Airy? Airy? I’ll give you airy!
Endurance - there’s the thing. You gotta keep at it. So in honour of the day before Summer Solstice (because it was the clearer evening and because we could both afford to be knackered on Wednesday morning but not Thursday) I suggested we go up Ben Nevis via the Carn Mor Dearg Arete instead of going to bed. It has been fairly well documented that I don’t like high places - especially not exposed places - but surely with a bit of determination I could overcome that. If not now, then when?
Alistair Humphreys of the Microadventure concept asks us what can we do with the 5pm to 9am between a standard days work. Especially with all that daylight about. http://www.alastairhumphreys.com/microadventures-3/
Spook and I have felt too old and tired for adventure recently and we sought to turn this around by just making the decision and getting on with it. He kept asking me “Do you definitely want to do this?” And I kept saying “Of course I do.” whilst both of us were thinking “oh god - do we really need to?”
We were crossing the stile onto the track up into the Ben Nevis gully by 9.30pm and it wasn’t long before we were trying to outpace the sun as it went down, and the shadow on The Ben went up. We caught it eventually and already some endorphins had kicked in.
We let the sun go eventually as the going got steeper and the view back to the west was worth it regardless. Further down the path we’d met a fit looking, weather beaten man, carrying a rock in each fist. He informed us that rain was coming in tomorrow - maybe he could feel it in the rocks. If I had been on my own, my over-active imagination would have assumed he was going to beat me to death with the rocks. Later, Spook commented that Noel Williams was probably right about the rain and I asked him when he’d consulted Mr Williams on the weather report. He said -” back there on the path!” I have read bits and pieces of Noel Williams writings on the geology of The Ben, but never met him. It made me giggle that he happened to be walking down the path carrying rocks. Classic. Does he always take a rock home with him? He had been one of Spooks favourite teachers at the High School. If you want to meet him, you can - see below. Well, too late this year, but maybe next year (he’s apparently not dangerous at all.)
http://lochabergeopark.org.uk/spring17-local-geology-course/
Happy, “we love adventure and aren’t that old or tired” emotions were still in plentiful supply at 11pm as Spook saw the snow man on The North Face and I tried to be a snow angel.
10 minutes later I added a few more items of clothing....
But there was still the arete to face. Seeing it from the CMD summit is not the same as seeing it from my kitchen window. I don’t care how easy they say it is, I still require to have 3 limbs attached to the rocks at all times with the 4th limb only unattached long enough to reach out for the next hold.
Richmountainexperiences charge £180 to guide an individual across this route which they describe as “airy but never difficult”(!!!!!!!!!!) and Spook is now considering invoicing me this amount plus extra for the emotional strain he experienced due to me crossing it on all fours in a crab-like manouevre in the middle of the night. He has no idea how uncomfortable the gut feels after 1.5hrs of being bent double and hyper ventilating from fear. It was just as well I had asked for this......determination was reaching bursting point and love was hanging by the balance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkbEyaAr-Sg (a winters view - no worse or better than a Summer Solstice one)
The scramble up the back of the Ben to reach the summit was conducted in mist - the only time we put the head torches on as now that I was not on all fours, I couldn’t see the definition and contours of the rocks so well, and getting a foot stuck between rocks was not to be recommended. Spooks guidance and confidence at this point was probably worth more the £180 - perhaps an uncomplaining and grateful wife for ever more (though that value fades with daylight and solid ground,)
1.45am, at the summit of Ben Nevis, we shared a sandwich and chocolate as the line of light around the horizon stayed the same. Spook had thought we might bivvy down and wait for sunrise at 4.27am, but we are no Mary and Alex Gillespie (now in their 80′s but still much more likely to nip up the Ben and Bivvy down for sunrise than we are.) There is a lovely photograph of Mary holding the sun in her hand, but whilst most of us up here in Lochaber want some of the Alex and Mary experience, we’re not willing to put in the effort, so off we headed for home.
Not that heading for home was that much easier, although no longer clinging to rocks on terrifying high ground, we were now well past bed time and even the familiar ground had us sliding awkwardly and going over ankles. We used head torches for about a further 30 mins and then it was easily light enough without them. There were quite a few hardy souls heading up for the sunrise, but I was glad to be going in the other direction.
The going got softer as we crossed the bog by which time we didn’t care how wet our feet were.
My worn out guide kept shouting “VELCRO” at me as I got my rucksack stuck on a tree trying to get across the burn and desperately cling to my water bottle as if this was going to save me . This is what Big Roddy the Gamekeeper tells us the German guests say when they have to hit the ground to hide from the deer. It’s good that he can still come up with colourful language at this hour.
Whilst I had no language left at all by 4am - nada, rien, niets, gar nichts, chan eil. But still had my water bottle.
But we DID see the sunrise - from our bedroom window.
Next year I am just going to set the alarm.