Lost North Face VE25 Tent @ Ben Nevis

[shibuyaku]

Well, "lost" is not the correct word. We left a badly damaged The North Face VE25 tent on ben Nevis.

We pitched it right here, next to Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe (east side).


Had very bad conditions on that day and only pitched our tent to get in the sleeping bag for ~15-20 mins because I "found" a small pond with my crampons on our descent, got too much water in my boots and lost feeling/control in my right foot. When I finally managed to feel/move my toes again we packed up, left the tent and BAM a very nasty gust kinda killed the tent (broke all or almost all of the poles). Apparently gusts were up to 90 mph that day (2013-03-21) - I'd say that could be true.
We left it up there because it was getting dark and there was no way of salvaging that tent while wearing gloves. Putting our gloves off would result in loosing control of our fingers very fast so that wasnt really an option. The weather continued to be this bad for 3 days and we're now back in Germany...

If anyone stumbles upon said tent and it's still in some kind of useable condition (minus the poles): Please take it with you, I am more then willing to pay a decent reward. Loved that tent :\


This is what my tent looked like 4 days before in the Torridons

[brpro26]

Shame on you leaving that debris for someone else to carry back down the hill.

On the other hand a good example of what to do in extreme conditions when the sh*t hits the fan.

Small price to pay to walk away....we'll send you the bill...

[Caberfeidh]

I did the same with a Vango 200 series at Sligachan, when it was shredded in a storm. It had nice celtic knotwork/ Pictish animal designs on the walls of the inner tent. And a silvered flysheet to keep warm on cold nights or you could invert it to reflect the sun on hot days.

[shibuyaku]

Shame on you leaving that debris for someone else to carry back down the hill.

On the other hand a good example of what to do in extreme conditions when the sh*t hits the fan.

Small price to pay to walk away....we'll send you the bill...

You are right. And I am not lying when I tell you that I felt very sorry about that. Went to the visitor centre next day and told them what happened, they understood and called it the right decision. I asked them if there's someone who helps keeping the mountain clean and they told me about the John Muir Trust - My donation is already out.
Sorry again for leaving that pile of rubbish up there.

[mrssanta]

don't worry about it, it was a difficult decision to make, but worlds apart from dropping sweety wrappers and coke bottles. Forgiveness is possible

[electricfly]

Update:

Your TNF tent is no longer there. Was heading up to the CIC hut on Monday evening and took a stroll across that way to check for you. There was a small glimmer of hope when I did see some tent material near the lochan shore, sadly it was from an old regatta tent that appeared to have been there for some time.

Did one of your party have a sore throat? I came upon a couple of 2litre, green bottles of water (still full) and a strip of "Dobendan Strepsils" throat lozenges which I note were manufactured in Germany. No sign of the tent though, i'm afraid, not even any broken poles.

[shibuyaku]

Update:
Did one of your party have a sore throat? I came upon a couple of 2litre, green bottles of water (still full) and a strip of "Dobendan Strepsils" throat lozenges which I note were manufactured in Germany. No sign of the tent though, i'm afraid, not even any broken poles.

There were a few things left inside the tent (we grabbed what we could from the outside but there was no way of getting in there again) - I remember:
=> 1-2 packs of raw fructose
=> Dobendan throat lozenges
=> 3 bottles of water (green, bought from the cooperative)
=> 1 sleeping bag
=> 2 bars of chocolate

Thanks for taking a look! Apparently the tent got blown away since the bottles were somewhere inside when we left it.

[Buggiba]

You were right about the weather. 4 of us arrived at the Ben Nevis Inn on Thursday 21/03/13, by bus from Aviemore via Inverness, only to be told that the forecast for Friday was severe gale 9 backing to storm force 10 winds. Boy did it blow, not gusts but a constant stream . Abandoned our plans to take on the Ben at that point and went to the pub instead . Driving through Glencoe early morning on Saturday 23/03/13 we did not see your tent but discovered several (4 or 5) motorhomes, minibuses and vans that had been blown off the road and shredded amongst the rocks . The wind was that strong that the snow couldn't settle and was simply blown away. Perhaps that was why Arran copped it so bad. Interestingly we did see 5 people set off up Ben Nevis on the Friday lunchtime. I hope they all got down safely.