Early Winter Climbing on Ben Nevis

November 3, 2008 on 11:05 am | In Outdoor Climbing, Hillwalking, Uncategorized |

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!