Ben Nevis
17th March 2025
While it is common for avalanche forecasters to work on Ben Nevis, this mostly involves following the Allt a’ Mhuilinn past the CIC hut and on to somewhere on the North face. Today I decided to do something different and visit the other side of the mountain, going up the Pony track (also known as the Mountain track and the Tourist route) to the summit. The track was built in 1883 to allow ponies to get to the weather observatory on the summit.
The track is snow free for most of it’s length with patchy cover towards the top of the zig-zags and then mostly snowy from there to the summit. The summit was cloudy when I was there so no good views of other mountains but there was also some sun giving good conditions for Brocken spectres, glories and fog bows. The cloud cleared as I was coming down to give a sunny afternoon.
There has been little change in the rather sparse snowpack since yesterday with the main difference being some melting of the lower lying soft snow and a corresponding increase in the altitude of the snowline to around 1000 metres on Northerly aspects and higher where there’s been some sun.
Patchy old snow at the top of the zig-zags was easy to cross or avoid.
Snow cover on the summit plateau and a rimed up cairn. The other side of the cairn that was facing the sun was clear of rime.
Ben Nevis summit area with the memorial cairn, summit shelter and observatory/hotel ruins.
Looking round the rim of Coire na Ciste with Loch Linnhe and Loch Eil beyond. The rock is bare as it has had the sun on it but more shady Northerly aspects in the corrie are quite rimed up (as on the cairn in a previous photo).
Brocken spectre, glory and fog bow.
A brocken spectre with several glories around it. I think that I can just see a very faint 4th one.
The great tower on Tower Ridge.
Looking down Tower Gully.
Looking down Gardyloo Gully.
Surface hoar has developed on the snow surface in the cold, calm conditions.
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