In the January 2017 issue of The Great Outdoors (available from 7 December) Alex Roddie describes his ambitious three-day journey to reach Ben Nevis.
On snow-coated mountains and under crisp, clear air he hiked from Spean Bridge through to Fort William, along the way enjoying stunning wild camps and witnessing not only cloud inversions but the Northern Lights as well.
“Morning light picked out every feature on the finest mountain wall in the UK,” writes Alex in the eight-page feature. “I looked down on gullies where, years before, I’d struggled with steep ice and cornices. I traced my old favourite climbs of Tower Ridge and North-East Buttress, and for the first time since moving away from Scotland I realised that nothing had changed – that these few precious days of hard work would rank among the very best I’d ever spent in Scottish hills.”
You can see a selection of the images he took along the way in the gallery below. Pick up the magazine to see the moment he witnessed the Aurora Borealis.
To see what else is in the January edition CLICK HERE.