Half Ben Nevis
Minimum Time: 6hrs 15mins
Ascent: 2,000ft
Difficulty Level: 3 - Hard
Paths: Hill paths, well-built, then very rough, 4 stiles
Landscape: Slopes of Britainâs biggest hill
Dog Friendliness: Keep on lead through Achintee grazings, by River Nevis
Parking: Large car park at Glen Nevis Visitor Centre
Public Toilets: At start
Description:
For 21 years in the 19th century, an observatory was sited on the summit of Ben Nevis. It recorded, to the surprise of few, that this is one of the wettest spots in Britain. Averaged over the year, the summit is sunny for about two hours per day. This walk of half the hill shows you the mountainâs great northern crags and the rocky hollow of Coire Leis. The further edge of the corrie is the jagged line of Tower Ridge, Britainâs longest rock climb. In early spring the damp Atlantic winds coat the crags in thick hoar-frost, over which climbers with crampons and ice axes have created hundreds of routes. Charles Wilson, a grammar school teacher turned Cambridge professor, came to Ben Nevis on holiday in 1894. The Scottish-born professor was so struck by the effects of sunlight on the clouds above Coire Leis that he attempted to reproduce them in the Cavendish Laboratory. In so doing he invented the Wilson cloud chamber, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1927. In summer, the moist Atlantic air that sweeps into Coire Leis condenses into cloud, and then rain. Each droplet forms around a ânucleation centreâ such as a speck of dust. Perfectly clean air can become supersaturated: it has more than enough moisture to form clouds, but canât. When moist air rises up Ben Nevis it expands due to the drop in pressure. As it expands it cools, allowing the water droplets to appear. In Wilsonâs cloud chamber, the pressure drop was achieved with a bicycle pump working backwards. One pull of the pump handle, and any passing particle became suddenly visible as a pencil-line of white cloud. The step-up in size is astonishing: itâs as if a model aeroplane left a vapour trail as wide as the solar system, visible to an observer on another star! High energy particles can be seen zipping through the cloud chamber. Thus the positron (the positive electron) was discovered in 1932 and the muon (an exotic heavy electron) in 1937. It is actually possible to make your own Wilson cloud chamber - simply cool air with dry ice and shine a torch in. The successor to the cloud chamber was devised while gazing into a glass of beer. Donald Glaser earned the Nobel Prize for his bubble chamber in 1960.
While you're there: From Fort Williamâs Town Pier, a passenger ferry across Loch Linnhe lets you explore the woods of Camusnagaul. Longer cruises visit the fish farms and seal island, while the evening cruise along Loch Eil gives, if itâs clear, the best views of Ben Nevisâ great northern corrie.
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Where to eat and drink: he Ben Nevis Inn, at the bottom of the Mountain Trail, offers food and music to returning walkers. Itâs the local of the Lochaber mountain rescue team, and featured in the BBC programme Rockface. Children are welcome, and dogs in the beer garden. The walk also passes Nevisport (at the north end of Fort William, with a bar and self-service restaurant) and the Ben Nevis Takeaway, Inverlochy.
Directions:
At the downstream corner of the car park, a bridge crosses the River Nevis. The path turns upstream, then crosses fields to a track. Cross on to the signed âBen Pathâ to Ben Nevis. After a long climb, a notice points you to a zig-zag up left on to the half-way plateau. The path passes above Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe, the Halfway Lochan, down on the left. 2 The main path takes a sharp turn back to the right, heading for the summit. Your path descends ahead, behind a wall-like cairn. After 0.25 mile (400m), bear right on a very rough path that climbs gently over peat bog to a cairn on the skyline. Here it becomes rough and rocky as it slants down across the steep slide slope of the valley of Allt aâMhuilinn. Eventually it joins the stream and runs up beside it to the Charles Inglis Clark (CIC) Hut. 3 Return for 100yds (91m) and cross the stream on the right to join a clear path which leads downhill. This descends a rocky step with a waterslide and reaches a ladder stile into plantations. 4 Go down a forest road, which bends left across a bridge, then contours across open hill. After 0.5 mile (800m) the main track turns downhill in zig-zags. At the slope foot, it passes under power lines. In another 220yds (201m), take a smaller track on the right, signed âDistilleryâ, soon to rejoin the Allt aâMhuilinn. Pass out between distillery buildings to reach the A82. 5 Cross the River Lochy on Victoria Bridge opposite and turn left into a fenced-off side road and left again along a street. It rises to a railway bridge. Turn left here on the long Soldiers Bridge back across the Lochy. At its end, turn right over a stile for a riverside path. This soon joins the hard surfaced Great Glen Way path. This becomes a built path into woodland. After two footbridges, bear left on a smaller path to the edge of Inverlochy. Turn right, then left into a street with copper beeches. This leads through Montrose Square to the A82. 6 The street opposite is signed âBen Nevis Footpathâ. Shortly, take a stone bridge to the Glen Nevis road. Turn left for 0.25 mile (400m) to a track on the left. Recross the Nevis on a green footbridge and turn right to a small riverside footpath. This rejoins the road briefly, then leads up-river to the footbridge at Glen Nevis Visitor Centre.
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