Flip Flops On The Ben

On Thursday I was working for West Coast Mountain Guides. I was working alongside Seoras Lindsay and we were on our way up the Tourist Track on Ben Nevis with the 2011 Smithers Fund raising team from Poole.

Seoras, the team of 14 and I got on our way at about 8.30am . As usual the track was busy all the way up and the way down. At an early stage Lisa's boots started to deteriorate and the sole was falling off in chunks!

Just before the soles completely wore through to her feet, Lisa came up with the genius idea of strapping a pair of flip flops (that she happened to have with her in her bag!) to the base of her shoes - kept in place by a spare pair of socks and her original socks pulled down - original and it worked!!

For the first half of the climb we were below the gathering clouds and the views were terrific.

The cloud had descended and by the time we had reached the snow we were fully enveloped.

All 14 successfully reached the summit and normal celebrations commenced...

Celebrations with beer and chocolate!!

A summer view of the very steep slabby face of Indicator Wall on the side of Gardyloo Gully. Gardyloo gully was originally called Tin Can Gully and used as a rubbish chute for the old Observatory. The summit and the shelter can be seen behind.

The view from the top of Tower Gully looking towards the summit. Gardyloo Buttress visible in the foreground.

The full team of 14 reached the bottom of the mountain and so started the second celebration. Flip flops were still intact but some knees and hips were very sore. Congratulations to the entire team and well done to Laura for all the effort organising it (starting about 6 months ago!). What challenge for fund raising next year?