Friday 11 December 2009

A fine day on the Ben.





I knew I wouldn't be able to be good and rest my ankle (shaved my leg to tape it... a new experience) or chest for long..... Kenny and Mike and I got an early start today for our day out on Ben Nevis. After hearing from folks yesterday we decided to go around to Observatory Gully and get as high as possible. Up at the top the buttresses were well rimed but there wasn't as much ice as we woulld have liked. Discounting a few options on our way up we finally settled on Smith's Route as being one of the few lines looking icey enough. Once we got onto the route the placements for tools were actually rather good. The snow was generally firmer than expected but you never new quite whether the next step would be solid or not- so we (well.... Kenny- it was his lead) aproached the crux tentatively. Fortunately conditions continued good through all 3 pitches. We topped out in sunshine with a great inversion and headed off to descend No. 4 for what was the first but not the last time of the season. There were a few things looking climbable in Coire Na Ciste but I'll leave it to Mike for a fuller description- he has my pics and video clips from today so expect a good vid later on on Abacus Mountaineering's Conditions page .

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

new=knew

Gary Hodgson said...

It was a very fine day. I was up No.4 Gully, must have passed you near the summit.

Alan said...

Sorry anon, that's what happens when you write in a hurry :-)
Hi Gary, yes I think we passed you on our way down. Grand day wasn't it!

Anonymous said...

Hi Alan, great site look at it regularly for condition reports, shot up from Derbyshire for an early start, think i saw you park up around 6.30 7ish from half way up C.M.D Arete and also got some great shots of you guys topping out when i got to the summit! Great day and fantastic weather!!!

Rob

Alan said...

Aha, we thought we saw a light half way up the side of the CMD., Your early start was well repaid with the views!