Set off in the car at 06:50am to drive to Fort William, Scotland. The drive was straightforward and uneventful. I went the Stirling way which meant that I avoided the road works along Loch Lomond. I'd pre arranged to leave my car at Achintee House in Glen Nevis as I wanted to spend a couple of days camping in the area. I arrived just before 12:30 and as I pulled in to the car park a man came over to see if I was the walker who'd contacted them about parking for a couple of days. I confirmed I was. I assumed it was Scot Gunn of Achintee House but I didn't check. We chatted about Ben Nevis and he knew quite a lot about it and also the old Observatory. He showed me in the house where he had several old photos on the wall of the Observatory and also the Temperance Hotel.

Achintee House

Looking back to Lochan Meall an t-Suide

I left him a copy of my planned route and a spare car key in case he needed to move it for some reason. I returned to the car to do my final packing then set off just after 13:00 with pack, tent and two days supplies. I headed up the main path towards Ben Nevis but that wasn't my objective today. The path is well maintained and even with a full pack it wasn't a problem climbing to Lochan Meall an t-Suide. I was about half way up when I realised I'd left my collapsible walking pole and integral ice axe in the car. It's something I don’t normally carry in the summer months but I could have done with it because of some difficult ground ahead. I tried to break a branch off one of the few trees by the path but without success. I pressed on to the Loch. Many walkers were descending. The weather forecast was terrible and the high winds they said were coming already had. The wind seemed to increase as I got higher and at the Loch I had to occasionally stop to wait for a bad gust to pass. Above the loch the path spits. The right goes to Ben Nevis Summit and the left to Coire Leis and the C.I.C. Mountain Hut. I turned left to head for the hut.

Thankfully the cloud was fairly high and I had good views, though not very clear. The path splits again so took the minor path to the right, which is the one I wanted. The large west face of Carn Mor Dearg came in to view as I entered the choire. Below was the river and a substantial path on the far side. My path was of mixed quality. Generally it followed the contour but was quite bouldery in places. The path bends to the right below the looming cliffs of Ben Nevis. Even when in the Choire I still didn't get a view of the hut until I was about half a kilometre away. It still seemed to take ages to get there. When I arrived the whole place was locked up. Not even an outbuilding was available for travellers to shelter from the wind. A large wind turbine was whizzing madly on the far side of the hut.

Charles Inglis Clark in 1918

The C.I.C. memorial hut today. Built in memory of Charles Inglis Clark, killed in WW1

the hut being built in 1928

C.I.C. interior in 1929

A couple were sat behind the hut trying to get some shelter from the wind. I looked for shelter on the other side to eat my sandwiches. I was very concerned about the wind as my planned camp was high on Carn Mor Dearg. Just over 900m up is a spring and possibly some flat ground to pitch a tent. I set off east, directly up the side of the valley. The going was steep but generally not too bad. My objective was in a more diagonal line but that would take me across loose boulder fields. I kept with the easier grass and vertical line. Secretly I was hoping I would come across a small shelf that was just big enough for a tent.

Camp 1. Any port in a storm.

the massive north east wall of Ben Nevis

When I'd reached 900m I saw a small grassy shelf that wasn't quite wide enough for a tent. I decided to be adventurous and built a retaining wall from the many stones around. This widened the shelf to tent size. It took much longer that I'd expected. There was a lot of moss covering the valley side which had the appearance of a sheep’s fleece. It came away easily so I used it to cover the stone extension so I had a good base for my tent. The wind continued to be a major problem and as I set the tent up and fixed the poles a gust of wind flattened the tent and snapped one of the poles in two. This was obviously a major problem but I had one spare pole section. It was extremely fiddly removing the shock chord to change the snapped section but I managed it eventually. My worry now was if the wind damaged the tent further. It was well after 7pm when I climbed in to the tent to start cooking my evening meal. The only good side was that I had a wonderful view of the gloomy cliffs of Ben Nevis. The tent was battered mercilessly and the noise of the tent fabric cracking in the wind was deafening.