Ben Nevis via Ledge Route with Abacus Mountain Guides - Winter Climbing

Hello from Fort William in the Scottish Highlands. On this adventure video, we'll be climbing the tallest mountain in the UK, Ben Nevis. I've hired a local guide from a company called Abacus Mountain Guides, as instead of taking the typical and well-known pony track to the summit, we'll be veering off and heading towards the North Face to tackle the infamous ledge route, which is a more technically involved rocky scramble that will require ropes and a strong nerve for heights. It's my first day here, so I'm just going to have a wander and gain my bearings. I'll show you around some of the shops and the sights in the town centre, and then we'll trek into our hotel. We're just staying at a Premier Inn, but you don't need to see that as they're all pretty much the same. So I'll trek back in later, and then I'll be seeing you bright and early in the morning, where I'll be meeting our guide at 7.30, so I'll see you then. Well, good morning. It's just after 7am, and it's still pitch-black dark. It likely won't get properly light for another couple of hours, which is typical for this time of year in northern Scotland. It's forecast to be a bitterly cold day up on the summits, so full winter gear and warm clothing will definitely be needed. We'll get our gear sorted and just wait for our mountain guide Mike to arrive shortly. So that's going to be equal on. That's not a bad thing, because the crampons come up forward on the summit. So you've got to place them down into the pockets between your feet, particularly your sharp crampons. If you get in somewhere like this, especially with the heel, that's when I'm walking, but also when I'm climbing, if I'm taking a high step up onto a ledge like this, I have seen people put crampons into the back of their own knee. You can hang your phone on it and use it as a clip. That helps the rescue. It's really hard for a rescue because the end is so long. You've also got a slightly moulded handguard. You've got a finger rest at the bottom, so you can grab the bottom of your axe, put it on a boulder or a rock, hook it into a crack and pull against it. By pulling against that bottom bit, your hand doesn't slide off the bottom. As you can see, we've got the screen. Now, as you can see, I've got something solid underneath it. I don't get wet. Somewhere like there, some place of shallow rock, I'm having my foot just under the water. The water's actually only on my crampon spikes, so up to this rubber rand on your boot, it's totally waterproof. You get up to here, it's less totally waterproof. That's a bit harder. Aim for that one and get up there? Yes, and you'll see the footprints going around. Off you go. Then we're going to move up here. As we're moving up now, we're moving together. When that rope goes quite tight, when it's tight like that, that's not me saying hurry up. Speed up because you think I'm pulling you and the rope goes slack. I'm like, oh, the rope needs to go tight and I'll go faster. You'll go faster. We'll end up racing up the hill. We'll keep going. Moving together, just a little bit of rope there. It's worth having a think about when we're moving like this, which we'll be doing a lot of today, what we can achieve. Look on the little ledge. Just going to stand there for a minute. See our middle point? Right here, sorry. Just rolling in the snow. How was that? Indoor skydiving places. Oh, wow. Last time, the kids were just, we want to go, we want to go. I would like to go on one of those. They're quite small children, so the wind effect will be... They are quite small, too. It's that mountaineering flexibility that will get you. Next year. It was at this point that, unfortunately, my GoPro battery died, so I missed the chance to get some footage of the summit. With the weather taking a serious turn for the worse, we didn't want to spend much time up there at all. It wasn't until we descended back down to a more sheltered spot where I could plug in another GoPro battery. You OK? Should do one thing at once, like I keep saying. Yeah, yeah. Oh, wow, look. Got us both. No sandwiches for you? Well, they choose to live here in the wintertime, like up on the summit, but they never sleep. Those cliff bars must keep them going for a while. I think so. You know, it's quite good carbohydrates and stuff in a cliff bar. The shadow on the snow is amazing with this light. Yeah, can't do it. It's almost really deep again. Yeah. It's sticking up. Yeah. Better than it did for most of the time. They have the weather forecast, and then they have a forecast of how they think the weather will affect the snow and what that's going to mean for you. Nearly there. Pretty good combo. Yeah. But there's a few places you'll find where they get up there. All right, so that's us back down to the cars. Firstly, thank you very much, Mike, for a fantastic day on Ledgeroot. It was a brilliant day. Tough conditions with the soft snow, but really enjoyed it. So what's the best way for people to find you and book on with yourself? Yeah, you can Google me or Abacus Mountain Guides. Yeah, brilliant. So I'll leave Mike's details below and also Mike at Abacus Mountain Guides, which, yeah, thank you for being flexible and booking on with the better weather today. But yeah, lovely to meet you. Good weather of the week, isn't it? Thanks very much. Cheers, Mike. Thanks. And just like that, it was time to make the long car journey home. There is something so humbling about the sheer magnificence of the Scottish Highlands that always leaves me with a great sense of appreciation for all of the wonderful things in my life. I have found whilst on these adventures that by taking yourself out of your comfort zone and into harsh, wild environments, you gain a feeling of accomplishment that is simply hard to find anywhere else. Until next time, Scotland. Thank you for watching.