Ben Nevis: Mountain Track
Standing tall at 1345m (4413ft), Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in the UK which makes it a popular choice for hikers. With easy to access from the west-coast town of Fort William, and situated in the beautiful Ben Nevis and Glen Coe National Scenic area, it makes for a great addition to any Scotland highlands trip and is a hike you’ll never forget due to the incredibly beautiful views. We were lucky enough to summit on a rare clear and sunny day which helped massively but be aware that weather can be very changeable here and heavy rain and strong winds can come across quickly and relentlessly and take you by surprise.
On this occasion - our first time summitting the mountain and knowing that there was still around 4km of snow and ice at the top of the mountain - we decided to do the Mountain Track (also known as the Pony Track), the most straightforward route to the summit, but it’s by no means a walk in the park.
We had heard that the summit is normally 10°C cooler than the temperature at its’ base, and it’s something we can confirm after we felt the severe windchill and struggled to use our hands until we were about half way back down the mountain! We did this hike in April 2024 and ground temperature was around 5°C when we summited at around 7.30am.
Start/end point: Ben Nevis visitor centre or Glen Nevis youth hostel
Average duration: 6-8 hours return (it took us 5 hours 40 mins there and back)
Distance: 16km return
Elevation: 1345m
When to go: April-September best weather conditions - year round is possible but be careful of snow/ice in winter
Difficulty: Moderate
Maps/Info: The walking route is signposted to begin with, with a path which is easy to follow - there are several sets of stairs/stone steps on the route followed by bigger rocky sections and then sections of looser rocks and gravel. When we climbed it there was a lot of snow and ice for the last 3km.
Information provided by Visit Scotland:
https://www.visitscotland.com/things-to-do/outdoor-activities/walking/mountains-hills/ben-nevis
All Trails provides a great downloable map which will sync onto Google maps/Maps me/other formats as required:
https://www.alltrails.com/en-gb/trail/scotland/highlands/ben-nevis-mountain-path
The hike:
Starting early on this hike, we set off around 4:20am. We were both working later in the day so wanted to summit early and get back to the motorhome. We do love an early start on a hike though, so if we weren’t working we’d probably have begun around 5.30am. Beginning in the pre-dawn light was fun and exciting, and we used our head torches to light the way. We were staying at Glen Nevis caravan park so made our way towards Glen Nevis Youth Hostel and crossed the bridge to take the route which would join us up with the Mountain Track.
This section of the hike was very steep with some big loose rocks underfoot so be careful if you do begin in the dark. It was a fresh morning around 3°C so we had several layers on, but enjoyed the quietude and solace on the track - we didn’t see another person and couldn’t see any other head torches further up the mountain either. Looking back once we’d met the Mountain Track (you get to the track and turn right), we could see the lights of the campsite and youth hostel below us.
Around an hour into the route the sky began to lighten and we could finally turn our headtorches off. We continued uphill for some way on stair-like rocks, crossing over small bodies of water here and there, reaching a wooden bridge which you cross to get over a larger waterfall.
As you can imagine due to it being the highest mountain in the UK, most of the route is an uphill trudge. The stone-and-rock steps continue to lead you around the mountainside, eventually taking you through a mountain pass between two high peaks. Most people don’t know that you can’t actually see Ben Nevis from Glen Nevis, or for most of the hike. The mountains you pass through are of the same mountain range.
Once you’ve gone through the mountain pass, you’ll see a loch appear to the left of the route - this is Lochan Meall An T-suidhe - also known as “Halfway Lochan” due to it being almost halfway up the mountain. Follow the path near to the loch and you’ll come to a junction on the track, turn right here.
Soon after this you’ll reach the Red Burn viewpoint which has stunning views down across the valley and is also the location of another waterfall. You have to cross some water here using stepping stones, be careful if the water is high from snowmelt.
After this, the path becomes a series of steep switchbacks where the rocks are smaller and looser underfoot; prime slippage territory. Be careful of landslips in this area and keep to the path.
On our visit in April 2024, we had completed a few of these switchbacks before the path became covered with snow and ice, which it stayed covered with until the summit. The ice was hard-packed and easy to walk on, with other people’s footprints visible and giving a good indication of the best places to walk.
Eventually, the switchbacks flatten out to a sort of field of ice - quite easy to walk on and the route was still doable as we could follow the huge cairns which were leading the way towards the summit. There were two steep ascents after this point which took us a long time as they were covered in deep ice/snow and difficult to pass. However - this section is MUCH harder on the descent. Make sure that on your way down the “ice hills” you take caution and go slowly, using the footprints of others to gauge your direction and route.
Once we’d done the final ascent on ice, the route once again plateaued out to flatter ground, still covered in very deep ice/snow but now easier to walk on once more. Still following the cairns, we felt we weren’t too far from the summit but it evaded us and the cairns kept coming, until eventually in the misty distance we spied the summit.
We were so happy to have made it with so much ice and snow underfoot and no crampons or poles but were blessed by such a beautiful clear day and perfect weather conditions which really helped. Once at the summit we had a good look around and took loads of photos.
We got the drone out and got some really cool footage (it was a bit staggered due to not using the drone for a while, my fears of taking off/landing on ice and the fact that my fingers were completely numb!!) and then spent our time exploring the massive ice shelf, the summit cairn and the old observatory which opened in 1883 to provide meteorological data but closed in 1904 and is now in ruins but can be used as shelter in emergencies and is covered with stickers and plaques from hikers.
Once we realised we couldn’t stay up there much longer due to our freezing limbs, we began our descent back via the same route. As I mentioned before the descent down the ice hills was the part we had to take the slowest and was really quite tough without crampons but just about doable. The last section of the hike was also quite harsh on the knees as it is just so steep so take it slow if needed.
All in all we had a great experience climbing Ben Nevis for the first time and were chuffed to have achieved it with so much ice and no crampons or poles. We got back to our motorhome around 10am, meaning that we got up and down in around 5 hours 40 minutes.
A beautiful mountain with incredible views. We hope you all get as good weather conditions as we did!