Peak stiletto climb would have been amazing ‘feet’

Man was a few hundred metres from Ben Nevis summit when he was forced to stop

An intrepid mountaineer came within just a few hundred metres of reaching the summit of Britain’s highest peak – wearing five inch stiletto heels.

While many women would struggle to wear the shoes on a night out, Ben Conway donned the lofty £70 heels whilst scaling Ben Nevis.

The gritty hill-walker from London took to the mountain in aid the LGBT charity Stonewall last week but was forced to give up just 400 metres short of the summit.

After taking five hours to hobble twothirds of the way, the 19-year-old student was forced to turn around when conditions underfoot became too risky to continue.

In a video posted by Ben, he is seen traversing streams and boulders amid heavy rain and 50mph winds.

Teetering on his five inch (12.5cm) heels he almost goes over his ankle points while stepping over large rocks.

Other hillwalkers even stop Ben and even ask for photos with him, with one woman saying: “I was thinking, are my eyes deceiving me?”

After wading through a small stream crossing the path, he is forced to change his socks and tend to a painful looking cut on his ankle. In another section, he is seen binding the shoe to his foot after the strap broke.

Talking about the ambitious challenge Ben said: “It was really about doing something that hadn’t been done before.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone climb Ben Nevis in heels before.

“I had looked at using kitten heels, but I thought to myself – if you’re going to go and do it, do it properly and wear the stilettos.”

According to Ben, the heels were completely ruined after the climb, but he managed to escape major injury and blisters, apart from the small cut evident in the video.

He continued: “The shoes weren’t cheap, they were £70 and I’m sure they’re actually called stripper heels.

“I had thought that they might be OK after the climb but they were completely mashed.

“The strap had broken and the patent leather had began to crack and the paint on them was ruined.

“My feet were actually OK wearing them. I had strapped and bandaged them up and wore proper hiking socks, so they were mostly OK.”

Talking about the hardest part of the climb, Ben admitted turning around was difficult to deal with.

He said: “The realisation I wasn’t going to do it was hard.

“I could have continued in walking boots to the top and put the heels on there but it wouldn’t have been right. I’m quite stubborn and it was all or nothing.

“As you can seen in the video, people were amazing. Someone even stopped and gave us a £20 donation.”

Currently, Ben has raised £140 for the charity, with a target of £200 on his Go Fund Me page: gofundme.com/8u4axo.

Ben Conway wearing his stilettos during his Ben Nevis climb.