Messing About On Tower Ridge
Posted by Max Hunter on 08th January, 2016
Jagged Globe – Private Guiding Course
Today I thought it would be a great day for Tower Ridge with Lucy. The weather was brilliant. Everybody seemed to be out climbing. We approached Tower Ridge using the short cut start avoiding the Douglas Chimney to save time. It did save time, but still there was a great deal of trail breaking through deep unconsolidated snow – all time consuming. When we got to the ridge, things didn’t get any easier. I was hoping for an early bird team to be in front of us – but no such luck, and I had to clear everything, and break trail. Finally, after a lot of time, looking at my progress, looking at the watch, I realised we would be pushing daylight hours at the top – so feeling absolutely gutted, I pulled the plug, and we retreated! So, I turned into an Instructor again, and taught Lucy how to retreat from the ridge safely, then how to stack abseil. We then did the Douglas Chimney start to Tower Ridge. This took much longer than normal, with all the clearing to see any rock – so I took this as a sign that I made the right decision to back off. But it was all good fun climbing. This turned out to be the hardest pitch of Lucy’s week so far. But unfortunately no completed Tower Ridge.
Lucy with Minus Face behind
Lucy’s first ever abseil!
Coire na Ciste
Lucy doing even more clearing
The chimney after we both cleared it
Lucy’s first abseil