Big Ben

[siobhann2606]

4hours sleep and no appetite is not the best start to a Ben nevis day but that's how it goes down if its a charity day. I did it to raise money for Richard Parks 737 Challenge (raising £1million for Marie Curie Cancer Care) and that meant that no matter how crappy I felt, it was gonna be a great day because it was all about that

Anyway, I took along 2 of my friends just to keep me company and thought that we would have a great day out together but they had other ideas deciding that it wasnt much fun taking our time and decided to race on ahead. Thankfully its a popular place and I had plenty of other company. The Nev is a brilliant place to meet amazing people for sure and if it wasn't for them i would have been feeling pretty down and lonely at being left alone on a mountain (which I hear is actually something bad to do to your group if you are unqualified hint hint friends) Oh and yeah, i had the compass and the map so i was safe in the end when it got a tad foggy near the top.

In the end it took me 9 hours up and down thanks to going over on my ankle just before the final push and then falling in the waterfall... I guess that just my luck but I had a brilliant time and some pretty awesome laughs on the descent with some of the wonderful people I met and the waterfall was very refeshing This was just a gentler reminder of the Ben and I cant wait to be back, on its own terms in winter, ice climbing as it was meant to be climbed... bring on the gullies

.

just before I twisted my ankle

as good a place for a rest as any I suppose

and just like Scotland likes to prove... the weather can change whenever it wants

It clears on the way back down... overall a beautiful day

[skuk007]

Nice pictures Siobhann, glad you still enjoyed your day even though you didn't feel great.
You don't mention your "friends" again after they left you, here's hoping they waited for you at the top.

[siobhann2606]

No they didnt wait... they went back down and i did the top myself and just talked to everyone on the way down. Took my time and helped a man who was left alone by his friends down as he was struggling by keeping him company. I met up with them again after i got to the bottom. I didn make them wait quite some time though hehe