Up, up, up and down, down,down Ben Nevis.

---

Lots of photos (42 I think) today. Some will be embedded into the text as that's the way this app works. The rest will be accessible via a button below the text. Today its worth looking at the photos. They will either convince you to go walk/climb Ben Nevis or convince you not to walk/climb Ben Nevis. It's almost 8 hours of walking, surprisingly almost as long descending as ascending for me. I know I walk fastear uphill and slower downhill relative to others but it become pretty apparent today. My knee gave me a little concern on the downhill section (that's everything after reaching the summit!) so that didn't help but generally the walk is really good. It is busy. The uncommonly good weather and the fact that there is a race up and down Ben Nevis tomorrow probably saw more than the usual number attempt the walk but even at the summit there were lots of walkers. The views are spectacular. Over the lakes, down through Fort William and out to sea, over the valleys and surrounding hills make for amazing vistas. The track in places is excellent. The rocks in bags were a bit of a surprise but it is part of the National Parks strict 'natural' policy of not displacing anything. Bottom line is they helicopter in rock when really the mountain is made of them! In some places the path although distinguishable it is just rocks in a heap of other rocks. It's quite a weird landscape and in places tough to walk on as many are lose and wobbly. The top is simply just rocks everywhere. There's a trig point and an emergency shelter as even in Summer the temperature at the summit can frequently drop below zero. The shelter didn't help quite a few soles, or it had not been constructed, because their are a few memorials to those who died trying to get to the top!

Other walkers were surprisingly good too. There's a sort of instant bond formed if you manage to get to the top and walking back down is a pretty chummy experience. I wasn't Robinson Crusome in the Ben Nevis pub!

But I loved it!

---