A slightly more "normal" winter.

It has been so nice to have a winter with slightly more normal snow and ice cover. The last few winters (2022 to 2025) were very patchy, characterised by some snow build up followed by deep thaws that stripped much of it away. The snow pack did not have a chance to build and to transform into the kind of snow that is resistant to a few days of thaw. As a result, ice climbing has been very limited in the last four winters. We have been enjoying lots of mixed climbing and climbing conditions that we'd call early season conditions for much of the winter, but there has not been very much ice to climb at all. Last winter (2025) in particular was notable for there being no classic ice climbs formed at all for the entire winter.

So, it has been really nice to see the big, classic ice climbs on Ben Nevis form up this year, to have a snow pack that is now durable in the days of thaw and there is hope that we will continue to have some ice to climb for another month.

It has not been entirely normal or easy going though. For about five weeks in January and early February we had a strong easterly or south-easterly air stream. This happened last in 2010 when it was incredibly cold all winter with lots of snow and we had and amazing season for climbing. This year there was a lot of snow in the Cairngorms and the west coast didn't get so much at all. However, it was very cold and the ground froze properly, setting us up nicely for when the weather changed to a more common westerly airstream with snow and thaw-freeze cycles.

During this time of strong SE winds, we took a right battering! It's a characteristic of SE winds that they accelerate down the "sheltered" side of the mountains. You often see a higher wind speed being recorded at the CIC Hut at 670m than you do on the summit of Aonach Mor at 1200m. In the coires of Ben Nevis, the SE winds swirl around like crazy, making it very difficult to reach any of the higher crags. We climbed on The Douglas Boulder a lot!

Finally the airstream changed to a westerly, three weeks into February. This meant rain to the summit and a thaw at all levels but we need this to generate some ice. Persistent cold conditions are no good for building the snow-ice that we rely on. Instead, we need fluctuating temperatures with snowfall, thaw and refreeze to build up snow, get it wet and soggy then refreeze it into snow-ice that is good for climbing.

We had to endure some very wet days and poor conditions for it to start to come good. Vanishing Gully and The Curtain formed up nicely and ice climbs at Creag Meagaidh were pretty good. Big classic climbs like Point Five Gully and Orion Direct looked great but were actually made of cruddy ice, partly because of the super thick rime that had built up.

A few more deep thaws and rain finally saturated all the snow at all levels and it froze back into good snow ice. At last we could go and enjoy classic climbs like Zero Gully, Orion Direct, Astral Highway, Hadrian's Wall Direct, Point Five Gully, Indicator Wall and Smith's Route. Lots of people grabbed a chance to climb on some beautiful days for climbing, leading to multiple teams on every route and the inevitable frustrations caused by slower teams and falling debris.

Early starts were a good tactic, leaving North Face car park at 4am and hoping to beat anyone staying at the CIC Hut! Also, having a flexible approach to the route you choose worked well, and climbing routes like Roaring Forties and Comb Gully Buttress that are less busy but have equally good climbing.

So, we now have fat ice on Point Five Gully, and pretty good ice on many other climbs. Orion Direct might be a bit thin on the crux second pitch but most of the other big classic ice climbs are holding up well enough. Today we have fresh snow down to a couple of hundred metres above sea level and much colder temperatures on the summit. It seems like the ice climbing will be around for a bit longer.

​Remember that Ben Nevis ice climbing often coincides with the daffodils being in flower. Up here they are only just starting to open up - we should have a month of ice climbing still to come!