After sitting and watching the weather pass over Ben Nevis for almost a week, it was time to climb. The weather was not perfect but far better than it had been.

With only showers and occasional strong gusts forecasts it was sounding good. After loading up food in Fort William and two-bus trips I was finally sitting at the foot of “The Ben”.

With the highly changeable weather of the last few days I wanted to get up and down as quickly as possible. With this in mind I was still not confident of getting to the top. For this reason I had chosen to start from the Youth Hostel in Glen Nevis giving the shortest possible assent. It helps that a bus service runs up the Glen every hour.

The disadvantage of starting from Glen Nevis is that it is the “tourist” route and heavily used and eroded. The other way to look at it is that the footpath is easy to follow and almost always takes the easiest slope at anyone given place.

The first part of the path takes you steeply up the side of the Glen before contouring around into the steep river valley south of the peak. Up to this point the rain had held off and visibility was good however now was the time for the true weather of the day to show its face. From this point on the rain would be intermittent and the fog would often accompany it.

Continuing through the rain the stone lined path soon became the grove through the scree slope, which takes you to the top. With the heavy rainfall over the last few days the ground underfoot was very wet. On crossing the river at the foot of the zigzag section of the path it was clear that it was now a waterfall.

The water was running to an extent that it had already caused a number of people to turn back. I had met two ladies just before this point and helped them across. I think partly because we knew they needed to get back over the waterfall at the end of the day we continued the climb together. Katrina and Konie had both just arrived in Fort William and were taking in Ben Nevis before moving on to tour other parts of the country.

The track continued upwards and was not in fact as hard going as I had been led to believe. The rain and fog came at intervals, retreating to show views down into Glen Nevis and Fort William. However, the higher we climbed the less often the views appeared until it was fog all the way. Although the visibility reduced to 20m at times it was not a problem as the path of scree was well defined with the only problem being when you reached a junction. It would have really helped some of the people on the mountain if they had had a map at this point!

Soon we were approaching the summit on an increasingly flat path. Then out of the fog came the remains and mounds that mark the highest point. It was then a matter of taking some time out to wander around the ruins and take photos to prove we had made it.

This time I had remembered the Cornish Flag but it was soon clear I had been beaten to the top! Hanging out of the side of the War Memorial was a mini Cornish Flag that had clearly only recently been placed. After a quick lunch we proceeded with a rapid decent the same way we had come up. The weather to this point had been far better than forecast but it was still rather gusty and the wind-chill was starting to set in. The remainder of the decent was greeted with occasional rain but generally improving conditions. After six hours of walking we finally arrived at the Ben Nevis Inn for a quick few drinks. After saying good-bye to my day’s companions, I walked the short distance into Fort William for a well-deserved meal.