North Gully

First pitch of North Gully (II**)

This week I'm working for Jagged Globe. Check out their blog here. I'm working on a winter mountaineering course. I started today, but this is day 3 of their course. Tony Halliwell is directing the course. I was teamed up with Rob and Dan. We headed to the Ben with a few plans, but when we got there we decided upon North Gully, and Tony's team went for Moonlight Gully (II*).

Rob and Dan

There is a little new snow, with a few accumulations in places, but this could easily be spotted and avoided. The neve is again rock hard, and lots of ice still exists. North Gully was in great condition.

Rob in red, Dan in Green

The cornice is large and the exit is very steep - lots of people have tackled it with ice screws

I got to the cornice and tried the direct cornice exit. There are lots of screw holes, where the escape is a 2-3m vertical wall. I didn't fancy it, so went for the 30m R traverse to where the cornice stops.

I went for the traverse to the RHS where the cornice stops

Topping out

Number 4 gully is in easy condition

We quickly nipped down number 4 gully, and so ended a great day. As we were leaving the weather seemed to be on the turn, the winds seemed to be picking up, and more snow was on it's way down.... How will it look by the end of tomorrow? Tony had a great time on Moonlight Gully and came down Number 5 Gully.