Ben Nevis

Ben Nevis is 4,413 feet tall, lower than the parking lots of most Colorado ski areas, and it is regularly described as the most dangerous small mountain in the world. The problem is position. It is the highest peak in the British Isles, the eroded remnant of an ancient volcano standing at the stormy Atlantic end of the Grampian Mountains, and weather arrives off the ocean with no prior appointment. Snow holds in its high gullies deep into summer, and the cliffs of its North Face, the tallest in Britain, are where Scottish winter climbing was more or less invented.

This map shows the mountain’s two very different characters. On the southwest, the contour lines spread into the broad shoulder that carries the Mountain Track up from Glen Nevis, the walkers’ route to the top. On the northeast, the lines compress into the great wall above Coire Leis, where the summit plateau breaks off into buttresses and gullies, and the narrow crest of the Carn Mor Dearg arête curves toward the summit.