Adventure Blog Scotland | Land » 2008

Early Winter Climbing on Ben Nevis

November 3, 2008 on 11:05 am | In Outdoor Climbing, Hillwalking, Uncategorized | No Comments

The good, cold weather has been with us for a week now and ice is forming. It’s been a great early start to the winter and plenty of climbing has been done by those ready and able to jump on the crags.

Donald and I had a day out on Ben Nevis today and we were surprised at how much ice there is in the drainage lines. It was very wet before it went cold and it has been cold now for a week so gullies such as Point Five Gully and Green Gully, and drainage lines such as Waterfall Gully and The Curtain all have a reasonable amount of ice in them.

The highest crags were well rimed up as well so we went up North Gully on Creag Coire na Ciste to reach the very steep wall above. We climbed a groove / chimney between Place Your Bets and North Gully Left Branch which was quite hard at the start (VII,8) but eased off to give great chimney climbing and a through route to escape onto the plateau. There was a peg and some tat under the through route so it might have been climbed before - if anyone knows please get in touch.

Mike Pescod
http://www.abacusmountaineering.com
Mountain Guide and Instructor with a passion for the hills. Scottish winter climbing is my favourite but scrambling, rock climbing, walking and ice climbing here and in the Alps are pretty good too!

Perfect Winter Walking in the Mamores

November 3, 2008 on 10:42 am | In Scrambling, Hillwalking, Uncategorized | No Comments

Days like today are rare in November and should be made the most of. Warm sunshine, crisp air, pristine snow and amazing colours in the hills made it a brilliant day to be out in the hills. The snow is down to 600m and has been for a week now with sub-zero temperatures. Christine, Davie and I went for a walk up the North Ridge of Stob Ban in the Mamores. Where the snow was in the shade and had been walked on it was compacted and icy so we wore the crampons on the steep, scrambling section going up to the North Top of Stob Ban. This is beyond simple walking and a very good head for heights is required plus some ability in basic scrambling.

After a Forfar Bridie on top we carried on around to the Devil’s Ridge and up to Sgurr a’Mhaim. This is a very narrow and exposed section of ridge with a really tricky step at the narrowest bit. Again, great care is needed but in the perfect conditions we found with no wind we were able to take our time. We made it up Sgurr a’Mhaim to see the brilliant light on Ben Nevis from the afternoon sun before facing the unrelenting walk down back to the Lower Falls in Glen Nevis. Altogether, a fantastic day out.