I Hiked the UK’s Highest Mountain Alone | Solo Van Life [ep 3]

Good morning everyone, welcome back to another video and you join me today from the side of the UK's highest mountain, the Nevis. We are currently about 800 feet up, it's been a pretty good trail so far although incredibly steep and as I'm not in peak physical condition right now it's certainly a little challenging. The weather is set to be glorious today, blue skies, no cloud and we've had a lot of rain the last couple of weeks so the actual side of the mountain looks relatively clear of snow until you get quite high up. Fingers crossed we're going to be in for a good hike. I'm out of breath already. I think everybody has seen the weather forecast today and everyone's had the same idea. There's quite a few people who have passed me already because I'm stopping to film and enjoy the view and catch my breath. So the hike today uses the main tourist path up Ben Nevis. We're not doing the North Face via CMD because I'm just not in the physical condition you need to be in to do that. That would be quite brutal. So we're going up the main tourist path which is still a long hike, it's still I think it's at four and a half thousand feet. I'm not sure how long it's going to take us because I am stopping to film and enjoy the view, catch my breath. I wanted to take you guys along with me show you the views so we can enjoy it together and we're going way up there. So that's the path we've come up on and we've gone back on ourselves and then going up here. This definitely feels like a good place to stop and have something to eat and refuel. I hope you can hear me right as well because I've taken the windsock off the microphone and I left them in the van which was not a great move. I'm just starting to get cold as well so I need to put a layer on. I think we'll have a banana and some drink. The view is amazing from up here. You can see all the way down to Fort William. I don't think I've actually ever done a hike where I've hiked through a waterfall where it's snowing. I've gone through plenty of waterfalls before but not where it's snowing. Pretty cool. Oh this is going to be cold. We'll get just a little bit more I reckon. See how cold this is. Yeah that's that's cold. Good though. All right I've put my gloves on as well because my hands are getting cold. I think we're good to go. I've got everything. I apologise if at some points it gets really windy and it sounds terrible. I forgot the little windsocks for the microphone. The little furry things that go over my mic that stop the wind noise. For some reason I took them out my bag and and I didn't put them back in. So I'm gonna have to try and record audio out of the wind today which is going to be hard but we'll see how we go. So the summit is up over up over there through the clouds and you can see the campsite where we're staying just down there. So the views are absolutely spectacular and I think it's only about 10, half 10, something like that. I'm not actually sure what the time is. Well I said between 10 and 10 30 and it's 20 past 10. So that wasn't a bad guess. I just met a guy who got the bus from Edinburgh as well to come over and hike Ben Nevis today which is really cool. So I think everybody is kind of taking it that today's going to be a good weather day. Fingers crossed when we get to the summit the clouds clear up a little bit and we can have ourselves a good view. That'll be nice. I like this view though, look at it. At some point I'm probably going to have to stop and put on my crampons because there's like stretches now which are compact snow which in turn is like turning to ice and it's getting quite slippery so but then you've got other sections like this which are all right. We'll see how we go. So we are 3.2 miles in, two and a half hours and 2,300 feet we've climbed so we're about halfway there and the trail has now turned to snow so I'm going to put my crampons on because I can feel myself slipping a little bit. Got the crampons on and we are now ascending into the clouds. Look at that. Looks pretty sketchy but really hoping that sun's going to burn off the mist and clouds up here and we're going to have a good view in a bit. You can see it's starting to get a little bit misty. I'm definitely starting to feel it now. I wouldn't say I'm tired but my pace has slowed down and it's definitely got a lot more steep and it's turned from kind of boulders and a nice path to just mountain screed. It goes from this to patches of where loads of snow is built up and then back to this. It's kind of good that it's hidden behind clouds because then it disguises what's in front of you. All right I'll check back in with you when I'm a little closer to the top. Completely white out conditions up here now. Can't see anything so I'm really hoping when we get to the top that we can stay up there for a little while and see what the weather does and whether the sun's going to burn some of this cloud off. I'm really struggling. It's not until you do stuff like this where you realize how unfit you are. I used to be able to crush walks and hikes and I used to be so fit in the gym. Over the last couple of years I've just let myself go with my weight. We've not been able to cope with life, struggling with different things and just have my food as a go-to and this is the price I'm paying. I'm determined to turn a new leaf and lose the weight so I can do stuff like this and really enjoy it. It's like we just landed on a different planet. If it wasn't for these guys up here and my all trails map I wouldn't have a clue where we're going. Luckily there's quite a few people on the mountain today and there's a bit of a trail left. I'll check back in with you guys when we're nearly at the top. It's so mad because the ground's white, the sky's white, you get so disorientated so quickly if you didn't know where you were going and if you didn't have other people up here. It's quite scary actually but I am enjoying it. I'm determined at some point today to be the highest person in the UK. 100 feet high. I didn't think I'd make it at one point. Quite emotional actually because I didn't realise how unfit I was to actually make it, to actually get up here. It's quite an achievement. I'm trying to keep my microphone out of the wind because as I said I didn't bring those wind things with me. I'm not sure if it's going to work, I'm not sure if you're going to hear me but anyway we made it. It's a complete whiteout up here like you can't see anything so it's very very bright, very bright. It's really difficult to see if you're not got sunglasses on so but we've had some food, we've got refuelled which was needed because I was starting to struggle. Got a dry hat on and yeah we're going to start heading back down so I'll catch up with you guys when it's a bit less windy further down the mountain. So we're on our way down and these huge gusts of wind come and they bring over all the cloud and then you get little breaks where it's starting to clear and you can just about see Fort William. Right down the bottom you follow these kind of piles of stone which take you up over and then about a 10 minute walk across is where the summit is. So on our way back down you can just see the river down there and then see Fort William's gone. You can see over the side of Ben Navis, the north face which is pretty awesome. I'm going to take what we can get while we're up there but I'm really happy. I'm so grateful I got my layers though because it is so cold but I can say I'm very warm but that last climb just up there was absolutely brutal. I nearly turned around. As I said I'm going to catch up with you guys a bit further down the mountain because it's taking us the best part of six hours to get up here so if you half that that's three hours to get down and I think it's about one o'clock at the moment so we've got plenty of time to get down which is good but I also want to get down and get a little bit warmer so I'll see you guys a bit further down the mountain. I just can't explain how insane this looks. It's crazy. It's almost like you're walking into a painting because everything is so still over there. This is real. You see the guys walking in front of me but it's like you're walking into a painting. It's beautiful. I don't know how well this is going to come out because it's windy. We've already had that conversation but I'm trying to guard my microphone. Look the sun's out. This is the perfect opportunity. The time is it's four o'clock we're halfway down so I reckon we've got about another hour and then we will be back at the campsite but I'm going to take this opportunity to fly my drone and try and get some footage because I want to see if I can get the north face which I haven't got yet because I can never get high enough to go around the other side. The height restrictions won't let me and if I do put my drone the other side the rock will block the signal and then the drone will just try to fly back home. Let's see what we can get. Well I can honestly say that's one of the most incredible hikes I've done and also one of the most exhausting. Oh man my knees are proper feeling it right now. Coming down the last kind of 2,000 feet it's just you're just stepping over like boulders all the way down it's like boulder staircase and it just destroys your knees. The last thousand feet or so were really tough but what an incredible hike though. I mean we did it. We did it. Yes we did. There's my route and it's got it in meters but elevation gain 1,388 meters 15.5 kilometers. Reckons I burnt 4,000 calories today. I'd be damn good if I did. Wow and there's all the splits. Crazy. Anyway I met some great people on the hike as well. There was a really nice guy with two dogs who was going up who also lived in a van who was parked up down here. He was really cool who I bumped into and I met a really nice guy when I was walking through the snow and he told me about the the crampons and I've just got a cheap set to go over my morning walking boots but you can buy like proper heavy duty ones which are if you're doing a lot of winter hiking. I said to him like you know what's the deal with them like do you need special boots for them and basically I didn't even realize this but there's three grades of boot that you get. I think it's C1, C2, C3 or B1, B2, B3 and then you get the crampons which are graded like C1, C2, C3 so and it depends like what you want like whether you want like a rigid boot and then you would have like a rigid crampon as well to go over that boot and yeah learn some cool stuff so come the day when I do need to get a set of those if I do then I'll know a bit about it. Anyway I need to get this hiking bag unpacked and then I am going to get some dinner on the go, go have a shower and then probably just collapse for the evening so thanks for joining me today. It was good to have you there and I will catch up with you guys in the morning. 20 minutes because the bed is so warm. My body's a little bit achy from yesterday but not too bad. I'm definitely gonna feel it in a couple of days but need to get up now and I've got a full day, full work day today, got a few client calls, catching up with some family as well which will be good. Now I could lay here for the next like six hours. It's so warm. The weather is definitely different than it was yesterday. Had nothing but rain all day today, really great skies. It's been quite windy as well. So I was up at half five this morning online by about quarter to six. I knew I had a good day's worth of work to do but I didn't anticipate being online all day. It's literally quarter to six in the evening and I spent 12 hours solid in the van. I've had a few breaks in between. I've spoken to my sister and done a few bits for myself, had some lunch but I haven't exactly been able to get out on a walk because of the weather and just had quite a lot I wanted to catch up on but I've definitely put in a good day's work, feel really good with what I've done today and my clients are happy which is good. So I thought I would come and stretch my legs for half an hour and go see the Highland Cows. It's the youth hostel where we passed yesterday and this is where we set out from on the hike and that's the bridge that we went over to go up the mountain. Update on the muscles, I feel pretty good actually. I had a little bit of knee pain this morning and my calves were quite sore but I've always really suffered with sore calves. I'm very surprised at how much I don't ache today but I know muscle doms normally tend to set in a couple of days after you do a heavy workout so I might feel a little different tomorrow. There it is look, the mountain we conquered. Fun fact actually, only 85% of people who set out to summit Berneves actually make it, whether that's due to injuries, weather conditions, just not wanting to go all the way to the top and turn around and coming back. So still quite chuffed with myself that I actually managed to get up to the summit yesterday and touch the trig and tick that one off the bucket list. Normally you find the Highland Cows in this field down here. This is the actual Glen Nevis range down here and I think I can see them in the distance. Hello. Hi. Hey, you're gorgeous. How are you doing? That's quite the backdrop, isn't it? A couple of Highland Cows below Ben Nevis. I think this one's trying to get out the gate. Anyway, that's where I'm going to leave you guys. Thank you so much if you've made it this far in the video. It really does mean the world to me that you watch my videos and if you haven't already, think about hitting that subscribe button. It really does help out the channel and drop this video a like as well. I would really, really appreciate it and I will see you guys on the next video.