Deeper Snow Than Feb!
Posted by Max Hunter on 03rd April, 2015
Observatory Gully popular today
The Curtain is there, but dangerous to get to
Today, working for Atlas Mountaineering, I met Avi and Derek. Derek took up climbing about a year ago, and had never been to Ben Nevis (or ever climbed in Scotland). Avi has climbed for many years, but also loves scrambling, walking and running. They both just relish being outdoors having fun.
Today, with the rising temperatures, I was very keen to avoid any cornices or any slopes prone to cornice collapse, and Avi was keen to get onto a ridge or two this weekend so we went to the Douglas Boulder. We started with the icy long pitch which took us to the rock. There is certainly a lot of ice around, but there is definitely also a huge amount of snow and sometimes covering the ice up. There were 2 teams on Vanishing Gully today. There were at least 2 teams on Orion Direct, and at least one team on Hadrians. There was a team heading for Italian RH, and a ski/mountaineer breaking trail though the LHS gulch up into the Ciste – he was the one working hardest today! We climbed the SW Ridge on Douglas Boulder. I did see several teams head up into the Ciste – but I also saw a couple of teams head back down again a little later.
During the climb I heard 3 avalanches! Two were very loud and stopped me climbing – I couldn’t however see anything through the cloud or tell where they came from.
The snow in the Douglas gap was deeper than any time earlier in this season – and the snow was banked out up the chimney that starts Tower Ridge – the block which sometimes has abseil tat on it was deeply buried.
Derek and Avi ready for some climbing
Start of the mixed
Avi enjoyed the problem solving
Avi taking a look
Derek loving his new Cryo LT axes
Avi topping out