75-475: Nightingale Valley ( grid reference ST449751 ) is a 5.4 hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest near the town of Portishead , North Somerset , notified in 1989. This site in the Vale of Gordano is listed because of Pleistocene ‘plateau-deposits’ which include ‘cannon-shot’ gravels, fine sandy gravels and silty gravels with a wide range of erratic lithologies . This article about
150-548: A Site of Special Scientific Interest in England is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Ordnance Survey National Grid The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system ( OSGB ), also known as British National Grid ( BNG ), is a system of geographic grid references , distinct from latitude and longitude , whereby any location in Great Britain can be described in terms of its distance from
225-522: A head for heights . In common with other approaches on this side of the mountain, it has the advantage of giving an extensive view of the cliffs of the north face, which are hidden from the Pony Track. The north face of Ben Nevis is riven with buttresses, ridges, towers and pinnacles, and contains many classic scrambles and rock climbs. It is of major importance for British winter climbing, with many of its routes holding snow often until late April. It
300-645: A transverse Mercator projection with an origin (the "true" origin) at 49° N , 2° W (an offshore point in the English Channel which lies between the island of Jersey and the French port of St. Malo ). Over the Airy ellipsoid a straight line grid, the National Grid, is placed with a new false origin to eliminate negative numbers, creating a 700 km by 1300 km grid. This false origin
375-461: A danger to ill-equipped walkers. According to the observations carried out at the summit observatory from 1883 to 1904, fog was present on the summit for almost 80% of the time between November and January, and 55% of the time in May and June. The average winter temperature was around −5 °C (23 °F), and the mean monthly temperature for the year was −0.5 °C (31.1 °F). In an average year
450-504: A grid index where the tens denote the progress from West to East and the units from South to North. In the north of Scotland, the numbering is modified: the 100 km square to the north of 39 is numbered N30; the square to the north of 49 is N40, etc. The grid is based on the OSGB36 datum (Ordnance Survey Great Britain 1936, based on the Airy 1830 ellipsoid ), and was introduced after
525-450: A hat, gloves and a whistle; anyone who has not reached the summit after two hours is turned back. As of 2018, the record for the men's race has stood unbroken since 1984, when Kenny Stuart of Keswick Athletic Club won with a time of 1:25:34. The record for the women's race of 1:43:01 was set in 2018 by Victoria Wilkinson . Ben Nevis is becoming popular with ski mountaineers and boarders. The Red Burn ( Allt Coire na h-Urcaire ) just to
600-555: A maximum gradient of one in five. The opening of the path and the observatory made the ascent of the mountain increasingly popular, all the more so after the arrival of the West Highland Railway in Fort William in 1894. Around this time the first of several proposals was made for a rack railway to the summit, none of which came to fruition. In 1911, an enterprising Ford dealer named Henry Alexander ascended
675-533: A piano that had been buried under one of the cairns on the peak was uncovered by the John Muir Trust , which owns much of the mountain. The piano is believed to have been carried up for charity by removal men from Dundee over 20 years earlier. Ben Nevis is a popular hiking destination, with 150,000 people a year visiting the peak. The 1883 Pony Track to the summit (also known as the Ben Path ,
750-714: A warning when householders threw their waste out of a tenement window into the street. The gully's top wall was the refuse pit for the summit observatory. The north face contains dozens of graded rock climbs along its entire length, with particular concentrations on the Càrn Dearg Buttress (below the Munro top of Càrn Dearg NW) and around the North-east Buttress and Observatory Ridge. Classic rock routes include Rubicon Wall on Observatory Buttress (Severe) – whose second ascent in 1937, when it
825-558: Is 3,064 m (10,052 ft) and the distance walked 23 miles (37 km), with about 460 miles (740 km) of driving. It has been estimated that some 30,000 people attempt the challenge each year, often as part of organised groups, and the impact on the local areas has been criticised. Various records have been set for the challenge, including James Forrest's fastest self-supported completion in 16 days, 13 hours, 59 mins in 2021 and Imogen Boddy's fastest female completion on foot, with support, in 6 days 5 hours 43 mins, in 2024. In 2022
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#1732775893029900-467: Is an abbreviated alphanumeric reference where the letters are simply omitted, e.g. 166712 for the summit of Ben Nevis. Unlike the numeric references described above, this abbreviated grid reference is incomplete; it gives the location relative to an OS 100×100 km square, but does not specify which square. It is often used informally when the context identifies the OS 2-letter square. For example, within
975-621: Is called the Helmert datum transformation , which results in a typical 7 m error from true. The definitive transformation from ETRS89 that is published by the Ordnance Survey is called the National Grid Transformation OSTN15. This models the detailed distortions in the 1936–1962 retriangulation, and achieves backwards compatibility in grid coordinates to sub-metre accuracy. The difference between
1050-553: Is common for many Scottish mountains , it is known both to locals and visitors as simply the Ben . Ben Nevis forms a massif with its neighbours to the northeast, Càrn Mòr Dearg , to which it is linked by the Càrn Mòr Dearg Arête , Aonach Beag and Aonach Mòr . All four are Munros . The western and southern flanks of Ben Nevis rise 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) in about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) above
1125-675: Is grade IV on the Scottish winter grade , having been upgraded in 2009 by the Scottish Mountaineering Club after requests by the local Mountain Rescue Team, there being numerous benightments and incidents every winter season. In February 1960 James R. Marshall and Robin Clark Smith recorded six major new ice routes in only eight days including Orion Direct (V,5 400m); this winter version of Bell's Long Climb
1200-481: Is located south-west of the Isles of Scilly. In order to minimize the overall scale error, a factor of 2499/2500 is applied. This creates two lines of longitude about 180 km east and west of the central meridian along which the local scale factor equals 1, i.e. map scale is correct. Inside these lines the local scale factor is less than 1, with a minimum of 0.04% too small at the central meridian. Outside these lines
1275-521: Is now all that remains of the imploded inner dome of the volcano. Its form has been extensively shaped by glaciation . Research has shown igneous rock from the Devonian period (around 400 million years ago) intrudes into the surrounding metamorphic schists ; the intrusions take the form of a series of concentric ring dikes . The innermost of these, known as the Inner Granite, constitutes
1350-650: Is now the preferred coordinate reference system across Ireland. ITM is based on the Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system (UTM), used to provide grid references for worldwide locations, and this is the system commonly used for the Channel Islands . European-wide agencies also use UTM when mapping locations, or may use the Military Grid Reference System (MGRS), or variants of it. The first letter of
1425-740: Is on the west coast of Scotland and the greatest in Kent . These two datums are not both in general use in any one place, but for a point in the English Channel halfway between Dover and Calais , the ED50 longitude lines are about 20 m east of the OSGB36 equivalents, and the ED50 latitude lines are about 150 m south of the OSGB36 ones. Ben Nevis Ben Nevis ( / ˈ n ɛ v ɪ s / NEV -iss ; Scottish Gaelic : Beinn Nibheis , Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [pe(ɲ) ˈɲivɪʃ] )
1500-541: Is the highest ground in any direction for 738.6 kilometres (458.9 mi) before the Scandinavian Mountains in western Norway are reached. The Peace Memorial, on the summit, is a cairn which was erected on V J Day , 15 August 1945, by the Young Men's Class of Vicar Street Methodist Church, Dudley , led by Bert Bissell , "to the glory of God and in memory of the fallen of all races". They carried
1575-401: Is the highest land in any direction for 739 kilometres (459 miles). The summit is a stony plateau (a felsenmeer ). It features a number of monuments and the ruins of an observatory which was continuously staffed between 1883 and 1904. The meteorological data collected during this period is still important for understanding Scottish mountain weather. C. T. R. Wilson was inspired to invent
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#17327758930291650-742: Is the highest mountain in Scotland , the United Kingdom , and the British Isles . Ben Nevis stands at the western end of the Grampian Mountains in the Highland region of Lochaber , close to the town of Fort William . The mountain's name can translate to either "cloudy mountain" or "venomous mountain". The mountain is a popular destination, attracting an estimated 150,000 visitors a year, around three-quarters of which use
1725-433: Is to the northwest, and is often mistaken for Ben Nevis itself in views from the Fort William area. The other Càrn Dearg (1,020 m (3,350 ft)) juts out into Glen Nevis on the mountain's southwestern side. A lower hill, Meall an t-Suidhe (711 metres (2,333 ft)), is further west, forming a saddle with Ben Nevis which contains a small loch , Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe . The tourist path from Glen Nevis skirts
1800-518: The British Isles : this article describes the system created solely for Great Britain and its outlying islands (including the Isle of Man ). The Irish grid reference system is a similar system created by the Ordnance Survey of Ireland and the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland for the island of Ireland. The Irish Transverse Mercator (ITM) coordinate reference system was adopted in 2001 and
1875-743: The Charles Inglis Clark Memorial Hut (known as the CIC Hut), a private mountain hut 680 metres (2,230 ft) above sea level, owned by the Scottish Mountaineering Club The route then ascends Càrn Mòr Dearg and continues along the Càrn Mòr Dearg Arête ("CMD Arête") before climbing steeply to the summit of Ben Nevis. This route involves a total of 1,500 metres (4,900 feet) of ascent and requires modest scrambling ability and
1950-646: The Mountain Path or the Tourist Route ) remains the simplest and most popular route of ascent. It begins at Achintee on the east side of Glen Nevis about 2 km (1.2 mi) from Fort William town centre, at around 20 metres (66 feet) above sea level. Bridges from the Visitor Centre and the youth hostel now allow access from the west side of Glen Nevis. The path climbs steeply to the saddle by Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe (colloquially known as
2025-662: The River Nevis flowing down Glen Nevis – the longest and steepest hill slope in Britain – with the result that the mountain presents an aspect of massive bulk on this side. To the north, by contrast, cliffs drop some 600 metres (2,000 ft) to Coire Leis ( IPA: [ˈkʰɔɾʲə ˈleʃ] ). In addition to the main 1,345-metre (4,413 ft) summit, Ben Nevis has two subsidiary "tops" listed in Munro's Tables , both of which are called Càrn Dearg ("red hill"). The higher of these, at 1,221 metres (4,006 ft),
2100-702: The cloud chamber after a period spent working at the observatory. Ben Nevis is the Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic name Beinn Nibheis . Whilst Beinn is the common Scottish Gaelic word for 'mountain' the origin of Nibheis is unclear. Nibheis may preserve an earlier Pictish form, * Nebestis or * Nebesta , involving the Celtic root * neb , meaning 'clouds' (compare: Welsh nef )., thus 'Cloudy Mountain'. Nibheis may also have an origin with
2175-755: The retriangulation of 1936–1962 . It replaced the Cassini Grid which had previously been the standard projection for Ordnance Survey maps. The Airy ellipsoid is a regional best fit for Britain; more modern mapping tends to use the GRS80 ellipsoid used by the Global Positioning System (the Airy ellipsoid assumes the Earth to be about 1 km smaller in diameter than the GRS80 ellipsoid, and to be slightly less flattened). The British maps adopt
2250-565: The 'Halfway Lochan') at 570 m, then ascends the remaining 700 metres (2,300 feet) up the stony west flank of Ben Nevis in a series of zig-zags. A route popular with experienced hillwalkers starts at Torlundy, a few miles north-east of Fort William on the A82 road , and follows the path alongside the Allt a' Mhuilinn . It can also be reached from Glen Nevis by following the Pony Track as far as Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe , then descending slightly to
2325-843: The Ben Nevis War Memorial, Ben Nevis Peace Memorial, or The Fort William-Dudley Memorial and Peace Cairn A 2006 proposal to move the cairn to the foot of the Ben, was opposed by people in both Fort William and Dudley. The view from the UK's highest point is extensive. Under ideal conditions, it can extend to over 190 kilometres (120 mi), including such mountains as the Torridon Hills , Morven in Caithness , Lochnagar , Ben Lomond , Barra Head and to Knocklayd in County Antrim , Northern Ireland. In 2016,
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2400-577: The British National Grid is derived from a larger set of 25 squares of size 500 km by 500 km, labelled A to Z, omitting one letter (I) (refer diagram below), previously used as a military grid. Four of these largest squares contain significant land area within Great Britain: S, T, N and H. The O square contains a tiny area of North Yorkshire , Beast Cliff at OV 0000 , almost all of which lies below mean high tide. For
2475-535: The Mountain Track from Glen Nevis . The mountain has hosted a foot race since 1898. The 700-metre (2,300 ft) cliffs of the north face are among the highest in Scotland, providing classic scrambles and rock climbs of all difficulties for climbers and mountaineers . They are also the principal locations in Scotland for ice climbing . The summit is 1,345 metres (4,413 ft) above sea level and
2550-502: The Nevis Landscape Trust introduced a registration system for charity events on Ben Nevis. Ben Nevis's popularity, climate and complex topography contribute to a high number of mountain rescue incidents. In 1999 there were 41 rescues and four fatalities on the mountain. It has also been estimated that there are several deaths annually on Ben Nevis. Some incidents arise over difficulties in navigating to or from
2625-564: The North of the tourist path gives the easiest descent, but most if not all of the easier gullies on the North Face have been skied, as has the slope once adorned by the abseil poles into Coire Leis . No 4 gully is probably the most skied. Although Tower scoop makes it a no-fall zone, Tower Gully is becoming popular, especially in May and June when there is spring snow. In 2018 Jöttnar pro team member Tim Howell BASE jumped off Ben Nevis which
2700-588: The OSGB 36 lines in South Cornwall , the difference diminishing to zero in the Scottish Borders , and then increasing to about 50 m north on the north coast of Scotland . (If the lines are further east , then the longitude value of any given point is further west . Similarly, if the lines are further south, the values will give the point a more northerly latitude.) The smallest datum shift
2775-709: The OSGB36 National Grid location for Ben Nevis is at 216600, 771200. Grid references may also be quoted as a pair of numbers: eastings then northings in metres, measured from the southwest corner of the SV square. 13 digits may be required for locations in Orkney and further north. For example, the grid reference for Sullom Voe Oil Terminal in the Shetland islands may be given as HU396753 or 439668,1175316 . Another, distinct, form of all-numeric grid reference
2850-404: The Pony Track in relative safety. In the late 1990s, Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team erected two posts on the summit plateau to assist walkers attempting the descent in foggy conditions. These posts were subsequently cut down by climbers, sparking controversy in mountaineering circles on the ethics of such additions. Critics argued that cairns and posts are an unnecessary man-made intrusion into
2925-631: The Scottish peak. It is 922 metres (3,025 feet) high and is south of the head of Raudfjorden , Albert I Land, in the northwestern part of the island of Spitsbergen . Hung Fa Chai , a 489-metre (1,604-foot) hill in Northeast New Territories of Hong Kong was given the name Ben Nevis by British surveyors in 1901. Wee Ben Nevis was a character appearing in The Beano comic for a few years from 1974, drawn by Vic Neill , in
3000-579: The Wars; these include Bell's "Long Climb", at 1,400 ft (430 m) reputedly the longest sustained climb on the British mainland. In summer 1943 conscientious objector Brian Kellett made a phenomenal seventy-four repeat climbs and seventeen first ascents including fourteen solos, returning in 1944 to add fifteen more new lines, eleven solo, including his eponymous HVS on Gardyloo buttress. Much more recently, an extreme and as yet ungraded climb on Echo Wall
3075-433: The context of a location known to be on OS Landranger sheet 41 (which extends from NN000500 in the south-west to NN400900 in the north-east) the abbreviated grid reference 166712 is equivalent to NN166712. If working with more than one Landranger sheet, this may also be given as 41/166712. Alternatively, sometimes numbers instead of the two-letter combinations are used for the 100×100 km squares. The numbering follows
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3150-570: The coordinates on different datums varies from place to place. The longitude and latitude positions on OSGB 36 are the same as for WGS 84 at a point in the Atlantic Ocean well to the west of Great Britain. In Cornwall , the WGS 84 longitude lines are about 70 metres east of their OSGB 36 equivalents, this value rising gradually to about 120 m east on the east coast of East Anglia . The WGS 84 latitude lines are about 70 m south of
3225-466: The digits is for the first coordinate and the second half for the other. The most common usage is the six figure grid reference , employing three digits in each coordinate to determine a 100 m square. For example, the grid reference of the 100 m square containing the summit of Ben Nevis is NN 166 712 . (Grid references may be written with or without spaces; e.g., also NN166712.) NN has an easting of 200 km and northing of 700 km, so
3300-548: The first Saturday in September every year, with a maximum of 500 competitors taking part. It starts and finishes at the Claggan Park football ground on the outskirts of Fort William, and is 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) long with 1,340 metres (4,400 ft) of ascent. Due to the seriousness of the mountain environment, entry is restricted to those who have completed three hill races, and runners must carry waterproofs,
3375-602: The first competitive race was held on 3 June 1898 under Scottish Amateur Athletic Association rules. Ten competitors ran the course, which started at the Lochiel Arms Hotel in Banavie and was thus longer than the route from Fort William; the winner was 21-year-old Hugh Kennedy, a gamekeeper at Tor Castle, who finished (coincidentally with Swan's original run) in 2 hours 41 minutes. Regular races were organised until 1903, when two events were held; these were
3450-524: The height of Ben Nevis was officially remeasured to be 1344.527m by Ordnance Survey . The height of Ben Nevis will therefore be shown on new Ordnance Survey maps as 1,345 metres (4,411 ft) instead of the now obsolete value of 1,344 metres (4,409 ft). Ben Nevis has a highland tundra climate ( ET in the Köppen classification ). Ben Nevis's elevation, maritime location and topography frequently lead to cool and cloudy weather conditions, which can pose
3525-432: The laboratory, resulting in his invention of the cloud chamber , used to detect ionising radiation . The ruins of the observatory can still be seen on the summit. An emergency shelter has been built on top of the observatory tower for the benefit of those caught out by bad weather. The first path to the summit was built at the same time as the observatory and was designed to allow ponies to carry up supplies, with
3600-514: The last for 24 years, perhaps due to the closure of the summit observatory the following year. The first was from Achintee , at the foot of the Pony Track, and finished at the summit; It was won in just over an hour by Ewen MacKenzie, the observatory roadman. The second race ran from new Fort William post office, and MacKenzie lowered the record to 2 hours 10 minutes, a record he held for 34 years. The Ben Nevis Race has been run in its current form since 1937. It now takes place on
3675-473: The local scale factor is greater than 1, and is about 0.04% too large near the east and west coasts. Grid north and true north are only aligned on the central meridian (400 km easting) of the grid which is 2° W (OSGB36) and approx. 2° 0′ 5″ W ( WGS 84 ). A geodetic transformation between OSGB 36 and other terrestrial reference systems (like ITRF2000 , ETRS89 , or WGS 84 ) can become quite tedious if attempted manually. The most common transformation
3750-615: The materials, including a 2cwt memorial stone, to the summit. The inscription declares it to be "Britain's highest war memorial". A second plaque was added in 1965, brought by helicopter: "A tribute to the fallen of all nations from the youth associated with the World Federation of United Nations Associations and the International Student Movement of the United Nations." It is variously known as
3825-404: The most comprehensive set of data on mountain weather in Great Britain. In September 1894, C. T. R. Wilson was employed at the observatory for a couple of weeks as temporary relief for one of the permanent staff. During this period, he witnessed a Brocken spectre and glory , caused by the sun casting a shadow on a cloud below the observer. He subsequently tried to reproduce these phenomena in
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#17327758930293900-415: The mountain in a Model T as a publicity stunt. The ascent was captured on film and can be seen in the archives of the British Film Institute . A statue of Alexander and the car was unveiled in Fort William in 2018. In 2000, the Ben Nevis Estate, comprising all of the south side of the mountain including the summit, was bought by the Scottish conservation charity the John Muir Trust . On 17 May 2006,
3975-712: The natural landscape, which create a false sense of security and could lessen mountaineers' sense of responsibility for their own safety. In 2009, the Nevis Partnership moved and erected a number of 6-foot (1.8 m)-tall cairns on the summit plateau to aid navigation. Subsequently, the John Muir Trust cleared a number of smaller informal cairns in 2016 which had been erected by visitors, which were seen as dangerous as they could confuse walkers using them for navigation. In two avalanches that occurred on Ben Nevis in 2009 and 2016 two people died on both occasions. In two avalanches that occurred in 1970 and 2019 three people died on both occasions. A climber died in an avalanche on
4050-411: The north face in 2022. The Ben Nevis Distillery is a single malt whisky distillery at the foot of the mountain, near Victoria Bridge to the north of Fort William. Founded in 1825 by John McDonald (known as "Long John"), it is one of the oldest licensed distilleries in Scotland, and is a popular visitor attraction in Fort William. The water used to make the whisky comes from the Allt a' Mhuilinn ,
4125-433: The north face in Coire Leis in 1929. Because of its remote location, it is said to be the only genuine alpine hut in Britain. Tower Ridge is the longest of the north face's four main ridges , with around 600 metres (2,000 feet) of ascent. It is not technically demanding (its grade is Difficult), and most pitches can be tackled unroped by competent climbers, but it is committing and very exposed. Castle Ridge (Moderate),
4200-422: The northernmost of the main ridges, is an easier scramble, while Observatory Ridge (Very Difficult), the closest ridge to the summit, is "technically the hardest of the Nevis ridges in summer and winter". Between the Tower and Observatory Ridges are the Tower and Gardyloo Gullies; the latter takes its name from the cry of "garde à l'eau" (French for "watch out for the water") formerly used in Scottish cities as
4275-521: The origin (0, 0), which lies to the west of the Isles of Scilly . The Ordnance Survey (OS) devised the national grid reference system, and it is heavily used in its survey data, and in maps based on those surveys, whether published by the Ordnance Survey or by commercial map producers. Grid references are also commonly quoted in other publications and data sources, such as guide books and government planning documents. A number of different systems exist that can provide grid references for locations within
4350-440: The second letter, each 500 km square is subdivided into 25 squares of size 100 km by 100 km, each with a letter code from A to Z (again omitting I) starting with A in the north-west corner to Z in the south-east corner. These squares are outlined in light grey on the "100km squares" map, with those containing land lettered. The central (2° W) meridian is shown in red. Within each square, eastings and northings from
4425-403: The side of this hill before ascending Ben Nevis's broad western flank. The summit of Ben Nevis comprises a large stony plateau of about 40 hectares (100 acres). The summit is an example of a felsenmeer , a surface covered by rocks that are not exposed by mass wasting . The highest point is marked with a large, solidly built cairn atop which sits an Ordnance Survey trig point . The summit
4500-412: The south west corner of the square are given numerically. For example, NH0325 means a 1 km square whose south-west corner is 3 km east and 25 km north from the south-west corner of square NH. A location can be indicated to varying resolutions numerically, usually from two digits in each coordinate (for a 1 km square) through to five (for a 1 m square); in each case the first half of
4575-440: The southern bulk of the mountain above Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe , and also the neighbouring ridge of Càrn Mòr Dearg ; Meall an t-Suidhe forms part of the Outer Granite, which is redder in colour. The summit dome itself, together with the steep northern cliffs, is composed of andesite and basaltic lavas. The first recorded ascent of Ben Nevis was made on 17 August 1771 by James Robertson, an Edinburgh botanist , who
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#17327758930294650-428: The stream that flows from Ben Nevis's northern corrie. "Ben Nevis" 80/‒ organic ale is, by contrast, brewed in Bridge of Allan near Stirling . Ben Nevis was the name of a White Star Line packet ship which in 1854 carried the group of immigrants who were to become the Wends of Texas . At least another eight vessels have carried the name since then. A mountain in Svalbard is also named Ben Nevis , after
4725-453: The summit only to find "fragments of earthen and glass ware, chicken bones, corks, and bits of paper". It was not until 1847 that Ben Nevis was confirmed by the Ordnance Survey as the highest mountain in Britain and Ireland, ahead of its rival Ben Macdui . A meteorological observatory on the summit was first proposed by the Scottish Meteorological Society (SMS) in the late-1870s, at a time when similar observatories were being built around
4800-413: The summit sees 261 gales, and receives 4,350 millimetres (171 in) of rainfall, compared to only 2,050 millimetres (81 in) in nearby Fort William, 840 millimetres (33 in) in Inverness and 580 millimetres (23 in) in London. Rainfall on Ben Nevis is about twice as high in the winter as it is in the spring and summer. Snow can be found on the mountain for approximately 7 months out of
4875-402: The summit, especially in poor visibility. The problem stems from the fact that the summit plateau is roughly kidney -shaped and surrounded by cliffs on three sides; the danger is particularly accentuated when the main path is obscured by snow. Two precise compass bearings taken in succession are necessary to navigate from the summit cairn to the west flank, from where a descent can be made on
4950-405: The view from the summit was later sold at the Oor Wullie Big Bucket Trail charity auction to raise money for a number of Scottish children's charities. Ben Nevis is one of the three mountains climbed in the National Three Peaks Challenge , where participants aim to climb Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon , often within 24 hours and using motor transport between them. The total height climbed
5025-447: The words nèamh meaning 'heaven' (which is related to the modern Scottish Gaelic word neamh meaning 'bright, shining') and bathais meaning 'the top of a man's head'. Thus, Beinn Nibheis could derive from beinn nèamh-bhathais , "the mountain with its head in the clouds", or 'mountain of heaven'. The Scottish Gaelic word neimh can be translated as 'malice', 'poison' or 'venom', yielding 'venomous mountain'. As
5100-417: The world to study the weather at high altitude. In the summer of 1881, Clement Lindley Wragge climbed the mountain daily to make observations (earning him the nickname "Inclement Rag"), leading to the opening on 17 October 1883 of a permanent observatory run by the SMS. The building was staffed full-time until 1904, when it was closed due to inadequate funding. The twenty years worth of readings still provide
5175-539: The year. Ben Nevis is all that remains of a Devonian volcano that met a cataclysmic end in the Carboniferous period around 350 million years ago. Evidence near the summit shows light-coloured granite (which had cooled in subterranean chambers several kilometres beneath the surface) lies among dark basaltic lavas (that form only on the surface). The two lying side by side is evidence the huge volcano collapsed in on itself creating an explosion comparable to Thera ( 2nd millennium BC ) or Krakatoa (1883). The mountain
5250-485: Was "the climax of a magnificent week's climbing by Smith and Marshall, and the highpoint of the step-cutting era". The history of hill running on Ben Nevis dates back to 1895. William Swan, a barber from Fort William, made the first recorded timed ascent up the mountain on or around 27 September of that year, when he ran from the old post office in Fort William to the summit and back in 2 hours 41 minutes. The following years saw several improvements on Swan's record, but
5325-418: Was completed by Dave MacLeod in 2008 after two years of preparation. The north face is also one of Scotland's foremost venues for winter mountaineering and ice climbing and holds snow until quite late in the year; in a good year, routes may remain in winter condition until mid-spring. Most of the possible rock routes are also suitable as winter climbs, including the four main ridges; Tower Ridge, for example,
5400-783: Was considered the hardest route on the mountain, is described by W. H. Murray in Mountaineering in Scotland – and, on Càrn Dearg , Centurion and The Bullroar (both HVS), Torro (E2), and Titan's Wall (E3), these four described in the SMC 's guide as among "the best climbs of their class in Scotland". Many seminal lines were recorded before the First World War by pioneering Scottish climbers like J. N. Collie, Willie Naismith, Harold Raeburn , and William and Jane Inglis Clark. Other classic routes were put up by G. Graham Macphee, Dr James H. B. Bell and others between
5475-530: Was covered by BBC Scotland. On 6 May 2019, a team of highliners completed a crossing above the Gardyloo Gully, a new altitude record for the UK. Also in May 2019, a team of 12, led by Dundee artist Douglas Roulston carried a 1.5-metre (4.9-foot) tall statue of the DC Thomson character Oor Wullie to the top of the mountain. The statue, which had been painted by Roulston with a 360-degree scene of
5550-410: Was in the region to collect botanical specimens. Another early ascent was in 1774 by John Williams, who provided the first account of the mountain's geological structure. John Keats climbed the mountain in 1818, comparing the ascent to "mounting ten St. Pauls without the convenience of a staircase". The following year William MacGillivray , who was later to become a distinguished naturalist, reached
5625-404: Was one of the first places in Scotland to receive the attention of serious mountaineers; a partial ascent and, the following day, a complete descent of Tower Ridge in early September 1892 is the earliest documented climbing expedition on Ben Nevis. (It was not climbed from bottom to top in entirety for another two years). The Scottish Mountaineering Club's Charles Inglis Clark hut was built below
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