Early days

Early days.
Ben Nevis.
As for many people, "Ben Nevis" was my first Scottish Mountain, my first Munro. 

For the vast majority I would guess that this is their first and last Scottish Hill.  Thankfully, in my case, this was not so.

However, such is the lure of the "Highest point in Great Britain" that even I had been guilty of climbing it FIVE times before sampling a wider field.

The first ascent was probably around 1958 when it was climbed in company with Brian Downs, son of Downs the butchers of Highfield Rd., Blackpool.  We had invested in our first motor car, a joint venture costing £5 each.  The car was a Morris Box, and we had spent some months on renovation under Brian's fathers eagle eye.  Tappets and valves had been ground or whatever it is that you do to them, running boards strengthened, and the roof re-covered with the really strong visqueen sheeting that cattle carcasses had been delivered in.
This excursion was spent with myself on 'L' plates, and apart from a short argument with an AA Box at Tyndrum, we were accident free.  We did get stuck at Tomintoul when the engine refused the incline, but Brian knew that reverse gear is apparently lower than first, and he drove it a mile uphill backwards to the entertainment of passing coaches.  We were camping and I had a few lie ins as Brian, being a good Catholic, had to keep dashing miles to try to find a Church on High Days and Holy Days.
It was on this trip that Cairn Gorm and Ben Macdhui were first climbed, on a grey day, with navigation required on the tops.
At this time, virtually all the Highland roads were single track, and on Skye the 'A' roads had grass growing in the middle.
Sometime in this same era Jo Oliver and his friends paid for my petrol and digs to guide them up Ben Nevis.  On another occasion we did Buchaille Etive Mor for which trip I left Blackpool at 6am, met Jo at Kingshouse, climbed the hill, and was home for midnight.  And this before motorways. Later, hitch-hiking with Jo saw us on Orkney and then in the Northwest (for the first time).  We received lifts from a Lighthouse Keeper and a worker at Dounrae Atomic Power Station.  One night was spent sleeping in the bar at Kylesku after we caught the last ferry across.  After the last ferry of course no further cars could appear.

My first "Non-Nevis" trip was probably with Stan Wilson, Mark Harrison, Alan Smith, Marks friend Wally, and Geoff Brown, one of my articled clerks.  On this trip we climbed the massive Bidean Nan Bian and the exhilarating Aonach Eagach.