Carn Mor Dearg Wild Walks

This is Chapman's Wood

and I've just left the north face car park at Torlundy

on the north side of Ben Nevis.

The hill I'm going to climb today

is one of the highest mountains in Scotland

but I'm not going to climb it for its own sake,

I'm going to climb it and use it as a grandstand

to gaze across at the wild side of our highest mountain.

The hill I'm going to climb is Carn Mor Dearg

and we'll look across at the highest mountain in Britain, Ben Nevis.

That's Ben Nevis ahead of us, just up through the trees,

looking a bit moody.

For the past three or four years,

I've been chairman of the Nevis Partnership.

That's an amalgamation of the organisations

with an interest in Ben Nevis and Glen Nevis.

That includes landowners, conservation organisations,

mountaineering organisations and local community groups.

One of the responsibilities we have is to maintain

and look after the footpaths on the mountain and in the glen.

That includes this path that runs up from the north face car park,

up alongside Allt a' Mhuilinn , right up to the north face.

Some of you might remember, years ago,

this path was an absolute misery, it was a quagmire.

You had to struggle through mud and peat and it really was miserable.

I'm delighted to say the Nevis partnership has just started work

on the last phase of the maintenance of this path.

The difference is now unbelievable.

It's a fantastic path all the way up from the north face car park,

all the way up the side of Allt a' Mhuilinn,

up to the north face.

Despite what I said about this fantastic footpath,

I'm going to leave it now and head up onto Carn Mor Dearg,

not up to the north face.

My fingers and toes are crossed

that this cloud will raise just a little bit

so we can get the fantastic views of Ben Nevis that I mentioned earlier.

Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in Britain.

It is a mountain with two sides to its character.

Hill-walkers going up this tourist track on the other side

will be familiar with one side of its character, its benign side.

Once you come round to this side and you look at this northeast face,

you get a totally different impression of the mountain.

It is this northeast face, this row of gullies and buttresses and ridges

that make this one of the finest mountaineering mountains

in the world.

This whole area of Lochaber is known as the adventure capital of Britain

and that's not surprising.

Over behind me is Aonach Mor, one of the best ski areas in the country

and venue of the World Mountain Bike Championships.

Just across there,

the great winter playground

of the north face of Ben Nevis.

They've got it all going for them here at Lochaber.

Earlier this morning, I had this lovely idea

of sitting by the summit of Carn Mor Dearg in the sun

and telling you about this wonderful northeast face of Ben Nevis.

But in these conditions, in this wind,

I'm afraid that's not going to happen.

A number of years ago, the Scottish mountaineer Hamish Brown

wrote a poem about Ben Nevis.

He called it The Harlot

and he described the mountain as a creature of loveless loveliness.

I know exactly what he means.

On some days, this mountain can be enticingly beautiful.

On days like today, it can be cold and mean and very, very distant

and a wee bit nasty, to be honest.

Woo!

We're at the summit of Carn Mor Dearg, 1,220 metres.

And it is something else, it really is quite awesome up here.

But very cold and pretty windy.

On a good summer's day, I'd go from here, down over the Carn Mor Dearg,

onto the summit of Ben Nevis, down the tourist route

and back down the path that I came.

But not today. Oh, it's far too cold.

I think it'll take me all my time to get down.

It's very icy, the wind is not abating at all

and I'm going to keep moving.

So I'll see you next time.

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