Live coverage of an attempt on two of the hardest ice routes on the mountain.
Climbers Joe Brown, Betsey Brantley, Murray Hamilton and Captain David Nicholls of the Royal Marines.

It's not impossible for small boys and fit grannies to reach the top of Britain's highest mountain, provided they do it in summer and take the path from the south. To the north are the country's most formidable cliffs: 2,000 foot-high slabs of granite where modern ice climbing was developed in the 1930s. Lying directly in the path of the North Atlantic hurricanes, the mountain in winter is scoured by 120 mph blizzards, avalanches and temperatures of below -30 centigrade. An Everest veteran, who survived a fall on the mountain, said, 'If you can climb safely on Ben Nevis in winter, you can climb anywhere in the world.'

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