The Night I Almost Died on Ben Nevis

I've been meaning to make this video for a long time the story I'm about to tell you happened back in December last year I'm gonna preface this by saying that I already know that I did a few things stupid to get myself into this situation so the plan was to go to the Highlands of Scotland the area around been nervous and spend about two or three days wild camping through the area getting lots of photos at the same time and also doing a video the weather was predicted to be snowy to be very cold but that was fine because I had to buy equipment for that I had a sleeping bag that is rated down to minus 20 I had a tent that's built for expedition use in mountainous regions built to withstand high winds extreme cold so I set off on the Caledonian sleeper the overnight train that goes from London to Fort William near the base of been nervous everything started off okay my train arrived in Fort William on time I set off for the mountains I wasn't gonna go to the summit of Ben Davis on the first day I was gonna go and camp somewhere under the North Face near to the CIC Hut the path up to where I was planning to camp the first night was ok it was snowing it was icy but I had crampons to pull over my boots so I wasn't too worried and it went pretty smoothly I go to the campsite area around 4:00 p.m. if I remember rightly given that this was the middle of winter and quite far north it was getting dark fast so I started setting up the tent in many ways the spot where I pitched for 10 under the North Face of bender this is quite sheltered it's in a bit of a valley it's not in the main exposed area at a time so wind didn't really seem to be a big issue as I was pitching the tent unfortunately as night was setting around me and I was in the 10 I realized that whoever was getting a bit worse I checked before castanet predicted 40 mile-per-hour winds and was somewhat of been nervous which is tolerable manageable there as night fell they updated the forecast I'm predicted Gus of well over 100 mile-per-hour winds so this is when I started to get a little bit worried the wind was definitely starting to affect the tent keeping my mrs. a tent that describes itself as being built for these exposed mountainous environments it should be able to withstand it but that doesn't change the fact is still quite unnerving and settling to be in a tent that's being blown around quite considerably as things started getting worse and the forecast was updated I decided to contact the custodian of a local mountain refuge which wasn't too far from where my tent was set up unfortunately he told me that the refuge was closed that night but it was locked up and there was no way that I could get in he recommended that I go down the mountain because he said the storm is gonna get worse I consider by option very seriously the reason I didn't go down at that point was that the Sun had already set it was only dark it was bad weather it was getting worse but the tent I was in describes itself as being suitable for an environment it describes itself as being able to withstand storms on mountains so if I were to put my faith in their description of the tent then it makes sense to stay it makes sense to ride out the night in a shelter rather than attempt to go down in the dark on I see wet paths in a snowstorm with 100 mile-per-hour winds my tent was a good shelter where I had it set up was close to running water I had a water filter with me so I could produce as much water as I needed I had a gas stove I could cook food I had plenty of food with me it seemed like the safe option just to stay and ride it out unfortunately things got worse a lot worse the wind kept picking up the whole tent was shaking back and forward it was after midnight I've been out the tent several times to me secure the stakes in the ground to make sure they were firmly in because for wind was blowing the tents so badly that it was trying to pull them out earlier on as I'd realized the winds were picking up I packed my bag for an emergency escape in case it came to it so I had all my essentials there ready to go at the side of me in the tent ready to grab and run I was half asleep but I remember becoming suddenly very awake and very aware of the fact that the wind had got so strong that it pulled up the stakes of my tent and the whole tent was rolling with me inside with all my equipment inside it was being rolled away who rolled down an embankment the tent had landed upside down I opened the door of a tent and looked out to see where I was to see what happened I realized that my boots and a few other things which had been in a vestibule of a tent well that behind where the tent was originally before we got blown away with me inside I needed to go and get my boots that was quite important for we're getting extremely wet they were an essential part of any emergency escape plan I quickly tried to tether the tent down and made a run back to where my shoes were I made sure to put my emergency escape bag outside of the tent just in case 410 blew away as I was running back with my boots from where the tent had been the tent blew away I remember very vividly I had my head torch and that was the only source of life this is miles from any civilization I remember to seeing of a light of my head torch the faintest reflection coming off the tent as it disappeared into the sky it was about 30 meters up and it was just going high-speed just gone no chance I realized at that point there's no chance that I was gonna get it back it was just gone it would have been half a mile away within a minute so that's when you have that moment of sudden realization there's no choice now you have to get down you have to get off this mountain or you gonna die the temperature was in the - numbers but even worse than that I was wet my clothes were wet I realized I have to get off this mountain and I have to do it now well I'm gonna die because I'm not gonna survive a night on this mountain without shelter without warm clothes without anything so I started moving I had to be like quite heavily on my GPS device at this point because it was very hard to see where I was going there's no there wasn't really a set path from where I was camped to the nearest main path which was about a mile away and the journey from where as camp 2 Vanilla's path that's legible involves crossing streams involves crossing flowing water going across ice and slippery terrain it wasn't fun the whole time I was being blasted with hail in my face I remember a few times my foot fell through ice into flying water my boots were this point just soaking wet I realized I was pretty cut up my feet were pretty cut up from rubbing against my wet boots there were a few times on my journey where I just wanted to stop and take a break and I just had to tell myself if you take a break your body temperature is gonna plummet and you're not gonna be able to restart you just have to keep moving you just have to keep moving just have to keep moving I don't really remember how long it took me eventually I got to a more legible path but even then is still another couple of miles going downhill on slippery soaking wet icy terrain I remember several times my hiking poles stopped me from falling and I mean significantly falling if I didn't have my hiking poles I probably would have broken an ankle broken a leg and probably would have died I'm a mountain so just hiking poles to keep mine with you I really don't remember how long it took me to get down but eventually I did I was able to phone one 24-hour hotel in the town that was open and had room for me as I got to the desk of a hotel I realized that my wallet was in the ten when they got blown away but thankfully I had my phone so I was able to call friends who were able to give that credit card number over the phone so I got in I was so tired but I remember I couldn't actually sleep I kept waking up every time I tried to sleep because my mind was still in this state of you have to keep moving you have to keep moving are you gonna die and it's so hard to break out of a so hard to just relax and sleep after you've been in that state I remember the next day I just felt so awful I didn't even have any dry clothes cuz the dry clothes I'd had will last him a 10 I just had my basic gear that I used to get down the mountain I remember the cleaner coming into my hotel room and me and her got chatting and I told her what happened and she very kindly offered me money to get myself some dry clothes because she was really taking pity on me at this point I didn't accept the offer because I had Apple pay on my phone so I was able to go and get myself some some cloves so here we are in my hotel room in Fort William my little safe place [Applause] I think it was a day or two later I was still in the town in Fort William staying at the hotel I got a message from a mountain guide in the area who said he'd been able to find some not all but some of my stuff in my mountains and was able to recover it so I met with him and was pretty amazed that he'd been able to recover my tripod for my camera and a few other things which were really valuable actually so I was very grateful to him they was able to get out he'd also recovered my wallet so I gave him a 20 pound note that was in my wallet as a as a thank-you so that's it that's my story of Ben Nevis and how it almost killed me one time some tips don't go wild camping in the middle of winter alone take someone with you definitely take hiking poles they saved my life waterproof clothing also good yeah in general just don't be as much of an idiot as me

Channel: George Maier

Views: 547,832

Keywords: Ben Nevis, Highlands, Scotland, Camping, Winter, Mountain, Storm, Weather, Bad, Emergency, Scottish, Snow, Ice

Id: vf1phMabXo8

Length: 10min 52sec (652 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 23 2019