Ben Action

There has been a lot of action on the Ben recently. Number 2 Gully avalanched twice yesterday. The first of these hit a team. They all eventually ended up in hospital as walking wounded but the last of the 3 should be discharged tomorrow. Thank you to the Mountain rescue teams involved and the helicopter teams - another excellent job. Thank you.

Ken Barry and I headed for the Ben ourselves for a mini adventure. We found that all the teams on the international climbing meet were already there. Many had left Glenmore at about 5am to get to the ice first, and so were off the ice before lunch !

We got onto Number 4 Gully and got to the Summit - first time for Ken and Barry - well done.

Teams were climbing 4, 3, 2, Glovers, Green, South, Central Right hand, Good Friday, Indicator wall, Smiths, Observatory - in fact to be honest, you name it and there were teams queueing up for it !

On the way down the Red Burn we found the now infamous tobogan run - a 300-400 metre tobogan snow slide honestly better than a theme park... The only trick is to get off at the right time before getting swallowed up by the stream down the hole !

More Winter Skills tomorrow !