BP Kellet is, undoubtedly, one of the more intriguing figures from the last century of Scottish climbing. An outsider wrestling with his demons on the north face of Ben Nevis. The climber's climber, boldly soloing where no-one else had been. His work in repeating and documenting the existing routes on the Ben was invaluable, but his style of climbing did not always endear him to the Establishment.

I chose to do his routes as part of the Climb Through History for a variety of reasons but mainly because, at the time, I found myself in a similar position to his. Recently moved to Fort William through work and without a network of contacts I'd found myself doing more solo climbing than is normal (or healthy). My initial plan was then to solo the routes after the fashion of the man himself.

So it was that I found myself trudging up the Allt a Mhuillin one rather dreary day in the summer of 2000, deep in conversation with myself, debating whether this was a good idea or not. Two hours later, after locating the whereabouts of 1944 Route and scrambling up the rather scrappy first pitch the debate had become a full-blown argument. The steep crag leered frighteningly above me, the holds all sloped the wrong way and the rock was green and greasy. Common sense won the day and I traversed off left and scrambled up to the middle-tier where Slab Climb lay. The guidebook said not to do it in the wet. It was damp but the climbing was more straightforward and in no time at all I was up, stage one was complete.

Three summers (Scottish ones mind you) passed before I returned to South Trident Buttress. On a beautiful September day John and I walked up to the CIC Hut. John's heart was set on something hard but then we made an amazing discovery- he'd forgotten his rope! So it was that we found ourselves at the start of 1944 Route tied onto a single 8.5mm rope. Pitch 1 was as awkward as it had seemed before, Pitch 2 was a scrappy traverse with some loose rock but Pitch 3 was a classic. Strenuous bridging up a steep corner led to delicate moves into and up a crack followed by an airy traverse to a fine belay stance. The last pitch was, as is often the case, an anti-climax involving steep moves up a damp corner lined with alarmingly loose flakes. Slab Climb lay above but John had Strident Edge in mind instead which provided the necessary level of difficulty to keep him happy.

The two Kellet routes had provided contrasting experiences. One, a lonely vigil in the style of its pioneer; the other, a more sociable affair. Both are quality routes and provide some clues at least about the ability of a man who is still an enigma in so many ways.