Highest man in Britain

Mate that is mental. I'm glad you survived that. February is one of the coldest months of the year in the UK! Thanks for sharing :)

tom davies

I am 5 months late to this but i just became a patron and I feel like sharing my Ben Nevis story. A few years back I went to Scotland and was staying in Oban at a friend's place, and we decided to climb Ben Nevis. We are from Barcelona, and mountains on our area are much higher than Ben Nevis, but about 15 degrees of latitude south. Therefore, such a thing as blizzards, snow and frozen lakes are not something we considered, even though it was February. So up we went in our jeans and our street jackets, we didn't even have gloves for god's sake... Anyway, halfway up, there is this point where you get off the side of the mountain and have to cross a small field near a lake and then go on up. When we arrived there, all we could see was a sea of white, no path, no nothing. Just white, with blizzard-like wind cutting our faces, making it hard to even talk. At this point we realized there was no way we could go on, we simply could not see the way to go, so we -wisely- decided to turn back. However, on donig so, we managed to see something through the snow storm. A frozen lake. It was the first time in our lives that we had seen a frozen lake, so we forgot everything else, and decided to walk a little closer to the lake. The very moment we left the path we started to get swallowed by the snow. Like hip deep. This, however, did not deter us, and we managed to step only on the small patches of grass that were barely visible trough the snow and get to the very edge of the frozen lake. It was an amazing feeling. While standing there, we noticed that the snow was setting on top of the ice, and that it was perfecty possible that we were standing on snow that was actually on top of the lake itself. We were discussing this possiblity when, like if it was scripted, the floor beneath us gave way and we fell into the frozen water- belly deep. It was all so stupid we could not help but laugh. I remember that walk back to the path with my frozen damp jeans, legs cramping, falling hip deep into snow if we stepped too far from the grass as the longest walk of my life. We somehow managed to get down in one piece, and get back to Fort William. To this day I've always wanted to go back and finally summit!

There's a reason alpinism was born in the UK, you can't take those bastards for granted, big hills or no!

Got up this morning. Felt the same as in your picture.

Wester

My Dad and I went up at the end of August this year and the weather could not have been more perfect. It was a beautiful sunny day with very little cloud. It is amazing how the weather changes in a month. Your picture reminds me of going up Snowdon in 2019 while being blasted in the face with sideways rain.

Climbed it with work. Got to the top in good time. In the way down making good time but 20 mins into the descent started slipping over and having trouble walking. Looked down and realised that both my soles of my shoes had come off. Had to climb down the rest with no soles on my boots. Took me hours and once contemplated calling mountain rescue. 10/10 would climb again

Nice! I’m probably the highest man in Ireland right now.

I hiked it on a family trip back in high school. Being from Alberta, my Dad used to the big rocky mountains thought this was a big 'hill' because "there are only big hills in the UK" . Needless to say we were very under prepared. I only had one 500ml bottle of purple fanta, a wind breaker and runners. We somehow made it to the top, froze nearly to death had to go the whole way back with no water. 2.3/10 would not recommend.

Had a few cans at the top. Thought I was taking a shortcut on the way back down and slid on my arse for what felt like an hour, in the snow, until I got to the top of the waterfall you pass about halfway up? Thought I was going to die then I seen some of the group I was with on the actual path. Good times.

Well done, Tom

Me and my other half went up the Gondola instead, as we had a 12 year old dog travelling with us. Video actually goes up in half an hour: https://youtu.be/g4qZ7Bon8NA We did manage to get up the Old Man of Storr at Skye though! Scotland is great :D

Bearthazar

That sounds brilliant. There was 8 of us and there's no way we would have all got on there, we could hardly move our limbs! Feel free to message me a YouTube Link btw cheers Jack

tom davies

I can't even imagine what that must have been like!

tom davies

I was studying the landscape and I actually reckon a straight line up Ben Nevis is possible. Shall I give it a go? haha

tom davies

Seeing you stand on that summit cairn reminds me of a ridiculous game some friends of mine introduced to me back in the summer. It’s simple but a good’un and it would make a great video: try to fit as many people on top of a trig point as possible. You know those concrete ones you normally find on a summit. I don’t think it’s possible to post a picture in these comments but pm me if you’d like to see a pic or hilarious video. We managed 6 people but apparently their record is 7!!! Insane!! Well done on Ben Nevis btw. Jack

Jack Marris

I have been there in September 2019. It was a beautiful sunny day.

All well and good mate, but show us the line.

Barry Craig