The Big Ben

As so often the case, a new day dawned

finding happy campers raring to go

and adopting unique measures to avoid midges.

Ben Nevis lurked quietly in the background.

The boys practiced their light sabre skills.

And after an obligatory before photo

we set off up the inappropriately named easy route.

Confidence was high as were spirits.

as the path wove ever upwards.

The views thanks to the clear weather were amazing 

which was just as well given the frequent pit stops required by the younger members of the team.

This is a quite high up bit and with a better camera you would see a dog in the bottom right it chasing sheep its owner in the top left out of shot, thats a mile to go down and retrieve your bad dog.

Upwards and onwards.

The path clear behind and a long way down

in fact this is the halfway point.

Time for a small celebration

being 1/4 of the way through the day.

The boys helped each other

and sometimes they needed help!

Here sat in the water course

just for a laugh.

The monotonous zig zags now loomed

ahead which a fairly steep bit 

zig

zagging uphill. Terrain changes here as we are now over 1100 metres 

above sea level so not much lives here

except mosses and children happy in the knowledge that they are higher than Snowdon.

Snow spotted

took their minds off tiredness

for a while at least. 

The final slog to the top 

began and spirits were not so high, it was colder

and snowing.

That didnt stop the apprentice belly sledging.

Not to be outdone RRMK2 had a go with much less success.

Again the fun of the snow made them forget the walking 

ahead 

and the inevitable slip ups.

Summit in sight 

they "race" to the cairn

which had a bit of a queue

however after a minute or so we 

were the highest people in the UK, 1344 metres from sea level in 4.5 miles RRMK2 8 years old and the apprentice 11 years old. 

Celebrating success in the snow.

There is a shelter on the summit but believe me you would have to be desperate to use it.

Any port in a storm tho.

The ruins were explored 

Eric and Ernie popped out of the rucksack with BMD

The walls of the observatory framed it nicely.

The snow and mist was now making it a bit time to get down safe time 

even though there were some very interesting things to see

we were not kitted out for full arctic

and anyway calories needed consuming 

to get the get up and go to get back.

Going home legs

pointed in the right direction

with all thoughts of frostbite

banished we made our way back avoiding the overhangs

and the endless falling over

finally making solid footing

only for it to start raining heavily.

Familiar land marks hove into view

as we rapidly descended 

marvelling at the camping skills of some brave soul

Beginning to have had enough now emergency sugar rations were handed out to bolster morale.

Still it rained.

Until there was 1 mile left

to go and the sun came out 

dried us and the path

bringing smiles to our faces, well nearly all our faces

changing to broad grins back at the bench.

The finish photo!

All that effort, worth it?

The boys thought so and enjoyed the bragging rights

while we refreshed ourselves

as our pizzas and curry was cooked

definitely a two handed pizza occassion.

Time for sugar drinks too. They were shattered.

Lucky for us we didn.t need the help of the air sea rescue 

Kit checked and dried out 

it was time for a celebratory beverage

and bants

late into the night.

Amazing effort from the boys, a very proud dad today.