Some exciting soloing and filming on Left Hand Route on the Orion Face on Ben Nevis. My book on training for climbing www.davemacleod.com/shop/9out... My Patreon: / davemacleod
About 31 years ago I almost made a fatal error on Ben Nevis. I was a fairly experienced scrambler and hiker but not a climber. One hot July afternoon I decided to try and "scramble" up the north face of Ben Nevis just like in this video. In fact it was almost identical, perhaps 50 metres to the west of this. I crossed the snow field and started my ascent. Within half an hour or so I was well on my way and enjoying myself. Little did I know what was to come. Probably another 700 ft later I got stuck on a very small ledge that I was resting my feet on. I was way out of my depth. No ropes and on my own! Stupidly naive. I could not ascend any further as there was an overhang above me and I could not see a way back down. I was literally clinging onto the cliff face. After about 5 long minutes I realised I was potentially screwed. There was no one around. On the way up to this point I had spotted an ice axe resting on a little shelf and some old rope. Now I was wondering to myself whether that person had survived or not. I decided I had to try and do something. I had two choices...cling on and hope someone spotted me eventually. But there was no one around and I figured I couldn't last more than half an hour before falling off. So I decided on choice two.... That was to literally make a little leap of faith and jump up about a foot into the air and ram my fist into a crack in the rock above my head. If I made that I was then going to hope that I could reach over the overhang onto something and pull myself over it. I was lucky. After ramming my hand into the crack and making a fist it held. I was now swinging on my fist and a second later I reached over the overhang and found a solid hand hold. I managed to pull myself up over and release my fist from the crack. Thank god I was able to pull myself over and get on top of the over hang. I rested for just a minute or two and didn't contemplate what had happened. I could see the top ridge perhaps a 150 feet away so I continued. 20 minutes later I squeezed through a big gap and rose to the plateau on top of the mountain. Suddenly it was warm again and amazingly there were many dozens of tourists up there that had walked up the tourist paths from the other side. I never spoke to anyone. I rested for a bit. Took a single photo and then literally jogged and ran back down via the main tourist route. I've never been back there and I will not climb it again that way. A few months later I proposed to my still wife and we have kids. This almost never happened. Years later I found out that a future friend's brother died on the mountain right next to Ben Nevis in fog.... Be careful out there. I was lucky.
You are very lucky man, I'm a semi decent climber and I wouldn't even risk that, you never know what can happen in the moment and if holds will be stable enough on mountains so glad to hear you story rather than you never being able to share it.
The way you make a feat like soloing Ben Nevis seem as casual as going for a walk along the beach is fantastic and seems to highlight well the presence and calmness of mind needed to complete such a task. Thank you for these amazing videos!
@@MindSurf248 yes....that's another name that sprung into my mind when I first posted the comment .... And nick bullock too....although he's more of an alpinist
right? I do occasional rope access jobs, two ropes, and I barely move on the rope not to stress the system. Facing fear of height for more than a decade. Never truly trusting the equipment. Last week I was working with paint and my intoxicated brain challenged all morale I ever had. Even standing on the roof was hard. I thing the brain can be trained by falling again and again into a dynamic rope. I never had a chance to do it tho. Still I dont think I'll ever enjoy it
I just shat my pants!! Respect my brother! Your life is literally in your hands !! I hope to try climbing shit one day, right now I'm just a regular peasant on the hamster wheel, but I'm optimistic about the future!!! Love your videos brother, you a warrior!
Love it! Was just eating pizza in Fort William and doing some hill walking in the highlands with my wife. We were there for our honeymoon, and she's not much of a climber, but seeing this plus the beautiful sights walking around Glencoe and the Great Glen --- I need to go back!
Bravo! I love it there! Got to be the most beautiful place ever any weather! I “climbed” the west face of cmd in my last video up to the arête! Best drinking water ever out that pipe :)
My legs and stomach go everytime when looking down on those backpack shots from behind! Love the edit on these videos. The scenery is just stunning and there's a crazy (extermely talented and fabulously skilled) person climbing up the middle with no rope! Love it.
We’ve done some grade 3 scrambles recently and the height and danger is powerful. This is another level but I can feel that feeling of life or death watching him do it and knowing the focus you get on focusing and asking what is the next move
Nice one as always Dave. I like how you mention of the zen like flow but this type of climb involves a sense of fear. I think its the combination of those two what makes climbing in the mountains such a rewarding endeavour. The feeling of soloing rock is very hard to explain to someone who hasn't tried it before because it's a personal experience for everyone. I think you have summed it up nicely here. Once again a great ambassador for climbing.
Having been up there a few times, (with partner and rope) I love the way you do this - and how the heck you manage the drone and make the movie sure beats me!
I was NEVER a proper climber but I scrambled up a very awkward route indeed on Pen Yr Ole Wen about thirty years ago and I nearly got myself into a HELL of a lot of trouble at one point (slight overhang) but it was *absolutely NOTHING like as knee trembling* as in this video! It was a powerful lesson for me about making a very poor decision on the mountains. Sometimes the far less extreme routes are the most dangerous because they can tempt those unwary souls with limited climbing abilities.
Solo'ing and flying a drone 😅 Brilliant Dave! I'm a new subscriber and really appreicate you taking the time to upload beautiful and educational videos. Can't wait for new videos 😊 Cheers from Canada
Looks like a beautiful route. I’d love to solo that. Absolutely agree- when you solo a moderate route the crux is the route finding. Luckily I’ve never been hundreds of feet off the ground without a rope and off route. That would be a nightmare
Fantastic commentary over the video. Psyched to get to Ben Nevis. I'm around Teeside so not too far. Hoping to do some rad trad in the Scottish mountains some day. Hope you are well
beautiful story telling and amazing talent you have. I wish we could see the footage of you changing the drone battery whilst being on the edge - in fact I was squirming anticipating that you were going to catch the drone from that little ledge
After doing some higher scrambling grades recently I can get a bit of an idea of those moments of fear and where to go next and how strong my survival instincts in your must have been when you get to a position where both up and down are seriously not looking good, on your own. Damn.
Totally agree with you! Free soloing a route you have done with ropes on multiple occasions (to test routes+moves) is bad enough but to free solo on a blind run (first ascent for the climber) has to be a crazier risk surely?
Incredible. Not just the climb but the fact that you caught it all so beautifully on camera. For those super close shots was the drone buzzing right behind you? Or were you also using one of those insta360 invisible sticks?
I once had to do 50m unprotected climb in Montserrat, a slab with sketchy holds. Scariest thing. I will never do something like that again, at least willingly. Seeing how he does this is more scary to me than Honnolds climbs because I could phisically and mentally try to do this but just thinking about it I get pretty nervous to say the least.
Great video. As someone who just likes climbing, I love the idea of free soloing without any rope faff. I honestly prefer top rope sometimes, unless it's overhanging. I'm relatively afraid of height though so I'll never do it. Bad idea for me I think, dangerous position to accidentally look down then get panicked, no matter the grade.
I'd recommend this series by Dave for you. It's titled How To Climb Trad, but it's widely applicable to not just all types of climbing but also to any venture with significant risk in life. Here's the full video list: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e9Xc_vMCqQ0.html
I've be interested to see a video about your first free solo and the thought process and prep you did before. It something I want to do myself.. I even began a route once but changed my mind about 6 meters up and down climbed.
I don't know if I would go free solo on a route that looks so rarely climbed and so overgrown with plants. I think i would rappell over it once before and clean it a bit and check for loose rocks. I hope that nobody gets the idea to copy this just because it looks so easy and comfortable. Dave is an absolute legend and a pro climber with a lot of experience. Nice format and good music by the way!! Thank you for sharing!
Love the video, Dave. The rock looks fantastic. I think a trip to Scotland is in order. When did you climb this ? When in your opinion, it would be the best time to climb this ( with ropes and gear, though 😅 ).
I’ve done some climbing in Scotland, Ben Nevis is rarely in condition for summer climbing, it’s often wet and outside of summer covered in ice and snow. But in the summer the midges can be unbearable so it’s a toss up really. I recon very late April till early June is pretty ideal
