Ahh my last moments in Glenmore for another year. I got all packed up and could have left on 8 on the dot but decided to get one last look out over the Loch. I needed to make the most of the 4g reception there too to load my map for the drive ahead.
From Glenmore to Glen Nevis
I’d spent the morning making sure my mountain pack was ready to go so I could hit the mountain as soon as I arrived at the Ben Nevis visitor centre car park.
The drive to Glen Nevis was a pretty picturesque one, although the road was very narrow in places. I was still able to make the journey in less than two hours.
Climbing Ben Nevis
It was a beautiful day to take on the highest mountain in the UK. A much different picture than the weather had painted on my last trip up this mountain.
The Ascent
I started off maybe a little too fast, and involuntarily slowed my pace as I reached the half way point. But a quick pitstop at the waterfall and I was able to tackle the rest of the path at a more constant speed.
The final parts of the ascent still held a good bit of snow but nothing like my previous hike up here. I do think sometimes I feel better not being able to see what surrounds though as walking across the snow I did feel like a slip could have proved fatal as this part of the path was no where near as wide as I had previously thought.
Still some absolutely amazing views of the surrounding mountains.
Amazing views from the summit of Ben Nevis
I quickly realised that I had made it to summit and had a break and only three hours had passed. This made me quite determined to get down the mountain at some speed. I did my usual of many small steps make descents an easy job. I managed to get back down the mountain in less than two hours meaning I completed the whole mountain in less than five hours a full 2 and a half hours quicker than last time. Not only that I didn’t feel exhausted for long.
So with a week of three mountains and walking over 100 miles my legs still had more juice left in them. I’m turning into a bit of a mountain machine which just shows how my training for Stafford2Snowdon has had an effect.
All the mountains I’ve done since I was last here in April 23 have obviously had a huge effect on both my fitness and my abilities. Although pacing has always been something that I have rather struggled with. I should have realised by the fact that I had passed everyone I saw on the path both in the way and and the way down that I was doing this in good speed.
I think that my legs deal well with conditioning which means that in the days leading up to my challenge I must make sure that I don’t rest too much I few miles are needed to make sure that my legs are good to go for 180 miles in 9 days.
Car problems and a campsite
On my arrival back to car I discovered that the sun had baked my reg plate off, and the heat had some affect on my engine too although that light quickly went off. Still I felt it best to just camp and the Glen Nevis campsite for the one night. Wild or car camping isn’t the best idea with no reg plate on the back of the car. Who sticks on a plate with double sided foam tape. Turns out a few places actually.
This is not the pitch I was looking for…
I had to pitch in the electric hook up field, there was space elsewhere and I probably would have got away with pitching anywhere rather than in the family field as I call it but honestly once I had wolfed down some fish, chips and curry sauce it wasn’t long before I fell asleep in the tent.