Ben Nevis

6.20am and we were out, bright and breezy to head up Ben Nevis, with only a handful of people in front of us we made steady progress reaching the 1345m summit just after 10am.  We were teased with a brief hint of sunshine on the way up but the top was very definitely in the clouds, apparently on a clear day you can see Northern Ireland but we did the last section peering into the gloom for the next Cairn and trying not to stray off the path.  We didn't go up for the views however, we went up to stand at the highest point of the UK together.  Coming back down was a slog, though for the first thirty minutes we cheered the now steady stream of people ascending with encouragement "you are nearly there, honestly!"  It was also a slightly surreal people watching experience - while I didn't see anyone in flip flops you very quickly got to see why the Mountain rescue is out on a regular basis.  The highlights for me were the the lady carefully carrying her handbag (no hint of waterproofs or water) and the lad who had a joint before hurtling of back down the track on his mountain bike muttering "my buttocks are twitching!"  The ascent of The Ben is via The Pony Track which was laid to service the Summit Weather Observatory back in 1883, all I can say is "Spidey wouldn't like it!"