately to the west of Scafell Pike, and many people start the climb from here. At the heart of the Wasdale Valley lies Wast Water, England’s deepest lake at 258 feet deep. See Scafell Pike from Wasdale Head.

To the north of Scafell Pike, the Borrowdale Valley runs from the market town of Keswick along the shores of Derwentwater, one of the prettiest of all the lakes, toward the small farming community of Seathwaite, another popular start point for ascending Scafell Pike (see: Scafell Pike from Borrowdale) but also with much easier low level walks along the valley.

Year-round destination

Each season brings its own distinct feel to Scafell Pike. In summer, the area bustles with holidaymakers engaging in all manner of activities on the mountains and lakes, while others take in the scenery at a more leisurely pace. Spring and autumn are quieter, and the autumn colours can be especially fine indeed. In winter, crisp clear days can be breathtakingly beautiful, but a word of warning – this is not a time of year to be climbing Scafell Pike unless you are fully trained in the specialist skills of winter mountaineering.

Enjoy it however you choose

The popularity of Scafell Pike is reflected in the great variety of holiday accommodation on offer nearby, from campsites to guesthouses, forest lodges to luxury hotels and spa resorts; so whatever your preference and budget, it’s easy to organise a visit to Scafell Pike.

And with so much to see and do in the local area, it’s sure to be a destination which will appeal to everyone.

What is the highest mountain peak in britain

Although England is the poor relation in respect of the highest mountains on the British Mainland there are still over 200 which reach over 2,000 feet (610 metres) in height. Most of them, including the 10 highest are located in the north western corner of the country within the Lake District National Park. Over 95% of them are in the north with the majority confined to the Lakes, North Pennines and Yorkshire Dales. Six more are on the border with Scotland in the Cheviot Hills and another six within the Howgill Fells. The North Midlands have just three within the Peak District National Park and the South West can claim just two, High Willhays and Yes Tor, both on Dartmoor. The following table lists every English Mountain over 2,000 feet in height in order from highest to lowest. Locations and Grid References are included. Links lead to information or walks featuring the relevant mountain.

Footnote:

Feedback and Suggestions:

I am always pleased to received feedback on the structure and content of the website. I also welcome suggestions on how I can improve the website which may include new areas to cover, new walks or route alterations to existing walks. To contact me with feedback and/ or suggestions please complete the Walking Englishman Feedback Form. Thank you.

(Note: Walking without proper preparation can be dangerous. Information and downloads on this website are provided free of charge; it is each walker’s responsibility to check the material and use accordingly. Postscript: My walk reports are not route guides and should not be treated as such. They are written with personal reflections of my walks)

A walk up Ben Nevis, the highest peak in Scotland

Ben Nevis

Ben Nevis is the highest peak in Scotland, located at the western end of the Grampian Mountains in the Lochaber area of Scotland, close to the town of Fort William. It’s not just the highest peak in Scotland, it’s also the highest peak in Britain and the highest peak in the U.K. Three in one! Its summit is at 1344 meters and you start the ascent at or very near sea level. It’s a full day’s trek to the summit and back, or at least it is for me. From Achintee House, outside Fort William and at just 45 meters elevation, I took just over 4 hours to get to the summit and then 2.5 hours to get back down again.

As Ed Viesturs has said, «Getting to the summit is optional. Getting back down is mandatory.»

Beware — when the Scots talk about «hill-walking», they refer to an activity that might be rather more vigorous than you expect. This isn’t an easy stroll. Many people would call it mountain trekking. But it is a walk and not a climb.

Ben Nevis is the anglicized form of the Scots Gaelic name Beinn Nibheis. Ben Nevis is joined to Carn Mòr Dearg by the Carn Mòr Dearg Arête. Both Ben Nevis and Carn Mòr Dearg are among the eight summits in Britain over 4000 feet (1219m). There are two subsidiary «tops» on Ben Nevis, both of them very confusingly named Carn Dearg (Red Hill). The higher at 1221 meters is north-west of the summit, and obscures the actual summit from many locations. The lower peak at 1020 is to the south-west of the summit.

Meall an t-Suidhe, at 711 meters, lies to the north of Ben Nevis and is joined to it by a saddle containing Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe.

These clustered peaks are the collapsed dome of an ancient volcano from Scotland’s volcanic remote past, shaped by glaciation. The volcano was formed in the Devonian era, and came to a violent end in the Carboniferous period around 350 million years ago. Near the summit you find light color granite which had formed several kilometers below the surface side-by-side with the dark basaltic lava that only forms on the surface. This shows that the volcano collapsed in an explosion like that of Thera in the 2nd millennium BC or Krakatoa in 1883. The remaining peaks were then heavily reshaped by glaciation.

Location of Ben Nevis, in Scotland.

The first recorded ascent of Ben Nevis was in 1771. It was only in 1847 that the Ordnance Survey confirmed that Ben Nevis was the highest mountain in Britain and Ireland. Now some 100,000 people make the ascent each year.

The UK uses a unique National Grid Reference System, and you need to understand how it works to benefit from the Ordnance Survey maps. See my page for an explanation if needed.

The first picture here shows Ben Nevis at the right, in shadow. To its left is Meall an t-Suidhe, in sunlight. This picture was taken in early April. The snow line was at about 300 meters, so the upper kilometer of elevation was in snow then. The snow was about a meter deep at the summit. Enough people do the walk that there’s a distinct path tramped down, but there would still be plenty of wading through snow.

The western and southern flanks of Ben Nevis, seen here, rise 1,200 meters from Glen Coe in about two kilometers, making for the longest and steepest hill slope in Britain. The north face, behind Meall an t-Suidhe here, has 600-meter cliffs dropping to Coire Leis. The entire south side of the mountain and the summit platform was all purchased by the John Muir Trust, a Scottish conservation charity.

Meall an t-Suidhe, in sunlight at left, and Ben Nevis beyond it. The snow line is around 300 meters.

Sunlight on the summit of Ben Nevis.

The second picture above is a relatively uncommon view of Ben Nevis out of the clouds. The broad summit platform is actually in sunlight here, it’s the brightly lit area visible over the broad humps. Carn Dearg, to its left, is a lower summit of Ben Nevis and appears to be higher because of perspective in this picture.

As the Scots would jokingly ask, «What are those bright blue areas in the sky? Some unusual type of cloud?»

The weather tends to be challenging. Ben Nevis is up in the northwestern Highlands, along the northwest coast of Scotland. This is where the weather coming off the north Atlantic first hits land.

Daily weather measurements were taken at the summit observatory from 1883-1904, recording fog present on the summit almost 80% of the time between November and January, and 55% of the time in May and June. The summit experiences 261 gales in an average year, and receives 4,350 millimeters of rainfall versus 2,050 mm in Fort William and just 580 mm in «rainy London».

There usually is a large temperature difference between the bottom and the top. Some times the cloud base comes down to about where the snow line is in this picture. Usually the summit is in cloud. Walking through snow in a cloud can be disorienting. And it doesn’t make for very good pictures.

It will rain until you reach the elevation where the rain turns first to sleet and then to snow. A lot of wind gets funneled through the glens and then blows very strongly as it is forced over the mountains. This gives you the experience of being sprayed with rain and sleet from below.

So, you should take multiple layers of clothing, including a waterproof outer layer. Wear sturdy boots as almost all of the ascent itself is along a rocky path. You walk on irregularly shaped rocks 20-30 cm in diameter. The climb is hard on ankles and knees.

Take water and food, and adequate navigational gear. GPS is wonderful for displaying your precise coordinates, but you need a good map and you need to know how to use it if those coordinates are to be of any use. See my description of the National Grid system for what that’s about. A plain old compass is crucial, the top is fairly flat and featureless and you will probably be in clouds, so you need to make very certain that you don’t fall off the cliffs along the northeast face.

Start early to allow yourself plenty of time to get back down off the mountain. I’m not in great shape and I took my time. I made plenty of stops just to look at the fantastic views (at least until I entered the cloud base).

The standard time reference point seems to be Achintee House, where the summit path starts angling up along the west flank of Meall an t-Suidhe. That’s at NN 12582 72337, just 45m elevation. I took 4 hours to get from there to the summit, and then 2.5 hours to get back down again. Add in time to get to and from Achintee House from wherever you’re staying.

The Glen Nevis area (1:250,000).

Here is an overview — from Fort William at sea level along Loch Linnhe, east and south into Glen Nevis, up along the flank of Meall an t-Suidhe, turning northeast up Allt na h-Urchaire (Red Burn) onto a saddle overlooking Loch Meall an t-Suidhe, then up a series of switchbacks to the summit at 1344 meters. Ben Nevis looks like a big dome from Glen Nevis to its west and south, but there are very steep slopes and cliffs on its northeast face. The approach to the summit passes close to those.

You definitely want the 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey map. Book stores and other shops in Fort William sell them. Big book stores in Edinburgh have OS maps for all of Scotland, and even some in London sell OS maps for all of Britain. I used the Explorer 392 map, titled «Ben Nevis & Fort William; The Mamores & The Grey Corries; Kinlochleven & Spean Bridge.»

I took the map but also carried a small sketch I had made showing the elevations and, more critically, the grid coordinates of the various path intersections and turns. I also had notes about various time estimates for remaining ascent and ascent and return from various points. This let me keep track of where I was on the switchbacks making up the final third of the path. You will probably be in the clouds at that point. It was handy to have a quick reference without trying to read a large map in the wind.

Part One — Fort William to Allt na h-Urchaire (Red Burn)

You walk out of Fort William to the east, crossing the Nevis Bridge and immediately turning right to follow the path along the northeast bank of the River Nevis. The path leaves the river and the road and passes through some sheep farms.

Alternatively, you could follow the Glen Nevis road and cross the river on one of the footbridges before you pass Achintee House.

Fort William and northern Glen Nevis (1:25,000).

Achintee House to Allt na h-Urchaire (Red Burn).

Achintee House is reachable by footpath and footbridge from the main road into Glen Nevis, but the footpath you follow is east of the river, sharing the small access lane. Achintee House is at NN 12582 72337, 45m elevation.

South of Achintee House the path angles to the southeast and slowly ascends along the west flank of Meall an t-Suidhe.

The path is joined by a staircase-like path leading up from the hostel along the road (shown as a red triangle). That intersection is at NN 13313 72031, 185m.

The pictures above are digital pictures of reasonable quality. These showing the ascent itself are from two years before, right before I bought a digital camera. They’re scans of prints taken with a US$10 35mm camera

Leaving Fort William, just beyond Nevis Bridge.

Starting up the flank of Meall an t-Suidhe.

The path climbs steadily with a few small switchbacks as it goes counter-clockwise around the south end of Meall an t-Suidhe. Allt na h-Urchaire, or Red Burn, is a stream coming down the steep-sided valley out of the saddle between Meall an t-Suidhe and the southern Carn Dearg. The path climbs that valley with a large switchback leading to the saddle.

Above is the view looking south through Glen Nevis from just above Achintee House.

Great views, sunny and warm. That will eventually change.

There are three metal footbridges along the lowest section of the path where it crosses burns or streams coming down off Meall an t-Suidhe. They’re along the main path just above the intersection with the steep hostel path.

The rain has started! Expect varying and inclement weather.

You can see here what I meant about the trail being on irregularly shaped rocks.

Crossing a footbridge in the rain.

Wind-bent trees near Allt na h-Urchaire (Red Burn).

In the pictures above we’re coming around the south end of Meall an t-Suidhe, approaching Allt na h-Urchaire, or Red Burn.

The shape of the trees indicates the frequent wind. The wind is funneled through Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe between Carn Dearg and Ben Nevis to the south and Meall an t-Suidhe to the north.

And then the weather will suddenly change. Rainbows need rain, of course.

This is looking back down into Glen Nevis from the path along Allt na h-Urchaire. I got to here about an hour after passing Achintee House. The elevation is 435m.

A rainbow over Glen Nevis, looking back from Allt na h-Urchaire (Red Burn) on Meall an t-Suidhe.

Part Two — Up through Allt na h-Urchaire (Red Burn) past Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe

This detail shows the rest of the ascent through Allt na h-Urchaire and to the path junction near Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe.

There is a large switchback with its top turnaround at 600m. Then you’re up on the large open saddle between Meall an t-Suidhe and Carn Dearg, a lesser peak of Ben Nevis.

Crossing this saddle for close to a kilometer is the only place above Achintee House that the trail is on turf rather than rock. It’s very dramatic with views across the high loch, of the surrounding mountains, and down into the valleys on either side.

The three-way trail intersection up on the saddle is around NN 1472 7240, 645m. It took me 90 minutes to cover the 3.5 kilometers of trail from Achintee House to that intersection.

Allt na h-Urchaire and Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe.

Part Three — Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe to the summit platform

The Ben Nevis summit trail branches to the south and climbs, and from there it’s another 5 kilometers and 699 meters of elevation gain to the summit. At this point you are just about half-way to the summit in elevation.

Various trekking guides estimate the time required from here as 2 to 3 hours to ascend, and 3 to 5 hours to ascend and return to this point. My times were right in the middle of those estimates, even including frequent breaks to take in the view and a lengthy stop to eat my lunch on the way up.

As another time estimate, it took me four hours from the top of the hostel trail to the summit, and then 2.5 hours back down to there.

The path crosses over two streams coming down off Ben Nevis and then starts going up switchbacks. The switchback turnarounds are at: 780m, 830m, 990, 1000m, 1050m, 1120m, 1150m, 1190m, and 1200m. The rain turned to sleet about 100m above the cloud base, and then turned to wet snow above that.

The path up the Ben Nevis switchbacks.

Coire na h-Urchaire comes down off Carn Dearg.

The top half of the climb is the tougher by far. It’s a constant climb with no view once you’re in the clouds, and the worst of the switchbacks are the ones where you walk into the wind.

Here the path has left the Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe junction and crosses Coire na h-Urchaire, a stream coming down off Carn Dearg.

The rain is back, and Carn Dearg disappears into the cloud base.

And then it clears up and the sun comes out for a while!

View of Loch Meall an t-Suidhe from the lower switchbacks.

Here is the view back down to Loch Meall an t-Suidhe, a lake about 600m long on the saddle between Meall an t-Suidhe and Carn Dearg. This section of the climb had the best views, being about as high as you got before going into the clouds.

If you had continued straight at the three-way intersection, the path leads to a mountain rescue hut under the north cliff faces of Ben Nevis. Then it follows the stream Allt a’Mhuilinn north and back toward the road east of Fort William.

From a little higher you may have a nice view down through Allt na h-Urchaire to the lower part of the path, and beyond into Glen Nevis.

View down through Allt na h-Urchaire to Glen Nevis.

View of Meall an t-Suidhe and Loch Meall an t-Suidhe from higher on the switchbacks.

Here’s a view from even higher, down onto Meall an t-Suidhe and Loch Meall an t-Suidhe.

And, from a switchback turnaround point, a great view down into Glen Nevis. The River Nevis and the road into the glen are visible immediately below.

Fort William is mostly hidden under Cow Hill, the clear-cut area just above the slope of Meall an t-Suidhe and just below Loch Linnhe.

Loch Linnhe runs horizontally to the left, barely visible here, toward the sea. Loch Eil is more visible beyond Loch Linnhe.

View from the Ben Nevis switchbacks of Glen Nevis, Loch Linnhe, and Loch Eil, with Fort William barely visible.

Climbers disappear into the cloud base on the upper switchbacks.

Then at some point you will probably enter the cloud base.

Staying on the path requires some attention, as the upper slopes are pretty bleak and covered with nothing but the red rocks of various jagged sizes.

Part Four — Across the summit platform

At 1200m the trail splits at the ruins of an old weather observation station. A very dedicated researcher in the late 1800s used to climb up daily to take measurements!

The last 500m along the path is mostly flat, skirting the edges of the cliffs. The cliff face runs west to east, the path follows that. At that point you may be in well-trod snow, making a distinct path. If the snow is fresh, be very careful!

The wind blows the snow into large cornices overhanging the cliff face. If you walk toward the edge, you could drop through a cornice and fall out the bottom before you realized you were near the edge.

There are dire warnings in Lonely Planet’s Walking in Britain — «In poor visibility, don’t lose sight of the summit cairn until you’re ready to descend. [. ] To descend you must retrace your steps. If the cloud is down then, from the trig point, walk for 150 meters on a grid bearing of 231 degrees, then follow a grid bearing of 281 degrees. This should take you safely off the plateau and on to the path. Remember to allow for magnetic variation. If you don’t know what that means, you shouldn’t be up here.»

The Ben Nevis summit platform.

As you near the summit you pass the ruins of a maniacal hotel someone built on the summit. They didn’t get much business.

Also a stone war monument, which required the hauling of carved stone marker panels and mortar.

And finally, the survey point at the summit!

NN 1668 7128, 1344m elevation.

Most people making it to that point were wet, cold, and tired, so you get someone to snap a murky picture and you head back down.

At the Ben Nevis summit!

The view from here on the rare clear day is said to be fantastic. Ideally, you can see out beyond 190 kilometers, to Lochnagar, Ben Lomond, Barra Head, and even Knocklayd in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

Still on my to-do list: take the path to the saddle, then continue north and then west instead of turning onto the summit path. The path would lead under the north cliff faces of Ben Nevis and cross the stream Allt a’Mhuilinn.

Then ascend Carn Dearg Meadhonach, and follow the ridgeline from there to Carn Mòr Dearg, and from there along the Carn Mòr Dearg Arête to summit Ben Nevis from the other side.

It would take the right weather to do that, and for it to be worthwhile. I’ve been told that September and maybe early October would be the right time — the snow would be at a minimum and the weather would be as good as it gets.

West Coast Mountain Guides have information on Ben Nevis and other peaks.

Some travel guides like Lonely Planet’s Walking in Britain make a big deal about there being more deaths annually on Ben Nevis than on Mount Everest, at least in some years. Handy tables of deaths on Ben Nevis don’t seem to be out there, but here is one for Everest. Anecdotally, there were 41 rescues and four fatalities on Ben Nevis in 1999, and 13 fatalities between 1990 and 1995 (eight of those due to falls while rock climbing).

It is made more dangerous by the broad summit area being roughly kidney-shaped and surrounded by cliffs on three sides. Careful navigation is required to get down from the summit.

Logistics

There is plenty of accommodation in Fort William. I stayed at the Fort William Backpackers hostel, in the eastern part of Fort William.

Fort William also has plenty of places to get food. Pubs, a variety of restaurants, and the supermarket near the train station is a good place to pick up supplies for day treks.

You can get there on the West Highland Railway out of Glasgow, with a few trains each direction every day. Bus service is more frequent.

Fort William Backpackers can tell you about a minibus route running around Scotland and also stopping at hostels in Edinburgh, Pitlochry, Inverness, Skye, and Oban. You can buy a hop-on, hop-off ticket that takes you around the whole circuit.

There’s a Ben Nevis webcam so you can see how cloudy it is from the comfort of your home. The webcam is run by the Fort William tourist bureau.

Ben Nevis, Britain’s highest mountain, via the CMD Arête

Many of you will have been aware of the negative press about Everest last month, when a photograph of a queue of climbers on the Hillary Step was published on most of the world’s websites (or so it seemed).

Despite having climbed Everest myself on the day that previously held the record for the most number of successful ascents (19 May 2012, when 234 of us reached the top, in case you’re wondering), I didn’t comment on the photograph. For one reason, these stories have been around for a few years. Although the story changes slightly each time, I’ve written a lot about it on this blog and in Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest.

An estimated 160,000 people climbed Ben Nevis last year

But the main reason I didn’t comment at the time was that I was on holiday climbing, among other things, Britain’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis. I didn’t want to spoil my holiday by taking time off to write about something I’ve written about countless times before.

One of the problems with Everest is that it’s the highest in the world, and the highest of anything always gets a disproportionate amount of the attention. The same is true of Ben Nevis. Last year, an estimated 160,000 people climbed it. Many of them did it as part of a charity challenge, combining it with ascents of Scafell Pike and Snowdon, the highest in England and Wales respectively. A high proportion of these people will never climb another mountain again. The job’s done now and it was never really their thing.

Silly things happen on the highest mountain that don’t happen on other peaks. Somebody once crawled up Snowdon pushing a sprout with his nose. Don Whillans once rode a motorbike up Ben Nevis, and somebody even carried a piano up once. As the outdoor writer Cameron McNeish has pointed out, nobody’s ever thought of carrying a piano up Britain’s second highest mountain.

Sprouts and pianos aside, much of this is perfectly natural. Of course you’re more likely to want to climb the highest than the second highest. Edita had already climbed the highest in Wales and highest in England. She made it very clear that it was high time for her to climb the highest in Scotland, crowds or no crowds.

The CMD Arête is an open secret that every regular hill walker knows about

In fact, Ben Nevis has an open secret that every regular hill walker knows about: you can sneak up the backside (so to speak) and have the route to yourself.

The car park at the visitor centre in Glen Nevis is just 15m above sea level, so to reach the summit of Ben Nevis you have to climb almost all of its 1,344m using your legs. An easy path angles gradually up the side of Meall an t-Suidhe, a small outlying peak, which turns into a stone staircase after it turns a corner above the waters of the Red Burn. There is a short pause in the otherwise relentless ascent at 600m as the path reaches the col between Meall an t-Suidhe and Ben Nevis itself. After this it’s just a long series of monotonous zigzags up scree slopes all the way to the summit.

For most of those 160,000 people, therefore, Ben Nevis is an endurance challenge rather than an enjoyable hike, but it doesn’t have to be that way. From the col, it’s possible to turn left and circle round the back of the mountain where a separate Munro, Carn Mor Dearg, rises as a ridge behind Ben Nevis. Carn Mor Dearg is connected to Ben Nevis by a knife edge ridge to rival Crib Goch on Snowdon or Striding Edge on Helvellyn. The ridge is known as the Carn Mor Dearg Arête, or more commonly just the CMD Arête.

For reasons that are obscure, there is no established trail all the way up Carn Mor Dearg like there is from the Glen Nevis side of Ben Nevis. This means that hardly anyone ever goes there. On my one previous ascent of Ben Nevis I went this way and didn’t see a single other hiker till I reached the summit of Ben Nevis, where suddenly I was among the crowds. This is extraordinary on a mountain with 160,000 annual visitors, but you can only shrug your shoulders and take advantage of it.

Ben Nevis, somewhere up there in the cloud, from Glen Nevis campsite

Estimates vary, but some say the summit of Ben Nevis only receives about sixty days of sunshine every year, and is more often shrouded in mist. We therefore decided to base ourselves at the campsite in Glen Nevis for a week, and wait for the most promising day to make our ascent. The day we chose promised more sun in the morning than the afternoon, so we decided to make a super early start, when the birds were just limbering up with a few scales.

It was light by 4am, and as I found myself lying awake in the tent with nothing better to do, I leaned over and put the stove on at 4.45. Outside it was a good day, but there was a halo of clouds over the summit of Ben Nevis that we hoped would burn off with the sun.

We left the campsite at 5.45. There were a few people about, but we appeared to be the only ones heading up the mountain. The main trail rises slowly from the visitor centre car park, but from the Glen Nevis campsite it’s possible to take a shortcut directly up steeper ground opposite the Glen Nevis youth hostel and join the main trail higher up.

The col between Meall an t-Suidhe and Ben Nevis would be a great place for a wild camp

We took this option, and when we reached the main trail, we were surprised to discover that we weren’t the only early risers. A handful of other people were already on the trail. We slowly made our way past them as the trail turned left around the corner into the gully formed by the waters of the Red Burn. The fields and forests of Glen Nevis disappeared behind us as we climbed.

The col between Meall an t-Suidhe and Ben Nevis is a sheltered spot with plenty of soft grass that would be a great place for a wild camp. Its key feature is the tiny lake of Lochan an t-Suidhe which looks north across the Great Glen and mountains beyond. 160,000 visitors or not, in the late afternoon when the crowds have descended you would have the place to yourself, and could wander up Meall an t-Suidhe as the sun sets.

It came as no surprise to discover that we were the only people to turn left here and circle round the mountain. As Loch Lochy appeared in the Great Glen below us – the place where we had cycled a week earlier – a mountain hare appeared on the trail beneath Edita’s feet. It was quick to depart before I had time to reach for my camera.

The Charles Inglis Clarke (CIC) Hut nestles beneath the great north face of Ben Nevis

The north-west side of Ben Nevis is the one many people are familiar with from photos. It’s the one you can see from the main road past Fort William on a clear day, looking up a great corrie (or combe), Coire Leis, formed by the adjoining walls of Carn Mor Dearg and Ben Nevis.

With no established path up Carn Mor Dearg, there are two possible routes from this point. On my previous ascent I climbed the route recommended by Ralph Storer in his classic guidebook 50 Best Routes on Scottish Mountains. This involved dropping down and crossing bogland at the foot of the corrie to join the ridge of Carn Mor Dearg close to its base. From here, I ended up traversing the entire rim of the corrie to reach the summit of Ben Nevis.

The Walkhighlands guidebook The Munros recommended staying higher and continuing to the Charles Inglis Clarke (CIC) Hut in the heart of the corrie, and taking a more or less direct route up the side of Carn Mor Dearg from there. It was a steeper climb, but it had the benefit of taking us under the great north face of Ben Nevis, scene of some of Scotland’s most famous rock and ice climbing routes. I have read much about this place from the likes of W.H. Murray and Hamish MacInnes, so I was keen to take a closer look. I therefore chose this route to introduce Edita to Ben Nevis.

Edita on her way up the steep side of Carn Mor Dearg, with Coire Leis below

As we entered the corrie, clouds still hung over Carn Mor Dearg but the sun was tantalising, trying its best to burn a hole through the veil – had we timed it just right?

We kept high above the Allt a Mhuilinn burn, which flows down from Coire Leis. As we approached the heart of the corrie, the CIC Hut was camouflaged against the rock and dwarfed by the cliffs above it. The north face of Ben Nevis was disappearing into cloud. I had been expecting to see many climbers here, but we were alone, and nor could we see anyone on the face.

It’s easy to see how Ben Nevis has gained its reputation as a climbers’ playground. The north face was intricate, with a limitless profusion of ridges and gullies, all of which made new and interesting ascent routes to explore. I knew all of these features had eclectic names such as The King’s Fortress, Manor House Ridge, 3.1415 Gully and Blind Man’s Buttress.

Or something like that (I may not have recalled the names precisely). Had I been more of a climber, I would have been able to point them out to Edita and explain how the features came by their marvellous names. I would even be able to give the climbing grades of each, but by the time I’d finished she would probably have fallen asleep against a rock or be playing Tetris on her phone. Luckily I was ignorant and able to spare her all that.

The north face of Ben Nevis from the CMD Arête

A more immediate issue was how to find a route up Carn Mor Dearg. From here the only way was directly up the steepest part of the hill. Walkhighlands recommended keeping to the left to reach the ridge close to the top of Carn Dearg Meadhonach, the summit just before Carn Mor Dearg. Viewranger, however, the smartphone app that many outdoor enthusiasts have wet dreams about, marked a clear trail directly to the summit of Carn Mor Dearg.

Since my smartphone had a signal, the Viewranger option was too tempting to ignore. However, the trail was so intermittent that we could rarely be sure we were following it or not, even though my GPS was telling me we were right on it. We were basically just scrambling up a very steep hillside any which way we could. Sometimes we were on wet, grassy banks, sometimes an eroded path; other times we found ourselves boulder hopping. We eventually tried to keep to the grassy banks whenever we could.

It goes without saying that after this experience, I won’t be having any erotic dreams about Viewranger, but there was a moment when I felt like ramming it up somebody’s orifice.

Perhaps had we listened to Walkhighlands we would have found a clear trail, or perhaps their route was no better. It was nice to see the hut and the north face from below, but having done both routes now, I would have to say Ralph Storer’s high level route is more enjoyable.

Edita scrambles along the CMD Arête, with Coire Leis and Fort William below

This absence of a clear trail might help to explain why the CMD Arête is so quiet, but it doesn’t explain why none of the custodians of Ben Nevis have ever built a better path. Perhaps they prefer to keep novice hikers off a knife-edge ridge, but if this is the reason then it’s a shame. The arête itself is actually a little less exposed and easier than Crib Goch on Snowdon.

Anyway, eventually the gradient lessened and we found that we had reached the ridge precisely at the summit of Carn Mor Dearg. The very top was in cloud and the summit cairn was frosted, but beneath us we could see the arête. It was magnificent. It curved to the left as it descended from Carn Mor Dearg, reached a high point, then curved back to the right. Eventually it merged with the eastern slopes of Ben Nevis and rose steeply to the summit. There were isolated streaks of snow on the side, but nothing on the crest.

We put our trekking poles away to scramble downwards. A ceiling of cloud still masked Ben Nevis’s summit, but we remained hopeful it would clear. This seemed likely as the grey veil gradually melted away and more of the landscape was revealed.

High on the CMD Arête

To our left, across a narrow hanging valley, Aonach Mor and Aonach Beag appeared dauntingly crusted with snow. Ahead of us, the Mamores looked more inviting, especially the four Munros of the Ring of Steall that we were considering for the following day. These peaks circled a high, hanging corrie, a hidden sanctuary that funnelled rainfall into a single waterfall on its northern side.

But mostly, the ridge itself absorbed our attention. It was halfway between Crib Goch and Striding Edge in difficulty, but longer than both. It was certainly a good deal quieter. A short distance behind us we could see two dark figures who had followed us up Carn Mor Dearg. They never caught us. One man passed us coming the other way, but otherwise we saw no one.

It was a pleasant surprise for Edita. ‘I never thought climbing Ben Nevis would be so enjoyable,’ she said.

Edita on the arete, with Carn Mor Dearg behind

Although the ridge was exposed in places, the exposure wasn’t sustained, and for most of its length there were plenty of places to stop, rest and even dance the tango if you were so minded. Sometimes there was a clear path below, but we tried to keep to the crest like we had on Helvellyn. Often this involved climbing over boulders, but no section was especially difficult.

Like we had hoped, as the ridge curved round to the left, the summit of Ben Nevis slowly emerged from cloud. There was some rough, steep boulder hopping immediately below the summit, that went on for longer than I remembered, but we reached the top at 11 o’clock.

The summit of Ben Nevis is a huge, rocky plateau, adorned with derelict stone buildings that have been erected and abandoned over the years, rather like castle ruins. It was already busy, but the clouds had risen and we found ourselves there on one of the rare days when the summit is clear.

Edita wasn’t expecting so much sun on the summit of Ben Nevis

We waited for our turn on the summit cairn to take our summit pictures, then found a quiet corner to eat our lunch, where a bold snow bunting entertained us as we ate.

The view from Britain’s highest point is an exceedingly diverse one. The sheer grey cliffs of the north face, resembling a set of petrified organ pipes, contrasted strongly with the gentler green of Coire Leis below. To the west was a white, stony plateau with hordes of people coming up, and beyond this was the dark blue of Loch Linnhe and the mountains beyond.

Below the summit on the west side of Ben Nevis, it’s a wasteland; furlong upon furlong of broken rock without a scrap of vegetation in sight. This is the main route up; the crowds were endless, and so were the zigzags descending far beneath us.

Snow bunting on the summit of Ben Nevis

We raced down, past everyone, as quickly as our feet could take us. This was Edita’s choice, not mine, and I struggled to keep up with her. At one point I fell over onto one knee, surrounded by onlookers. But in a single swift movement I was back on my feet and continuing, like Usain Bolt coming out of the blocks (at least, that’s how I imagined it looked, but the many witnesses may have remembered it differently).

As I followed the streak of blue that was Edita descending ahead of me, I heard a sudden cry.

I stopped and looked around. A familiar figure had been resting among the crowds at the side of the trail, and he’d spotted us. It was Andy Hogarth, who guided us on Skye’s Cuillin Ridge last year. Now he was taking a client up the normal route on Ben Nevis.

View down the endless zigzags of Ben Nevis’s standard route, with Glen Nevis far below

‘This is a bit easy for you isn’t it?’ I said, ‘how many times have you climbed Ben Nevis now?’

‘Oh, I’ve lost count, but not many times on the standard route.’

‘How on earth did you spot us, going at the speed Edita is descending?’

‘Ah, that’s why I spotted you. I saw Edita flash past.’

We continued onwards, pausing at the top of the Red Burn, where we had diverged from the main trail earlier in the morning. Here, a number of people on their way up asked us how much further they had to go. We were now so close to the bottom that I didn’t really know what to say. Taking a leaf out of the politician’s instruction manual, I decided to answer a difficult question with obvious bullshit.

‘Just five minutes,’ I said. ‘Keep going. You’re nearly there.’

‘But how far really. Are we halfway yet?’

‘Halfwayish. Do the same again… and then a little bit more.’

Edita at the Ben Nevis Inn, a place that is impossible to avoid after a thirsty descent

It was a satisfying feeling as we descended into the green haven of Glen Nevis and followed the easy pathway high above our campsite.

There is one very good thing about the standard route up Ben Nevis. Right at the bottom is the Ben Nevis Inn. It’s virtually impossible to walk past without going in. They might as well put a red carpet from the gateway at the bottom of the trail to its front door.

We found ourselves standing at the bar at 1.30.

‘You look thirsty,’ said the barman, eyeing our backpacks and trekking poles.

It’s a line that I expect he uses quite a lot.

‘Yes, indeed,’ I replied. ‘I’ll have two pints of beer and two pints of orange juice and lemonade.’

Dervla Murphy would have been proud of me.

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