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| The moon, just to the right of Castle Ridge |
Last Sunday the weather was forecast to be excellent so we made tracks for Ben Nevis, hoping to find a suitable frozen mixed climb for Lena and myself. The Ben was more breathtaking than normal as the moon passed behind Castle Ridge and the sun rose behind the Ben.
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| Sunrise behind NE Buttress |
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| Right-Hand Chimney (IV,4**) on Moonlight Gully Buttress |
Plan A was to check out Right-Hand Chimney on Moonlight Gully Buttress. It did look a little choked with snow, so that would mean a lot of clearing, but we were up for it. Lena racked up and set off. She soon discovered that the turf was pulling and was a long way from frozen. The loose rocks in the chimney, that I guess would be helpful if frozen in place, were still loose. So our desire to get up the route was thwarted by the lack of freeze - again. We'd used a lot of time here so we needed a quick plan B, to still enjoy the day, so we decided to swim (climb) up Moonlight Gully.
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| Lena starting to wrestle with the unfrozen turf and the loose snow |
Moonlight gully was filled with 'swimming snow', so at least it gave us a good full body workout. The normal little steps in the gully, that make it grade II, were pretty awkward - as close to empathising to a salmon swimming up a waterfall as I've ever got! One step up and 3 feet down. At the top of the Gully, as it breaks into Number 5, we decided to avoid doing battle with the No.5 gully loose snow fields - and we ab'ed out of Moonlight, to fight again another day. It did feel like we took the rack and ropes out for a walk, but that's the way it is sometimes.
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| Lena in Moonlight Gully |
