Hard day at the office today on the mountain path up Ben Nevis.
With rain lower down that quickly turned to snow by the half way point. This then froze completely by the summit and i don’t think ive had so much rime ice build up: buckles, zips and my whole waterproof jacket froze on the outside.
Very tricky conditions under foot as well with lots of fresh snow over the last 48 hours on top of the windslab made for hard going from 650 meters to the summit. With white out conditions above 1000m it took most of my concentration to get us to the summit, and back.
We may have been the only people to summit today out of about 20 on the hill. Others turned around before the summit mostly from being poorly kitted out with trainers, no rucksacks, jeans, lack of fitness and not being able to navigate in the whiteout.
Summit of Ben Nevis
Half way point
The summit
Rime ice