Friday The Ben

Mark and I walked into the north face into an easterly wind and snow fall blowing down the coire and depositing drifts and windslab on westerly aspects and the path! Reching the CIC we had passed the Glnmore Lodge team on their way out having had a fine week on routes like Italian Right Hand, No3 Gully Butress, Indicator Wall, Point 5 and Thompsons Route. Rosie Goolden working for West Coast Mountain Guides had also done the Curtain although this had been much damaged by yesterday's sunshine. The ice was reported as very variable ranging from solid to climbable but hard to protect.

With all the snow around we went to Waterfall Gully climbing its best pitch (the bottom one!) and abseiling off. The ice good to climb but had a 2 inch gap behind it and plenty of running water around. The feezing level had risen markedly as we walked down to Torlundy and what had been a snowy walk in was a less windy, more soggy walk out in the rain. We left teams heading for a late start on the SW Ridge of the Douglas Boulder.