JOGLE 5.5 Day 7 Mon 8 Oct 12

Depart 0920 Arrive 1700 Distance 10 miles. Fort WIlliam to Ben Nevis and back.

 Today we climbed Ben Nevis. 4400 ft high and climbing all that from sea level. The route up was full of rocky paths covered in large boulders and full switch backs with some reasonable paths in-between. The final reach to the summit involved a lot more switch backs on a very loose bed of medium sized stones laced with boulders. The Cairns are the final countdown to the top without them it would be difficult to discern the path through the cloud. Today the top was covered in snow and cloud which also had rain in it. The top was also very windy but shelter was available behind ruined buildings. There was a triangulation (trig) point and some sort of observatory I think. I had to put on the fleece, gloves and woolly hat to keep hypothermia at bay whilst crouched behind a wall to eat my massive packed lunch supplied by Mildred from the B&B. It took a lot of will power to do the climb up because at some points walking was reduced to a trudge and literally one foot in front of the other. It was a case of dig deep and grind. But if the climb up was bad enough then coming down was even worse. Total pain on the knees, the quads turned to jelly and probably a walking pole would have helped take the pressure of the knees. One twisted knee and one slide on the back and three hours later eventually saw me in the Glen Nevis cafe enjoy a coffee. Ian decided to visit the youth hostel and eventually we meet up at the Ben Nevis visitors centre for a high five and a slowish walk back to the B&B. We decided to eat in Fort William itself tonight at the Grog and Gruel Pub which was really busy and turning out some nice food. I went for the Wild Boar Breath chilli and could have done with that to get me up Ben Nevis. We've have done well for food this trip as nearly all the menus have had original variety unlike the southern pubs and restaurants that seem to serve the same old thing.