Three down.

I'm going to break today up into two parts as I have a lot of pictures for you.


Since resting well yesterday after my short 20 miles in the morning, I determined to take on the Ben early in the morning before heading out on the bike later in the day. I wanted to do this as much as anything else, to try to reach JOG whilst the sign was still intact for the final photo. (If you have followed this from the beginning, you will remember that the owners of both Lands and John O'Groats, remove the hands of the sign at the end of the day!)


So, up at 04:30. This is almost what in the climbing and mountaineering style, you might call Alpine style. To climb big mountains these days, you travel light, get up very early, say 2 in the morning, so that the snow is hard for as long as possible, before the sun gets on it, and push for the summit in the dark.

It wasn't dark ofcourse at 5 past 5 when I started to climb, but it was cold and windy. With the help of a pair of poles, I covered the first 500 feet or so in 20 minutes.

You may just be able to see the youth hostel below me.


I was stood next to a small coppice from where I was serenaded by a Cuckoo, that I again could not see. He seemed entirely unbothered by my presence and called on well after I had left.

The path from the hostel is an easy one, if you don't mind steps. The miles that I had covered on the bike were serving me well and I made good ground fast. By 5 past 6 I was half way up and was confident of being on the summit by 7.

This photo taken at 5 past 6 shows the hostel again, though you may only recognise te profile of the mountain ridge line behind it.

From here the path starts the become more boulder strewn as the effects of freeze thaw action on the rock shatters the stone into smaller pieces. It is a harsh environment, though there's still plenty to see. A couple of years ago, when I climbed Ben Nevis from the other side, I was lucky enough to see both Ptarmigan and Mountain Hare up here.

With the wind it was now very cold and witin a short while I was above the snow line. The surface had a light dusting ontop of the hard icy crystalised snow beneath and again Iwas glad of the poles for added security.

This is the view to the top at about 6:45.

I duly crunched my way to the summit by 07:06, 2 hours and a minute after starting.

The views from here were awesome. The camera doesn't do the scale of the mountainscape justice.

Taking pictures was interesting. Apart from anything else, my fingers were freezing. The trig point was also about 15 metres away from the old observation post, now refuge, hence the rather small me at the top. The wind kept blowing the camera over too, so it was all a bit of fun.

The walk down was uneventful and quick. I met quite a few folks on their way up once I had made the half way mark, but by now I was ready for my breakfast and stage two of today. The 70 odd miles to Inverness and the cycle up the Great Glen.