We chose the "easy" way, going up the pony trail from Achintree. Very slow but steady, I just kept going, one foot in front of the other. The path is made but very stony. Graeme had a lot of problems on this climb. He kept going ahead of me but did not like the rocky, unrelenting climb and suffered a great deal. Surprisingly we reached the half way point much more quickly than I expected, and had the little rest that the plateau of the Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe provides. From this point the going gets stonier and you find yourself on a made path, going through fields of stone. One thing about Ben Nevis is that you are never alone. There is a constant stream of people walking up the path and at an estimate I would say there was on average about one person every 30 yards. They were from every nation although there seemed an awful lot of English. And the pathway was dirty. This was the first mountain we found to be full of litter. On the other hills people keep their litter but not on this one - Coca Cola cans and all litter flung everywhere. What a collection of people. We passed, and were passed by, an old English couple who must have been in their seventies. There were squaddies who seemed to ignore the path and just go straight up at a fair old rate. There were young people with babies on their backs and believe it or not there were some women in their Sunday best with dresses, their only concession to the elements being a pair of trainers. There were people running up and down. It's certainly not a place to be alone. The path winds across the mountain amongst the boulders and seems to go on for ever.
As you approach the summit there are a couple of gully openings which give you an idea just how high up you are. Although the guide books warn you about these they are fairly safe in good weather. The summit is a plateau full of large boulders. There are cairns all over the place, the main one (where all the photographs are taken) is massive. There are also the ruins of the observatory and a commemorative cairn for the War (defaced by some anti-war nutters). The place was like Trafalgar Square with people all over the place. The weather was so hot and hazy we sought the shelter of the observatory for our lunch and Guinness. Even here the place is a dungheap. It chokes me that they actually have a rubbish bin at the summit and that it is used. Why can't people simply take their own rubbish away? For a while we watched some folks climbing up by the Tower ridge; amazingly they were singing while racing up over knife edge rocks.
The walk down was uneventful but knee jarring as you bash your way down the path which goes on and on. Graeme, fed up with my slowness, went ahead and got a long way ahead of me. Eventually when I got to the bottom I saw Graeme sitting with his feet in the river at Glen Nevis. I joined him and it was absolute heaven. Agony raging through the feet but what a delight as you sit there with the water flowing through your toes.
