11/02/17 - Ben Nevis via Ledge Route (me, Lou)

Lou picked me from the Youth Hostel at just before 8am and we set off to do Ben Nevis via the Ledge Route. We discussed this as an option on the previous evening and I was pretty excited about it. It would be my first time up the Ben and it would be great to do it via such a great route - in winter! Particularly as the weather looked like it might provide some good visibility up at the top. However, it did make me feel a bit guilty about Steve - as I knew that he would have been particularly excited about this (and probably excited by our guide too...)
Lou had keys for a car park which would cut the first 200m of our ascent. We picked another couple up on the way.
The path to the CIC hut was reasonably well populated by climbers. The weather was holding. The views were good. Lou was pleasant company. My legs felt good after the previous day. Splendid!
We got to the hut pretty quickly and got a good first view of the route up the North Face. It looked challenging and exciting. We headed to the foot and got our gear on. I felt excited, but pretty relaxed.
We got to the first pitch and I managed to do a clove hitch with no struggle at all. And in fact everything came back to me without issue. Lou inspired confidence and as we proceeded from one pitch to the next I continued to feel pretty relaxed and confident. The stress I'd experienced in previous years was absent, which was great. The rock conditions were also great "snowy snow, icy ice and rocky rock". The route was challenging, but not intimidating. And in addition, it felt great to be on The Ben.
It was the longest set of pitched I'd done, but seemed to go pretty quickly and before long we were on reasonably level ground and walking toward the summit. The summit was cloud free, the sun was shining and the views were interspersed with clouds, but you got a good sense of your height, with the surrounding mountains appearing small in comparison to your current height.
Before long we were at the summit. We took a few snaps and headed down - unfortunately via the tourist route rather than the CMD Arete, due to increasing winds and what would have been very uneven and rocky ground to be covering in crampons.
It was a fairly lengthy descent, but we bumped into the couple that we'd given a lift to and so we chatted as descended and before long we were back at the car.
Pasta and steak, a couple of glasses of wine and I was in a soporific glory.
Unfortunately, the people in the room next to me chatted till 11 which stopped me from getting to sleep straight away and I started to get anxious about increasing discomfort in my Achilles tendon. My sleep was disjointed to say the least as I wondered if I would be fit to climb the following day....