So we made it up Ben Nevis last Wednesday
No views from the top and the weather was pretty grim all week though could have been a lot worse, in fact I think it is this week. We knew we were unlikely to see anything and it would probably rain every day so the deciding factor was the wind. Left the visitor centre at 7.45 and arrived back there just before 3. Still lots of people doing it even in the bad weather. Views were pretty good until well over halfway, so that was an unexpected bonus. We did have the summit cairn to ourselves for about a minute! Freezing cold though. The same day a man was rescuedby helicopter from Five Finger Gully, lots of news reports about it. Hope it wasn’t the man we passed who asked us “How long to the top?” This was around 2pm when we were about halfway between the loch and the bottom. He had trainers on, normalish clothes and not sure about waterproofs. Anything he had with him was in a carrier bag! We said 3-4 hours (who knows he didn’t look like a walker). He expressed surprise at this and my husband told him the conditions were brutal up there etc. He carried on.... i can’t believe he would have made it up as far as the summit plateau though. We’ll never know.
I’m glad I’ve done it, but will stick to less popular routes in future. Will try and do one trip report on all 3 Peaks. Will reveal my favourite, though you can already guess which one it isn’t!
We walked every day. The walk from the North Face car park to the CIC mountain hut and back was our training walk. Again very wet and windy, and on the way back just before the forest encountered two men heading up - in (very wet) jeans, trainers and their waterproofs were those ponchos you get given on a coach trip or football match.
And they were sleeveless, whatever is the point of them ever?! They did turn back though.
Other walks were Coire Ardaire, Steall Waterfalls, Dun Deardail and (the day after Ben Nevis) a few miles along the Caledonian canal.
No midges!
Sparnel - we didn’t go to Russells restaurant, too pricey for us! Had a couple of good meals at the Old Station restaurant though.