Ben Nevis 15th Septenber 2012.
The Ben Nevis challenge was an event on the 15th September, it raised funds for the CF Trust which is the charity that helps provide help and research for people and families with Cystic fibrosis. Our Granddaughter has this condition, so we all decided to go Climb the UK's highest mountain and in the process the four of us raised over £3000
Many thanks to all the people that donaited money towards Cystic Fibrosis, we made over £3000 in sponsership
Mitch, Gail, Kirsty, Ade
OS map showing Elevation and Route taken


The Path started nice and steadily but after a while it got very steep and is a relentless gradient all the way with no easy bits, the path also contains very large stones and steps so great care is needed (as we found out later) also there is a lot of water running down from the peaks that surround the area, this also adds to the danger as the paths are very slippery indeed. The Path we took was from the West side Glen Nevis where there is a visitor centre and ample car parking.
The Path
The path is called the Tourist path and is about 5 mile to the top with 4388ft of ascent and is hard work all the way, there are large rocks to climb and also after the Red Burn it turns to scree making hard work even harder, it has maximum gradient of about a 1 in 5. It was first constructed in 1883 to allow ponies up to the observatory on the summit, after 1894 it was used by large amount of climbers that made there way to Ben Nevis by the new West Highland railway that arrived in Fort William

The tourist path starts at only 20 metres above sea level and you will soon cross the river Nevis on your travels. once you reach the saddle you will see a small loch called Lochan Meall t-Suidhe (also known as the halfway lake) at 570m, you will then start to Zig-Zag up towards the summit point. This path is hard work and like I said its relentless all the way, coming down is even worse on the knees and so easy to slip over, Gail fell on the rocks going down not far from the summit and it resulted to a trip to the local A&E department in Fort William. Luckily she was ok and we went through the hospital having X-Rays and seeing doctors in less than 1 hour (MK Hospital take note). The mountain has a large amount of accidents and in 1999 four people died up there due to various reasons
The Summit


Once out of the hospital we headed back to the hotel and replaced fluids with a much sought after Guinness at the bar. They had some local scottish music playing with Bagpipes and all the dancing and jumping on swords etc. It was a great weekend with perhaps a bit to much traveling but well worth it for a great cause. Also this was the end to our climbing of the three peaks that we planned at the start of the year, we both agree that Ben Nevis was the hardest by a mile and we will both be back soon, we hope to the beautiful area and have a better look around.