Their story, in their words…
For the Mark Evison Project, our group of six decided to hike up and around the tallest mountain in the UK: Ben Nevis. We knew this would be difficult considering several of us had never been camping before, let alone been hiking up a mountain, but we still wanted to independently plan and carry out this challenge. Sadly, before we had even departed, one of our group members fell ill and was unable to make the trip.
After a lengthy bus journey up North from London (and a great deal of luck with a tight bus transfer in Glasgow), we spent the majority of our first day scaling Cow Hill. We managed to admire the stunning views of Fort William and Loch Linnhe at its peak, despite the overcast and at times windy weather.
Wild camping near the Ben Nevis Visitor’s Centre that night, we then settled in for some sleep before attempting to climb Nevis itself the next day. However, when the morning came, the mountain forecast predicted a severe thunderstorm at 3pm, meaning we could not safely reach the top that day.
So, we adapted our plans and decided to hike to Lake Lochan, which lies at an elevation of 560m. The following day, after a very wet and gusty night, we completed the rest of the journey to the top; it was immensely rewarding to reach the peak after such a difficult climb.
Unfortunately, heavy cloud cover obscured the famous views and we couldn’t stay up top for long due to the harrowing -1°C temperatures.
The trek down was much easier and, with the skies clearing up, we were excited for our impending hike to Steall Waterfall after a well-deserved rest that night.
As was a trend by this point though, the weather was ready to foil our plans: the previous days’ rain had drenched the path to our destination. Bogged down in the mud, we managed to make it ¾ of the way to Steall Waterfall before needing to turn back to reach a suitable campsite. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the beautiful Lower Falls and scenery along the Water of Nevis river.
With the final day spent trekking back to Fort William bus station, we were amazed by the experiences we had and very sad to have to leave. We all feel like we got so much out of this incredible opportunity and are very grateful to the Mark Evison Foundation for making this possible: overall, it’s safe to say this has ended up being one of the most memorable experiences of our lives!
Another big thank you goes out to the members of our group, who all contributed to our success at every stage- we are proud of the teamwork that we kept up and are glad to have done this together.
