This day turned out to become a bit of an epic...
I was "seconding" another member of the Club who was learning to navigate. We'd co planned the route from the Glen Nevis SYHA up to the half-way lochan on The Ben, down to the CIC Hut, up onto CMD and along the arete to finish on The Ben. I had to take over as a forecast storm took over and the chap leading lost confidence.
The minibus parked near the youth hostel in Glen Nevis. The whole party was heading up to do various things on Ben Nevis - mostly on the North Face (so why did we not park at the North Face Car Park? Ask the driver - who wasn't me).
We ascended the miserable tourist track and carried on north west past Lochan Meall an t' Suidhe. Dropping into the glen we crossed the near frozen river and started up the steep slopes to Carn Dearg Meadhonach. This proved extremely challenging due to the very deep powder snow. There were a number of new members, and our leader was just hell-bent on getting up there. I had to stop him several times and remind him that being the leader was not just about navigating, but also checking in with your group, and making adjustments. It was very slow and the sun rose bright from behind the Ben. From the ridge, we made it up to CMD. However, I was near the back looking after some of the less experienced members - one young chap was in tears as he felt he couldn't ask the leader to stop so he could take a pee so I had to do some yelling to get our leader to stop and have a quiet word with him. The plan had been to cross the Arete and up onto the Ben. However, Martin had taken one look at the arete and put the fear of whatever into himself and several others. I was not happy. I wanted to carry on with our plan, as I felt that it would be faster and safer to do so even if that meant I took over full leadership of the group. I also knew that there was a snow-storm heading our way (despite the current glorious sunshine). But I bowed to peer pressure. We zig zagged back down the way we came but this proved even more torturously slow as bumsliding with such a new group wasn't an option for various reasons. However, before we reached the glen the weather came in early and very fast and we were in a complete white out. I was asked me to take over full navigation. There were no paths, and any tracks we had made that morning were long buried. It was also getting dark by the time I got us round to the Lochan and I was pretty stressed out with a new group having had to completely readjust the plan. Here the snow eased a bit as the storm was from the North. we made it down all OK, but I am convinced to this day that if we'd have stuck to our original plan we'd have been well on the defined tourist track heading down before the storm hit us. But hey...
- Significant mountains (Munro)
- Navigation in a white-out, plus backing up a new leader and group management. Co-planning with the new leader
- Knowledge increased in dealing with a new and inexperienced group - plus decision making
- Adverse conditions underfoot followed by a blizzard and night nav
- Over 5 hours
- UK mountain terrain in winter
- Axes used on ascent of Carn Dearg Meadhonach to remain upright.
Area :
Ben Nevis & Aonach Mor (Fort William To Loch Leven)
This area covers the mountains between Fort William, Loch Leven (to the south) and Loch Treig (to the east). The area includes Ben Nevis and Carn Mor Dearg, The Mamores, The Aonachs and The Grey Corries. An impressive 20 Munros are split equally by Glen Nevis and the waters of Abhainn Rath. Relatively accessible from the A82, these mountains hold some classic walking and climbing routes such as The Ring of Steall in the Mamores and Point Five Gully on Ben Nevis. Includes all major peaks above 600m.
