Ben Nevis via the CMD arête

Amazingly, despite living in Scotland for more than 10 years and climbing hundreds of the Scottish hills, I had never climbed Ben Nevis, the UK’s highest mountain at 1345 m. For two reasons: I wanted to save it for a nice, cloud-free day (and these are very rare!) and I wanted to wait for an opportunity to climb it with a friend via the Carn Mor Dearg (“CMD”) arête, rather than by the boring Pony Track. Anyway, to cut a long story short, these twin conditions were never met but, over the (English) holiday weekend in late August 2019, the weather forecast was perfect and I decided it was time to tackle the route solo. My initial plan was to drive to Fort William and stay overnight in a B&B before tackling the mountain the next day. But, of course, I could not find anywhere that had a vacancy. So, instead, I came up with the idea of taking my small one-man tent and starting the walk on the Saturday before wild-camping overnight. (Yes, I’m afraid this is the first ever TUW trip where I have used my car.)

Costs. Total cost of trip £37 (petrol + food).

Maps. OS Landranger: Sheet 41, 1:50,000.

Day 1: Drive to Torlundy; walk up the Allt a’ Mhuilinn; wild camp. I left home at 3.30 pm and reached Fort William at 6 pm after a good drive. I had “dinner” in a well known fast food outlet (ugh!) and bought some sandwiches and chocolate bars from the nearby supermarket. I then drove to to the Ben Nevis North Face car park at Torlundy and started walking at 7.10 pm. At about 7.50 pm, I reached the spot near where my circuit the next day closed and I looked for a place to pitch my tent. There were a couple of other tents in the vicinity but the occupants seemed to be behaving strangely – why was this? I decided not to get too close to them, heading further up the valley. I started putting the tent up and all was going well... until the midges arrived. In their millions. I quickly DEETed my bare arms and put the midge hood on. I finished pitching the tent, threw everything that I needed inside, put my rucksack and boots into a bin liner, and then dived into the tent without brushing my teeth or using the “outdoor facilities”. Sorting everything out inside the tent was an act of extreme contortion. But, surprisingly, I slept fairly well.

Day 2: Climb Carn Mor Dearg; traverse CMD arête; climb Ben Nevis; descend and collect tent; drive home. I emerged from the tent at 5.45 am, just as it was getting light. The other tents further down the Allt a’ Mhuilinn seemed to have vanished; presumably the midges drove them away (or devoured them?). But, hey, now there were no midges! I started packing my rucksack for the day. And then they arrived. In their millions. Again. So at about 6 am I fled my campsite, feet in boots but with no walking socks or tied laces and with everything else just thrown into my rucksack. I ran up the path for about 5 min, found a stream to wash in and fill my water bottles, and then sat down to eat breakfast and finish getting myself prepared for the day. But there were still midges around and I had to DEET my face, neck and arms. It was about 6.30 am that I finally started my walk proper. It was a long slog up Carn Mor Dearg but I reached the summit at about 9.05 am and was rewarded with stunning views of the Ben. I was soon joined by a fellow walker; he was an experienced mountaineer, having done both the CMD arête and other, more tricky routes on Ben Nevis before. I was going to put my trekking poles away before tackling the arête but he advised me to keep them out. (What an utterly terrible piece of advice! Put them away!) He then vanished at speed along the arête while I took it much more sedately, hampered by my trekking poles. But it was not that difficult at all (compared with, say, the nearby Aonach Eagach); just slow. I reached the summit of Ben Nevis at about 11.20 am – and my eyes could not believe the scene that greeted them (although they had been warned...). I had encountered maybe six people up to that point and now, on the summit itself, there were hundreds – and, although I did not know it at that time, at least a thousand more still heading up the Pony Track. It was horrible! The exact opposite of what the Scottish Highlands is normally about. I headed off down the Pony Track, against the flood of humanity heading in the opposite direction. Apart from the great weather and the fact that it was a holiday weekend, there was also a huge charity event in progress, swelling the numbers of people (some of them very unlikely mountain walkers!) even more. After about 90 min of this, I was relieved to break off from the Pony Track and head back down to my campsite, which I reached at 2.35 pm. Although there were no midges now in the bright, warm afternoon sunshine, I packed the tent up quickly and rather badly, and was back at my car at 3.30 pm. I stopped in Fort William for a cold drink but did not get home until 7.45 pm thanks to the predictable holiday traffic on the A82 beside Loch Lomond.

Kit notes. I took my 1.5-kg, one-person tent, sleeping bag and mat in my 35(-45)-litre rucksack but, of course, I only had to carry these with me from the car to my campsite and vice versa, not during the hill climbs of Day 2. I took trekking poles (but should have put them away on the arête!). Luckily, I had a midge hood and some DEET. I had a pack of sandwiches for breakfast on Day 2 and another for lunch.

Other useful links. I followed this walkhighlands.co.uk route.

Reflections. Well, unless one wants to do some very serious scrambling on the Ledge Route or Tower Ridge, this is surely the best way to tackle Ben Nevis. Certainly not by the Pony Track, which I thought was horrible. But to be on top of Ben Nevis in such amazing weather! I was so lucky. The midges were only a problem when camping; once I was walking they soon disappeared. However, they were a big problem when camping and I should have been better prepared for them: long sleeves and DEET on in advance.

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