No 3 Gully on Ben Nevis

Day 2 of our Winter Course today and we decided to put yesterday's skills into practise with a bit of a journey. We walked into Coire na Ciste on Ben Nevis behind 2 minibus loads and several other vehicles full from the BMC International Meet based at Glenmore Lodge. Fortunately they had all gone into Observatory Gully (one instructor who went that way pushed straight on through up Gardyloo describing the queues and crowds as 'carnage'- hope they had fun). We meandered up No. 3 Gully taking our time and focusing on using our axes and crampons well. We passed a queue on Glovers Chimney but no-one on Green Gully. Kenny and at least 2 other parites did Central Right Hand, Chris came down No. 3 and did South Gully, Karl took his clients up North Gully. We took the steeper right hand branch of No. 3 Gully, pulling the rope out for the last 15m. We then managed to bum slide the length of the Red Burn but beware there are a number of large holes through to the burn appearing. Today I was working for The Ice Factor.