Tuesday 25th July 2006
The weather for this walk was sensational and better than I could have ever hoped for a walk up the Ben. I went up Ben Nevis two years ago in poor weather and I was bored by the whole experience of it, but not so on this day; I was determined to do the CMD Arête and I had excellent weather for it. Going straight out of the youth hostel and across the river I climbed the busy tourist path in sweltering heat that was already becoming unbearable. More than on any other part of the walk this initial climb was the hardest, solely because of the heat. Once I reached the lake, Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe, the temperature was cooler and in the more exposed areas there was a lovely breeze.
Soon after the lake I left the tourist path and headed across the hillside following the contours around the headland into the valley of Coire Leis which revealed stunning views of the crags that lie below the summit of Ben Nevis. The path slowly descended to a stream as I approached the CIC hut, but before reaching the hut I crossed the stream and began the gruelling ascent of the huge hill opposite. Despite using large rocks as steps I still found this a really difficult climb, but eventually and after a lot of effort I successfully reached a clear path that crosses the hillside just below the top of the ridge. This path led me up to the top of Carn Dearg Meadhonach and revealed stunning views of the Aonochs beyond and the complex crags of Ben Nevis to my right. 
Passing along the top of the ridge I arrived at the Munro, Carn Mór Dearg where I admired the awesome views all around me and had lunch. After lunch I began the exciting traverse of the CMD Arête, naturally staying right on top of the ridge jumping from boulder to boulder all the way. Normally I'm not too good with heights, though I'm not as bad as I was, but I find edges like this really fun, that is except for Crib Goch, which scared the hell out of me. I think I'm fine with these edges so long as I can see the bottom; if it's cloudy, like when I went over Crib Goch in 2005 then I panic. I was finding that these edges are rarely as bad as I imagine them to be and this ridge is a case in point: I was scared stiff at the thought of doing this ridge, but it's really quite tame; the brilliant weather, though, does help.
Passing along the top of the ridge I arrived at the Munro, Carn Mór Dearg where I admired the awesome views all around me and had lunch. After lunch I began the exciting traverse of the CMD Arête, naturally staying right on top of the ridge jumping from boulder to boulder all the way. Normally I'm not too good with heights, though I'm not as bad as I was, but I find edges like this really fun, that is except for Crib Goch, which scared the hell out of me. I think I'm fine with these edges so long as I can see the bottom; if it's cloudy, like when I went over Crib Goch in 2005 then I panic. I was finding that these edges are rarely as bad as I imagine them to be and this ridge is a case in point: I was scared stiff at the thought of doing this ridge, but it's really quite tame; the brilliant weather, though, does help. 
At the other end I began a long climb up to the top of Ben Nevis and what an awesome experience really is the summit. Rarely is 'The Ben' clear of clouds but on this day I had clear views all around me and I took advantage of it by exploring every promontory and gully. The summit was of course packed with people so I tried to head off into the more remote areas of the top, even venturing across to Carn Dearg in order to continue to admire the rocks below the summit. When I finally became tired of this I made my way across the western slopes until I crossed the stream in Coire na h-Urchaire and followed a steep path down to join the tourist track at the beginning of the last zigzag. Following the crowds down I came off the mountain and once again I was hit by the heat as I descended into Glen Nevis. This was a very hot day, but it was nice and cool at the top of the highest mountain in Britain.
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