 Heavy rain and very strong winds yesterday forced most people indoors to do some training at The Ice Factor. David and I spent the day working on ice climbing movement and rope skills for multi-pitch climbing including placing protection, linking anchors on a belay stance and abseiling. Today was a much nicer day outside and we went up Ben Nevis to see what ice was left after the thaw. Number Two Gully was complete so we headed for this deep, twisting grade II gully and we had an excellent time.  There is a nice thin strip of snow leading in to the gully where we found a big ice pillar to make an easy anchor at first. In the climb we found two more ice belays and two rock belays as well as some grade III ice which was nice and soft today. The snow was really hard and there was a tiny little bit of fresh snow in the gully. The loose rocks that Number Two Gully is known for were well enough frozen in place today. So, David and I emjoyed five pitches of snow and ice in nice condition and we went over to Number Three Gully to abseil down on a snow bollard before walking down to the coire. After a careful look on the way back down I couldn't see any other ice climbs well enough formed to have a go at.  With NW winds last night the crags facing the wind were rimed up above 1100m or so. There was a team on Sioux Wall I think who must have found it nice and easy to find the hooks and protection but with just about enough white rime to make it white. Number Three Gully is complete and has steps to the top but Number Four Gully has more broken sections with rocks showing between. Tower Ridge has a micro-dusting on it, more cosmetic than useful. Cold again tomorrow but warmer on Thursday and Friday. 
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 The New Year has not brought us much more new snow. We had a micro-dusting on Tuesday when the temperature dropped and a bit of rime has been growing on the rocks in the last couple of days. Ice is also forming fast in the cold conditions but there is still little climbing to speak of. The old patches of snow shrank in the warmer days over Christmas and are now frozen solid. You need to walk a long way into Coire na Ciste but you can climb Number Three and Number Four Gullies on snow from the bottom of the scree slopes. Tower Gully is OK as well with a narrow section with a hole in Observatory Gully!  Rime is growing on some of the rocks but the bottom of the steeper buttresses are still not very white. You can find some mixed climbing that is well rimed up on the rocks most exposed to the wind above 1100m. The great ridges are quite tricky and slow going due to the thin cover of snow on the rocks. There was a good bit of verglas around today as well so don't expect an easy climb of Tower Ridge, Ledge Route or any of the others. A ridge climb will be awkward and slow work right now.  There are some snow patches on the plateau and on the path down as far as 1100m or so and patches of ice well below this. The verglas and light snow and rime make the rocks very slippery so it was a slow walk down today. The cloud did just about fall below the summit while we were there though which was a bonus. We saw a bit of a brocken spectre and some blue sky above the cloud pouring down into the coires. There might be more of this tomorrow and possibly at the weekend and it does look like it will stay colder for a day or two than was thought previously.  |
