Ledge Route

The start of Tower Ridge

My last day with Dave, we wanted to finish with something on the Ben, either a guided route, or something for Dave to lead, or partly lead himself. We found a great deal more fresh powder snow than I expected. When in Observatory Gully we found that Zero Gully had recently avalanched, and Point Five was showing powder release as well (with a party climbing on it at the time). There were lots of teams heading up onto Tower Ridge, Indicator Wall and Smith's Route areas but, with lots of powder releases on several slope aspects, I didn't think it wise to follow any of these teams. There were several teams heading out of Observatory Gully area for a different plan. We had a quick think, and once we observed avalanche debris high in Coire Na Ciste below Number 3 Gully, we decided to move onto plan E - Ledge Route (II****) - for Dave to lead half of the route. The route was great, and we shared it with several other parties.

Dave navigating off the Ben

Dave wanted to use the last part of the day to practice his navigation - and the clouds obliged this by coming and going with perfect timing. Unfortunately Dave has to get back to work on Monday, but that gives a few more days to play in the snow...

Hopefully nobody was caught out with all the snow movements today.