An ALPINE HUT BELOW Ben Nevis

The Mountain Forecast was for 50 – 60mph winds so the tops were out. We were also on our way to Skye for Chris’s Mum’s 100^th birthday so a nice hike a bit lower down with some shelter from that fearsome wind was the thing. As we were passing Fort William, a venture out in that area sounded the most sensible as it was a half way point from Glasgow on the 5.5 hour journey to the island.

I’d always wanted to visit the CIC Mountain Hut which lies below the formidable cliffs of the UK’s highest mountain – Ben Nevis – PLUs, there’s a beautiful track all the way. So – a trek in there it was, often called Britain’s only Alpine style mountain hut. It was built in the 1920s in memory of Charles inglis Clark, a keen mountaineer, who died in the First World War. The Hut sits at over 600m (2,000 feet) so it’s still a steady climb up and took us below the impressive North Face of The Ben.

Got parked at the North Face car park above Torlundy a few miles beyond Fort Willam. The charge was 4 quid and you had up to 24 hours after parking to pay it online. I decided to settle up immediately after the walk, once we got a signal again as otherwise I would have forgotten and possibly been charged a penalty.

The forestry track we needed was signposted to The North Face,  meaning no chance of getting lost in the myriad tracks on offer! Also, I pretty much remembered the route onto the open hillside, after previous hikes up into the mountains from here.

It took about 40 minutes to ascend, quite steeply at first, up through the conifer forest before we reached the open, heather covered hillside.

We’d now reached SUCH a beautiful area which gave us our first views of The Ben. Good that we’d already reached just below 300m or 1,000 feet, meaning the hardest part of the uphill slog was over. The rest thankfully, is at a gentle angle over a longer distance.Looking back, Fort William and Loch Eilean lay below.

However, today, coming out of the forest also meant that we were now walking into the wind and it was far, far stronger than I imagined it would be! I really thought the mountains would give us shelter but it was blowing an absolute hoolie as we headed up the path. Ooh…this could be a bit unpleasant!

Another fifteen minutes took us to a large wooden stile and the moorland section of the  track to the Hut . I could just make the roof from here and it looked a LONG way ahead.

But it’s such gorgeous country, it didn’t feel like a hardship to walk past the wildflowers, the rowan trees with their bright red berries, the river below, crystal clear, rushing over white, grey and pink boulders.It was great to be out here, even if it was heads down into the wind.

 This beauty was all overlooked by the harsh, grey rocky north face of The Ben.

Ahead, the clouds were swirling wildly, sweeping down the corrie and covering much of the mountains’s upper slopes. I couldn’t imagine anyone being up there today unless they had a death wish – as ever of course, I was wrong in this given the people we met later!

‘There’s always some nutter…’ Chris said wryly when I suggested wondered if anyone had tried to get onto the tops. He’s usually right, there is ALWAYS someone who ignores the forecast and then gets into serious trouble (which we witnessed later too.) 

It’s usually someone from outwith Scotland – England or further afield – who has built their hopes on climbing certain mountains and who is determined to do that, no matter the conditions. We’re lucky to be able to choose our weather days, as the mountains are only an hour or two away.

On we headed. We passed several people returning, young couples and one family (who sounded French) whose two children had had enough and were refusing to move. The wind really was brutal, and quite difficult at times to walk into so wee people were getting severely buffeted -they must have been exhausted. 

A solo walker stopped to chat, a fit looking guy skipping down the path towards us and he said that he’d tried to go beyond the Hut only to literally be blown over at one point. Even at 600m, he reckoned the wind was easily 60mph. Heaven knows what it would be like on the summits at twice that height, although often the corries and passes can be the worst for wind. There are some strange reactions of the wind to topography. We have almost been blown over on some hillside ascents only to find that the top itself was relatively calm.

The hut seemed to get closer, then on the next bend in the path it had retreated again!

But finally,  we reached a smaller, rougher section of track and avoiding a mildly exposed little bit above steep ground, we kept higher over the moorland.

The only hazard we now had was the river itself (though later we discovered that by staying  on this side of the river and not crossing till directly opposite the Hut) we could have found a slightly easier  point to cross. In spate, the place we crossed would be impossible or very difficult. But the water was very low, exposing big boulders which we managed to negotiate quite easily. This led us to the final little short section to our destination, 2 hours after setting off from the car park.

What a spot!

 It really did feel Alpine with the great cliffs and corries of the mountain towering above us. The North Face had looked incredible from Carn Mor Dearg, the mountain opposite The Ben and which we’d climbed a couple of years back.

Now it was great to be directly beside those broken crags and pinnacles.

The key thing was to get out of that wind so we found a sheltered spot on the west side and sat munching crisps (oh so healthy😃) some fruit (better) and downing a fair amount of sparkling water.

It was an awesome place to be and I was already thinking of how brilliant it would be to visit in snow. The cliffs and towers are a famous area for climbers including those insane enough to climb iced waterfalls though it can be difficult to get the really good conditions required for that these days. It’s also where several fatalities each year happen, either due to avalanche or slips.

The Hut is privately owned by the Scottish Mountaineering Council so there is no access to casual walkers like us. We had a peek inside the small windows and it looked basic but cosy. What a spot to be for sunset or sunrise or in a winter storm. The Hut also functions as a Mountain Rescue post too.

We were just admiring the whole place when a lone figure came striding out along a path on the north side of the river. From the direction of his travel, we guessed he must have tried the Ben itself then retreated via Halfway Lochan, making it to this spot – though that did also sound a bit of an odd route. 

But no – after exchanging hellos (he sounded from Northern England) it turned out that he was one of the ‘nutter’s who had not only been up onto the summit itself, he had got there via Tower Ridge! 

Chris and I were speechless when he told us this.I’d noticed his climbing helmet and thought he was just being ultra cautious but he’d have needed it up there. I couldn’t imagine how on Earth he’d survived given the wind but I guess he must have had some shelter from in it in the nooks and crannies of the rock. 

Whatever, he must have been a heck of a climber and a big risk taker to tackle that Ridge route today. It’s a Grade 3 scramble, the highest difficulty plus it has several ‘Difficult’ rock pitches. The suggested time for the route is 7-11 hours. It was now 2.30pm so either he must have set off VERY early or he was having us on.(I don’t think the latter was the case however, because the solo walker we’d spoken to earlier had said that he’d actually seen ‘a party’ on Tower Ridge. The climber did say he’d been on his hands and knees at the summit and that the whole thing ‘hadn’t been his smartest decision.’)

He found a pitch of his own to have some lunch and we stayed another 10mins or so before heading back down and waving cheerio to him – and I have to say, hats off!  

Back down the path, waving goodbye to our climber friend.

 Nice to have the wind at our backs now too – pushing us back down the path.

But evidence of crazies on the hill were still to come…

As we neared the wooden stile again, we both turned at the distinctive sound of a helicopter.

Sure enough , a paraffin budgie was heading for Ben Nevis and trying to land at the Halfway Lochan area. The wind was making it impossible and it took off again after several attempts. We did see it again minutes later and it looked as if, this time, it did land so the chances were, Mountain Rescue were retrieving at least one casualty. The Fort Wiliam team are one of the busiest in country.

What a brilliant half day out it was and a walk I’d readily do again. Ironically, the only trauma is the final section of road going in and out of the car park which is appalling and if not careful, it would be very easy to burst a tyre. We still had 2.5 hours of driving to Skye ahead of us, plus a very important birthday lunch tomorrow on The Isle of Mist.