Tower Ridge In Great Winter Condition
Posted by Max Hunter on 22nd April, 2016
On Tuesday, I met up with Martin again for our last day of winter mountaineering/climbing. He wanted to climb Tower Ridge, so the last few days had been training/preparation for this great ridge. The weather was the beginning of the settled high pressure, so there was very little wind, no rain/snow and the visibility was almost always great. The sun however did have a melting influence on the ice on the rock however, and we were occasionally showered by ice from above, particularly on the eastern traverse. We had the route to ourselves, with only 1 team behind us. There was also a team on Point 5.
The route was incredibly banked out, which made climbing straight forward, but belays took a little digging at times. Martin found the climbing easy, and enjoyed the exposure of the eastern traverse and the tower gap. It was a sensational day, and it made me realise that with that much snow, it’ll be in winter conditions for a long way into Spring/Summer.
The North Face on Tuesday 19th
Martin starting up the ridge
A banked out eastern traverse
Eastern Traverse
Martin above the filled in cave pitch
Into the sun again
Top of the Great Tower
Martin in the Tower Gap
Martin climbing out of the gap
Great views at the end of the climb
Final belay before the top
A very snowy summit with fragile cornices