Monday 9 November 2009

North East Buttress, Ben Nevis

Today Nick and I went to climb North East Buttress on Ben Nevis. A hard frost in the glens was reversed higher up as we experienced warmer air from a temperature inversion near the CIC hut. We were shaded under the north face but there was blue sky above and we even caught a little sun as we traversed to the first platform. At least 2 parties have done the route in the last couple of days and the snow has settled and refrozen in places. This meant we followed footprints rather than having to clear everything ourselves. We had some refrozen snow and turf solid enough to take a good swing of the pick but also a lot of fresh thin glassy ice choking cracks from thaw and refreezeing. As we tackled the mantrap high on the route a Royal Naval Sea King helicopter circled the top of the mountain. Later when we topped out we could see where a flare had been used on the summit so I don't know if it was picking someone up or even part of a rescue. On our descent we passed a couple of guys who had had a good traverse of the Carn Mor Dearg Arete and we found ourselves in the wind we had been sheltered from all day. This wind had deposited impressive drifts of snow on the zizags of the bridle track- several feet deep and blocking half the width of the path. So less snow but more consolidation. Plenty of bare rock but also verglas in cracks.


18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Al nice video liked that !
Aye
Dan

Alan said...

Cheers Dan, 'twere a good day oot!

Anonymous said...

Hi Alan,
Great video.
I was up on Ledge Route yesterday.
From there it looked like a rescue at Tower Gap.
Hope they're ok.
Cheers
Liz

Anonymous said...

Hi Al

Great site and videos...even from behind a desk for just now! :-(

Can I ask what cam and software you use for these?

Keep up the good work

Rgds
Craig

Alan said...

Ah Liz, that makes sense....
Craig the video clips are shot at High Res on an Olympus Mju 790SW and the software is just Windows Moviemaker.

Regards,
Al

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the info Al...just need to get the software now!

Still salivating at NEB video...best climbing blog on the web, keep up the good work :-))

Cheers
Craig

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