This site has already had 'pitch in' discussions on the Allt a'Mhulinn track but recently a couple of comments have been made on separate 'Nevis Issues'. It seems likely that the contributors may take opposing views on some items!

John Allen (johnhillandben@f2s.com) comments on the 'new' stretch of path from the 'tourist path' to the outflow of Lochan Meall an t' Suidhe. He writes :

A PATH TOO FAR:

New branch path Ben Nevis  with tourist path/CIC path and descends to outflow Lochan Meall an t'Suidhe GR145732. 

This manufactured path appeared in August 2006, is not a repair of an existing path because there has never been a path there, and it leads nowhere but the outflow. Is it a devious plot to weave tourist paths round the lower slopes of the Ben?  Is it the first section of a longer path to/from Torlundy?  How did this get through the Nevis Partnership?

I reject this path unequivocally.  The Ben should not be violated with more manufactured paths.  Is it a case of pseudo safety?  Is it to help weakling climbers to get down off the Ben and back to Torlundy at dusk? Is it to add an amenity path for tourists?  Is it to save a bit of precious bog from trampling?  This is the iconic Ben Nevis 'convenience' mountaineering.  It is vandalism on the same level as bulldozed deer estate roads in the Cairngorms, but in this case perpetrated by the Nevis

How does anyone else feel?

 YOUR COMMENTS 

from Alan Wilson:
The improvements to the Allt a'mhuillin path are welcome, and I observed this week that a new path is being built which will avoid the boggy woods uphill section from the old railway to the dam parking lot - not sure about this, as it goes through planted conifers rather than the more natural birch type woodland of the lower allt a'mhuillin, however, that lower section is getting badly eroded and heavy going, so maybe it is a good thing.

CIC hut - keep it as is. Nothing wrong with it other than leaky roofs etc, which can be repaired. Access is fine, though perhaps some sort of indoor wc could be looked into. Recent improvements such as electric lighting are a bonus.

New paths (like the one mentioned to outflow of Lochan Meall an t'Suidhe) should be discouraged.

The two plastic post things just past the dam parking on the allt a'mhuillin path are what ?....we go round them, don't want to be counted.

Alan Kimber writes:
Hi Folks,
Just soaking up some sun in Chile and heading south from Santiago to Patagonia shortly. Waiting for the bus I thought a look at the MCofS site might prove entertaining. As usual most of you appear to have your head in the sand when it comes to developing a good path infrastructure around Ben Nevis.

I'm sure Patagonia, like all other major mountain destinations in the world I have been fortunate enough to travel will easily show how short-sighted you committee types can be.

The path from the Red Burn to Torlundy has been in place for 37 years to my knowledge and it's high time it was made better. It is not a devious plot, just common sense breaking out in the Nevis Partnership for a change. Don't forget that MCofS has a role in the Nevis Partnership.

The Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team used this approach for some time and it was the original Victorian approach unless I am mistaken from Lochybridge.

The only problem with the new path is that it does not YET connect with the Torlundy path. It could have been made half as wide and twice as long. However commitees are well know for spending too much time talking and not enough time actualy getting things right.

John Allen responds:
Hello Alan Kimber in S America.

Thank you for your disparaging remarks about the 'path to nowhere' on Ben Nevis. In my experience from 1959 (48 years) there never has been a 'path' from the Red Burn to Torlundy. There has always been a 'way' off the mountain, but a path would never be worn here because the ground is too boggy - people simply spread out. The Victorians didn't use this route, as you like to assert - they built the pony track in 1883 for ascents from Achintee to the summit. You need to do some research before riding on your hobby horse from sunny climes (climbs?). There has for a long time been a line of posts to aid route finding from Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe, and tracked vehicles and rescue teams have travelled this way in the past.

My specific point is to support the ethos of mountaineering in Scotland, and this excludes the deliberate manufacture of paths, waymarks and 'instant' or 'convenience' mountaineering as promoted by tourism ideas like a network of paths on virgin ground.

What a pity you have to harp on about committees (MCofS) but of course you are now an opportunist entrepreneur, with tourism feeding into your livelihood. Shame on you! Don't you remember those ideals of wild land, WH Murray, John Muir, Aldo Leopold?

Leave that bit of the Ben undamaged for the generations to come who deserve a big day out without a handrail path to guide them on the untracked bits!

Stick to what you are good at - daily reports of winter conditions - unless you are in need of general retirement from active participation in the Fort William mafia!

Cheers for now, expect to hear from you soon....

From Jonathan Richards:
This path is inevitable, upgrade or not. So many pairs of boots come down the tourist track after a route on the North face and return to Torlundy. If we do not see an upgraded path, in ten years or so we will have a muddy trench yards wide like the old Allt a Mhuillin approach to the CIC. I'm all for "keep the wilderness wild", but if it's being trashed by popularity we need to act and choose the lesser evil of a narrow upgraded path.

Alan Kimber again:
Thank goodness for common sense from Jonathan Richards. Life goes on and the Victorians who ascended from Lochy Bridge and NOT Glen Nevis would probably have enjoyed a new path. If you want to erode the land so much, then you can always go somewhere else where no paths exist. The new path (route) up from Torlundy was officially opened recently by the Nevis Partnership Chair Cameron McNeish. Let's hope it extends to the halfway Lochan ASAP and then we can avoid the muddy trench which now exists.

John Allen again:
On 29 December I went to check yet again the existence of a path that might show itself on the ground to/from the outflow from the Halfway Lochan towards Lochy Bridge or Torlundy. I took many photos for this quest(on film). There is NO PATH on the ground, no 'muddy trench' and at neither end, nor in the middle, is there real evidence of a path. I ascended from the top of the distillery track over rough ground, the deer fence etc and descended roughly by the line of the old wooden posts. There is NO PATH at the end of the newly constructed halfway Lochan extension, not even the vestige of a path - no footprints in the wet ground. At the seventh post down there are the beginnings of a path. This broadens to trampled grass and light traces of the passage of boots on grass as far as the stile over the deer fence. Conspicious from the lochan and in sight all the way down was a white campervan with its roof raised. Is this the new public facility car park?

This also offends my sense of the wild place that used to be Ben Nevis.

Certainly this is a 'way', a 'route' both on and off the Ben, but it is NOT a path, and thus has no right to be asserted as a path as evidence to lay down an engineered path.

Please go and look. And then reply.

For my part I hope my photos come out. My notion of hill pathwork is to control erosion and restore landscape not facilitate access. There is no erosion here, so the landscape does not need restoring here.