No apologies, though: this route was so good I did it twice in swift succession and have no idea how, in 30-odd years of going to the hills,
I could never have stumbled upon it before!
One reason could be that in 15 ascents of the Ben, these, my 14th and 15th, were the only dry days experienced...
The route has everything.
A long, physically tough and testing distance to be covered;
delightful scrambling with sufficient hint of death to keep apathy at bay;
the bestest views of the Ben's NE face possible, with a grandstand seat to watch folk tackle Tower Ridge and to hear their cries echo in a great cupola of cliffs;
and the Carn Dearg ridge pops you out on top of Britain's highest bit of dirt.
Even then you're only halfway through the day! Not bad, eh?
You then go on to traverse Carn Mor Dearg Arete, which is simply, slenderly exhilarating,(home to snow buntings, which chime as you pass!),before dropping northwards from Carn Mor Dearg down its tortuous ridge, facing Aonochs Beag and Mor, before turning south to follow a braw burn down to the immense Steall Waterfall. You then wander wearily through Nevis gorge, gaping at water-carved boulders bigger than buildings.
To confront your final problem of the day: which hostelry in Fort William would be best in which to mull over the day's doings?
The Ben from Carn Mor Dearg: the route comes up the right skyline and drops off the left onto Carn Mor Dearg Arete
The dark silhouette leading from low centre up to the left
is the huge buttress of Carn Dearg on Ben Nevis. The route descibed wends up it.
A major consideration, even on a clear day, is route-finding.
After finding your way into Coire Leis, and stumbling upon the CIC Hut, turn your gaze towards the cliffs of the Ben: Carn Dearg's Buttress looms above.
Head towards it, as seen in the photo below, by wandering up lovely big slabs, hands in pockets.
Number 5 Gully, our start, lies below the right dip in the horizon.
Below are Slabs leading to No 5 Gully
Go up this chocky Number 5 gully till an obvious ramp appears on the right.
The ramp is kinda cluttered, damp and slightly exposed, but it's a start.
Go up it to the right, over a little step and round till the ramp narrows, then "Voila!" another ramp appears on the left.
Even this ramp doesn't give great scrambling - the better stuff comes higher up.
Persist till the seat in the sun, seen below...
This is halfway up Ledge Route, grandstand seat for Tower Ridge and other climbs
Go up right, once more following the line of least resistance, till you gain the true crest of the ridge, at last.
We stopped for lunch at this point. It seems others have also done so: I've seen snaps in a couple of books which show the same chunky big rock at this low end of the ridge.
Again, great views... on a clear day.
From now on there's really good scrambling - as easy or hard as you wish it to be, with wonderful exposure, if you enjoy that sort of thing.
This lands you on the vast summit plateau of the Ben, and you can wander round and up to its cluttered cairn, with its tatty memorobilia.
On our last September visit, we hurried this section in order to see friends competing in the annual Ben Nevis race.
The runners 'hurried' a little faster than us. Their ascent and descent takes at best, around 90 minutes.
Described here is a day lasting at least 9 hours. I know that's a challenge to some people. ;-)
From the summit work your way down its huge boulderfield to the east, till you get on the Arete: a wonderful place to be.
Dawdle or dash along as you feel: I'm a dasher.
In winter the north ridge off Carn Mor Dearg is knife like.. or my memory has gone.
In summer it's simple, certainly compared with what you've done so far!
Follow the burn south from the watershed. This can be one of the most pleasurable parts of the day, roaming in the gloaming.
And it's an easy 'roam', because the burn has eroded swathes of red granite so that one is able to walk, as if on a London pavement, down its broad stony highway.
Eventually both land and burn flatten so there's a boggy section before the burn flops in a series of waterfalls, delightful for dooks and private enough,
before hitting the more touristy distractions of Steall's waterfall, the wire bridge and the gorge, downhill to the pub.
Downhill all the way... and awfy cold, too!
