Ben Nevis via the CMD Arete

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On a fine day this is one of the great walks in Scotland. The 'CMD Arete' is an abbreviations for the 'Carn Mor Dearg Arete', the narrow ridge joining Carn Mor Dearg to Ben Nevis.

At the time I made this ascent walkers could still park at the Golf Course. Following lots of problems an alternative has been arranged near Torlundy (GR 144763) which should now be used. However, I was able to enjoy the short walk across the golf course, only to miss the correct exit point. Some diversions finally resulted in my climbing a deer fence (in a corner) to join the steep path up to the yellow crane. The crane marks a water intake for the hydroelectric power for the aluminium smelter at Fort William. Below it the stream bed was almost dry - above it was running water which I could not resist.

I carried on for a short distance until it was time to branch left up the broad slopes of Carn Beag Dearg. The going was dull, but as I gained height and made ground towards the summit there were more and more impressive views of the Ben Nevis cliffs. Eventually the gradient decreased and there was a series of blind summits until I reached the summit of Carn Mor Dearg. At 1223m this ranks as M8, but is massively overshadowed by the Ben itself. After admiring the view and chatting with a couple who appeared from the east ridge, I pressed on. The route to the Ben starts with a drop of about 200m along the CMD arete, which gets progressively narrower. The route was very much easier than I imagined, until I thought of what it might be like in full winter conditions. After the lowest point I continued past the abseil posts, up the steepening boulder slope.

All of a sudden I had reached the top! On my right was the top of the north-east Buttress, complete with two climbers. The actual summit had some dirty snow, with quite a lot of litter and lots of people. I struck up a conversation with another woman, who thought I was terribly brave for making the ascent on my own. I didn't (and don't) think so, but there seem to be quite a number of people who would agree with her judging by the popularity of the guided walks offered by the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team in recent years. The visibility was fairly good, but I found the view disappointing in that it was obvious just how much smaller every other hill in sight was. However the top of Tower Ridge looked highly exciting as I sat watching a small group cross Tower Gap. At the time I wondered why they were taking so long!

I had taken my ice axe with me and headed off to the descent towards the Red Burn. Much time, and wear and tear on my knees was saved by sliding down the long snowpatch over the burn (this was late May). The snow just reached the start of the last zigzag, which I ran down. I carried on walking northwards across the moorland back to the yellow crane. Eventually I arrived back at the car after a long and highly enjoyable day out.