Laura CaudillMy experience of Ben Nevis via the CMD Arete
Laura Caudill is a student studying an MSc in Outdoor Education at the University of Edinburgh. She recently completed a placement with Wild Roots Guiding as part of her course. Here she shares her experience of the famous hiking route; Ben Nevis via the CMD Arete. Read on for some valuable insight into the route if you are thinking of taking it on.
Rocks & Ridges
The past few days I’ve accompanied Anna Danby on her Rocks & Ridges course for the placement requirements of my master’s program. Throughout the course, Anna gave tips and tricks to help people feel more comfortable walking on more technical ground and how to navigate scrambling terrain safely.
The final day of the course synthesised all the knowledge from the previous days to successfully and safely tackle the infamous Ben Nevis via the CMD Arete. While I have quite a bit of experience hiking in the eastern US, I haven’t done any ridgeline walks before. The CMD arete was the first with 19.4 km, 1550 m of ascent, 9 hrs of hiking and scrambling. I was challenged mentally and physically but the day was one I won’t soon forget. Here are some tips and things I learned from my time on the arete.
Physical Difficulty
The first bit of the hike is the most difficult physically. Coming from the North Face car park, the hike starts up a forest track that eventually branches off to climb all the way up the 1220 meters to the summit of Carn Mor Dearg (CMD). The group I was with moved at a fairly quick pace and I was questioning my life choices about half-way up*. However, staying at the back and focusing on keeping a steady pace for myself allowed me to persevere to the top. After that first ascent, the rest of the route seemed physically easy.
* The best advice for this section of the route is to keep a sustainable pace. Anna describes this as a conversational pace where you can talk to group members (or yourself) without becoming super out of breath.
Mental Fortitude, Exposure, and Focus
Most of the time on the hills, I find the mental challenge more difficult than the physical. As I mentioned before, the first part of the route is a physical and mental trudge up, yet that’s only the start of the mental battle.
My group was blessed with clear skies, which lead to magnificent views but also obviously emphasized exposure. Because I had never done a ridgeline walk before, the height was the first thing I noticed at the top. I had to take a few steadying breaths and focused on the solid ground beneath my feet.
During the arete walk, whenever I started to get overwhelmed by the exposure, I kept my head down and tuned into the path in front of me and focused on putting one foot in front of the other. Once to the arete, I felt more secure during the scrambling since I had 3 points of contact on the rocks.
Focus is key for safe completion of this route. There were a few moments when I wasn’t paying attention to my movements and had a few missteps. Luckily, I was able to recenter myself and regain focus, however, it could’ve taken a more fatal turn had my missteps been more significant.
Kit
Anyone who has spent any time outdoors, especially in the Scottish mountains, knows the importance of good kit. While I tend to overpack my rucksack, there were a few items that I found really helpful – and some not so much.
Footwear
For my footwear, I wore a hefty pair of Meindl Bhutan hillwalking boots. The waterproofness of these boots came in handy at the start and end of the route when walking through the boggy bits. For the scrambling I think a lighter weight shoe that allows for more feeling with the rock would be better.
I found the clunkiness of my boots to be cumbersome in some spots on the arete, whereas my group members with lighter weight shoes seemed to have fewer issues. But with purposeful, focused steps, my boots weren’t too much of an issue. However, were I to do the hike again, I would prefer a lighter, more flexible boot.
Walking Poles
My walking poles were really useful going up the start and coming down the end of the route. Once to the top of CMD, I put my walking poles away as my hands were better to stabilize when going around the arete and scrambling up Ben Nevis.
Extra Layers
While it was summer and we had clear skies and some sunshine, the wind created quite a chill on the summits. Having a windproof outer layer when moving along the ridgeline and extra layers to put on when stopping for a snack helped keep me comfortable and warm throughout the day. My buff was a lifesaver for my easily chilled ears.
Sense of Achievement
Overall, the day was better than I could’ve imagined. When reaching the top of Ben Nevis, I felt accomplished and proud to have reached the highest summit in the UK with a challenging route, instead of the mountain track up. Plus, it seemed a lot cooler to pop up onto the summit in the opposite way of most of the many visitors.
The route back down follows the mountain track, and after having a quiet day with few others on the arete, dealing with the swarms of people on the mountain track wasn’t the best. But once we veered off at the loch back towards the north face car park, we were back to just ourselves, feeling very proud of what we had accomplished.
Want to give Ben Nevis via the CMD Arete a go?
I definitely recommend this route as the most interesting walking route to get to the summit of Ben Nevis. If you do head this way make sure you are fully prepared for a long mountain day that will be physically and mentally tough at times but well worth the reward.
If you would like to build your skills before tackling something like this then do check out the Rocks & Ridges course or book a bespoke guided day with Wild Roots Guiding.
