Ben Nevis
Posted by Max Hunter on 25th March, 2012
A late start this morning saw me watching Scooby Doo, and then Utube before I decided to head for Ben Nevis, hoping it wouldn’t be busy! It wasn’t. It was one of the most quiet days of the year on the North Face. I decided to head for Tower Ridge starting with the Douglas Gap.
I took the tat you can see above, from the Douglas Gap and later used it to abseil into Number 5 Gully off a rock anchor. The rock was dry and warm – no need for gloves. I was still in my base layer until closer to the Great Tower.
I put my soft shell, harness, crampons and gloves on at this point, and got my axes out. I thought about all the spare stuff I had in my bag, and was wishing I’d left it all at home – and put suncream in instead!
The Eastern Traverse on 25/3/12 from Max Hunter on Vimeo.
The gap is a little awkward to climb down into, but with dry warm grippy rock it was fine.
Tower Gap on 25/3/12 from Max Hunter on Vimeo.
There were many people walking up the tourist track today – shorts, t shirts, trainers – I felt a bit out of place with all my winter kit! The top of Tower gully looked a little steep, so I cut a bollard to abseil past the scarp slope. Somebody walked up to me intending to be helpful and asked if I wanted him to hold it in his hands as I went down – I politely said ‘no’!
Tower Gully was my way of getting to Gardyloo Gully. I wanted to take a look at the tunnel I’d seen photos of – it looked great fun. It was fantastic!
There’s still good ice around. The top pitch of Smith’s looked okay. The ice to the right of Gardyloo looked do-able. Good Friday looked history!
After Gardyloo Gully it was still early so I thought I’d go down Number 5 gully. The cracks were hugh at the top, and I didn’t really want to stand on the cornices or abseil over them, so I went to the hardright hand side (looking down) and abseiled down the scarp slope.
Number 5 Gully and Panorama on 25/3/12 from Max Hunter on Vimeo.
I finished my day with a completely summer ascent of Castle Ridge. I met 3 guys on it, who asked if they were on Castle Ridge. These were some of the only climbers I met. I saw some people going up and down Number 4 and somebody else on Tower Ridge.
It was a pleasure being on Ben Nevis with the weather so warm and dry. I’ll leave some of that spare clothing at home tomorrow.