h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Journo 11 (True or False)

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Fact or Fiction? You decide.

Fact, I believe.

Fact I reckon. And I am in awe.

I'm also in awe. 1818 feet was the height of the mountain I climbed one summer with my schoolfriends and teachers, and the weather was bad enough then

I vote Fact as well

Fact, I think.

Well, I am voting true with my fingers crossed. Not at all sure about the slide thing.

I don't want to impugn your prowess but I've just got an inkling this isn't entirely true. I vote false with lots of true aspects.

Well, I inadvertantly, left the answer to this in my ps. I recently started a blog on my mountaineering exploits and there's a link to said blog, (a work in progress), in my ps.
Its all TRUE except for the year. I have no idea what the weather was like in Glen Nevis or on The Ben in 1984.
It was Jan 2nd 1991 when I did the first serious training for winter climbing.
1984 was the year I started hill walking/climbing as a serious hobby in conjunction with the Scout Association and untill 1991 had been confined to the summer season only.
Oh, and yes, the controlled slide using the ice axe as a 'brake' is/was part of that training and was used to good effect to get us off The Ben due to some of the most severe weather experienced there in many a year.
The route from Aonach Mor, across Tower Ridge and the North cliffs is, sadly, the route that claims most of the fatalities on the Ben. The area is prone to avalanche as well as falls from the ridge and cliffs.
It says something for the difficulty and challenge of winter climbing on the Ben that even Alpine mountaineers and other hardened mountaineers from as far afield as the USA and Canada will come to The Ben to practice their climbing skills etc. Its not the height, after all, the Alpines and Rockies are 2 to 3 times as high as the Ben, its purely the difficulty and technical challenges as well as the varying extremes of weather that they go for.