Magazine Mistake Prompts Ben Nevis Safety Warning

The Mountaineering Council of Scotland is warning walkers and climbers that a bearing given in a current magazine article to clear the summit of Ben Nevis is inaccurate and, if followed, would rapidly lead straight over the North Face of the mountain.

The information is on page 105 of the February issue of Trail and is in the text of a description of the ascent of the mountain by the Carn Mor Dearg Arete and suggests that walkers follow a bearing of 281 degrees from the summit of the mountain. This is WRONG.

In bad conditions, you should actually steer a dog-leg course. First walking 150 metres on a bearing of 231 degrees from the summit, then a course of 282 degrees, which will lead you down and away from the notoriously dangerous Five Finger Gully.

You can see an extract from the Harveys Map of the area on the MC of S web site which shows the correct descent route. The OS 25,000 map of the Ben shows the same information on a 1:10,000 inset map of the summit.

Finding the safe descent route from the summit of Ben Nevis in poor conditions is notoriously tricky and requires micronavigation skills, careful pacing and accurate bearings. There have been numerous accidents, some of them fatal, where mountainers have strayed into Five Finger Gully, which lies SE of the correct course of decent.