Tower Ridge in ?? condition.

I was going to go rock climbing today but my partner bailed on me at the last minute (some excuse about his girlfriend... needs to sort his priorities :-) so seeing the great weather this morning I went up Ben Nevis again. I went up Tower Ridge, the snowline was pretty much level with the top of the Douglas Boulder. Initially I climbed a dusting of soft damp snow happily in my approach shoes but looking up at the Little Tower I could see holds coated in partially thawed ice so I changed into a pair of boots and popped on crampons. I was soon heartily glad that I had - anywhere the sun hadn't touched was icey and slippery, anywhere the sun had been was just damp and snowy. It wasn't too cold and I carried an axe but didn't really use it and climbed with my hands.

So was it winter? Not really, it didn't feel that wintery, an axe was of no real use and I climbed in bare hands almost all day. But on the other hand I would have really struggled without crampons. At this time of year an hour or so of sun, a degree or so of temperature, a 100m of height, or a slight change in aspect can make a huge difference to conditions so take care and play it safe folks. Better to carry the kit and not use it than get caught out.

On other topics; the portakabin clachan has been removed by helicopter so the path building is over for the season. I also saw 2 chatty chaps pushing their mountain bikes to the summit- they said the descent only takes them 20 minutes.

Intro Rock Climbing

Today Bill and I were working with first year students from UHIs Adventure Tourism Management course. We went to Kingussie on the promise of a good forecast and were a little disappointed by the number of heavy showers we had.... but that's outdoor life. So we got the team placing gear and building anchors for retreivable and self protected abseils, more anchors were used to produce bottom and topropes and everyone looked at how to build belays as a climber arriving at the top of a route as part of their progressions towards leading.

Greasy day on North East Buttress

Today I took Dan and Ali, trainee instructors from the Ice Factor, mountaineering on Ben Nevis. They managed themselves up the bottom half of North East Buttress and I took over when the going got steeper and greasier a little below the mantrap. We had a chat with a group of Marines on the summit before walking back down to Auchintee. Having almost been run over by my friend Sally on her mountainbike at Torlundy, coming on a small group of red deer just below the CIC hut and bumping into Dave Macleod with a heavy looking pack as we descended (out for a training walk) it was quite an eventful day. It was damp and chilly on the fingers and we had a couple of hail showers but there was very little snow about.

A little early winter action

Rich and I were going to go rock climbing on Ardnamurchan today. But, at 7am I checked the Ptarmigan webcam and saw a fair dusting of white stuff so we changed plans and headed east. Walking into Coire an t Sneachda there was a frost and the snow was lying down well below the coire floor so we were on to go and have a look at Pygmy Ridge. We chose this route because:

1. It starts nice and high

2. It has pretty much no turf on it

This means that it has a good chance of coming into nick and if things aren't perfectly frozen climbing it won't really harm it.

We needn't have worried though. There was rime on our buttress (and a little on the Mess of Pottage, less on Fiacaill area) and on some rocks a good glassy coating had built up. After a wee false start (ok, I fell off the first move- early season cockiness) I climbed a good first pitch that reminds me of many early season Cairngorm routes I've done: big teetery step, ledge, another big teetery step, another ledge and repeat. There was even enough ice in a couple of cracks for me to pull up on. WARNING about 15m up the scratch marks take an obvious step left and there is a nice positive flake edge to hook above you. The flake is very loose- probably freezes in with more snow. I would have asked Rich to trundle it but by then there were 2 more climbers approaching below us. I belayed in a bay and Rich made short work of following me before leading through. Higher up as I crossed onto the other side of the ridge where it becomes a horizontal arete the sun had stripped much of the rime from the rocks, indeed Rich's last pitch was climbed more in gloves than with axes but the meat of the climb is in the first ropelength so we were satisfied with what we had done.

Wild day outdoors...

...So I stayed inside for a day off. Caught up on some CDs of pictures to send to clients, a little DIY and then a session on the Dry Tooling wall. I'm not quite up to the reps with a weightbelt that Dave is doing: http://davemacleod.blogspot.com/2009/10/welcome-to-autumn-climbing.html but a little training is already paying dividends. And a family that d-tools together.... Jane and Sandy came down to get in on the act too!

Ledge Route, rain and a little snow

Lesley harboured a desire to climb Ben Nevis and despite never really having been hillwalking before was keen to try something a little less monotonous than the pony track. We went to Ledge Route starting on a misty, damp morning. Passing the CIC hut you can make out the new porch on the right. As we climbed and the day went on things got slowly wetter and windier but it was only after we got back that things really turned nasty. There was a very little wet snow on the very summit that must have fallen last night and it looks like there will more of the same along with very strong gales tomorrow. Looks like a day of paperwork and bike maintenance for me- good luck to those I know are working on the hill! I've included a photo of a fine orange peel fungus on the track to the N Face car park.

First ice of the season

I had a feee morning so cycled to Torlundy and headed up Ben Nevis by Tower Ridge. It was a lovely morning and Carn Dearg was living up to its name (Dearg- red) as I walked in past a Glasgow College group out for a walk. It took me just under an hour to the CIC- the new porch is complete and just under a second hour to make it up the Ridge. At the foot of the Douglas boulder I came across a shiny boot sitting on a rock- dropped from above? No room in my light sack so I put it neatly by the path. It was fine and sunny but cold and crisp. Just above the little Tower I found the first verglas, the tat on the block at the Gap was frozen stiff and above there was more of the same and a little proper ice. On the plateau the summit was devoid of anyone else at 10am (first time I've seen that for a while) but the grasses and rocks had a fine coating of rime and there were pipcrakes around the mouth of Tower Gully. A final hour saw me back at the bike at Torlundy having passed maybe 2 dozen people on the way down- the tourist season seems to be over on the Ben for this year, bring on the winter!