Ben Nevis...without the hike

Ben Nevis (and Kai)

So I booked an overnight stay up north this week to go have a look at some crystal sites. I found one or two interesting nooks on my travels; but I didn't turn up much in the way of rocks... however, on my way back down I swung over to Glencoe (which will get a blog of it's own for Clan reasons) and saw a sign for Ben Nevis.

View from the parking lot

Well you know me... I can't pass up the opportunity to drive up a mountain. Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in Scotland and it has a year-round activity centre. With it being a fine February day I decided to go have a look. There's bound to be some interesting rocks up there, right?

So we reach the activity centre and there isn't really anywhere else to go. The other road leads to a working quarry and they don't like people like me sniffing around without a hard hat and a high viz vest on. So we pulled up in the car park and went for a look.

The Top Gondola Station

Luckily for me there is a cable car you can take halfway up the mountain... I originally thought it took you all the way up but nooooo. 650m out of a possible 1,344m (which is 4,406 ft). The photograph on the right is the top 'Gondola' station. They say they are the only mountain gondola ride in all of Scotland and I see no reason to disbelieve them.

However strangely, there is also a restaurant in this building (I kid you not) and a 'summer chair' lift that you can take out over the forest. I had Kai so that was a no-go. From this halfway point you can also take a chair lift up to the slopes. It's been dry for days but there was still snow up there.

If you look real hard you'll see my car!

In Scotland we call all mountains over a certain height 'Ben'. If you follow the blog you will see that I visit Ben Lawers quite often (and stopped on the way past this time!) and you might wonder why. The simple reason is that 'Beinn' is the Gaelic word for 'mountain'. In Gaelic the mountain is actually called 'Nibheis' meaning venomous or malicious. Why? It's the most hostile mountain in Scotland. It's the biggest, it's the hardest and it's the one we have fought the longest to tame. Every so often it still kills people.

Getting closer...

As recently as New Year's Day 2019 a young female student plummeted 500m to her death while climbing Carn Dearg (not to be confused with Carn Dearg to the north. Mountain Coward Adventures have a great slide show of this ridge for those interested in climbing it...carefully). A month beforehand another student plunged 1,600ft and sadly didn't make it. This student was an experienced mountaineer. This incident happened when he and his buddy were trying to climb an overhanging ice cornice in Tower's Gully. The Tuesday before that another couple were stranded and needed rescuing from the pitch black, icy conditions. I can't even imagine how terrified they must have been. The mountain really is as malicious as its name makes out.

The first peek over the trees

Ben Nevis isn't alone either. The winter before last there were a reported ten deaths in the mountains in Scotland - one of them in the seemingly tame Ochil hills where I spent my holiday. It's kind of scary. The most obscure death I have heard about was when the body of a Derby man was recovered from an isolated Bothy on New Year's Eve in 2012. This particular man had gone to live for a year off the land and decided to do so in the Highlands of Scotland in November. Do we need to establish ground rules?

When you get to the top there are more hills!

I am the first to point out what a beautiful country we have... but it's deceptively cold and especially at height. Summer is a great time to visit, Spring is glorious (or wet) - even September and October are awesome for climbing. But it takes a certain type of madness to go for the summit in November, December, January or February. That being said Ben Nevis is the best mountain in the UK for ice climbing; hence why there are so many experienced climbers up there in all weathers. As you can see - even the experienced ones run into trouble so the rest of us need to be extra careful.

No seriously... like another 800m of hills...

As usual I am getting a little grim. I don't mean it there's something wrong with my storytelling ability. It's set to 'dark' permanently. Really there are all sorts of fun things to do on the mountain, you just have to be aware of the caution. There is a treetop adventure course, mountain biking, skiing and snowboarding, you can hike it, you can chair it, you can eat... the two ladies in the gondola next to me didn't even get out, they were just eating sandwiches and drinking tea from a bright red flask.

...so...many...more...hills...

Now my days of hopping out and climbing the mountain are over, plus I really wanted to get to Glencoe (my grandpa's middle name was Campbell, there's a story in there somewhere) but I did get a few pictures of what you can see from the way station. On top of that there is a wee video of us on our route up in the cable car that might give you a laugh or two. Kai seemed to like it. I didn't so much. I'm freakin' terrified of heights but the chance was too good to pass up. I'm a coward but a few likes on the Facebook page gave me enough courage to go for it!

Bit of a hazy day...that view though!

Hopefully you will be able to zoom in on the picture on the left and get an idea of how far you can see. The video demonstrates it a little better. They say that on a clear day you can see for up to 125 miles. They also say that it is one of the Three Peaks National Challenge mountains. This challenge sees climbers tackle Ben Nevis, alongside Mt. Snowdon in Wales and Scafell Pike in England. Climbers do all three of these mountains within 24 hours or it doesn't count (including travel time). My conclusion? Mountaineers are madder than crystal hunters by about 800 metres, give or take a few thousand feet.

Last but not least: there's no way I was going all the way up there without getting a look at the rocks! I found a small stream and had a paddle around to have a look. I expected to find tough granite but instead I found a sort of talc substance which had flecked off all through the soil. There is a lot of pink granite in the water, a few pieces of quartz and a lot less of the sparkly, schist/mica type of material you find all around that area. I nabbed one or two to bring home simply to say I have a rock from Ben Nevis, but neither are spectacular. I learned afterwards that basalt and granite are the two main groups up there. Interesting fact: the last ice age wasn't thick enough to cover the summit of Ben Nevis. Most of the mountain is igneous and, according to Ben Nevis.com itself, the mountain is about 400 million years old... that's some pretty ancient granite in my kitchen.

I think that is enough for one page. I'll get to Glencoe at some point... Though Is still have to write about Dunure castle... the locations are stacking up!

The standard Kai pic. Think he enjoyed himself.