Moonlight

Phil with Julia behind on Moonlight Gully

Jagged Globe - Winter Mountaineering Course

Phil, Julia and I headed off to a busy Ben Nevis today. The top car cark was full by 9am and people had set off to do a wide range of objectives, with solid neve everywhere and plenty of ice. A team even climbed the Curtain today (somehow) on a very thin initial pitch, before the overlap. Waterfall Gully, Point Five, North Trident Buttress and Jubilee Climb were also climbed. We went off to Moonlight Gully and found it in good condition. This was the second winter climb for Julia and Phil and they are on a steep learning curve but taking it all in like sponges - brilliant. Later in the day they were even placing their own screws, nuts and friends, and even building their own belays, which we all agreed were strong enough to trust and abseil off. A great day 3.

Phil relaxing at the belay

CIC Cascades and Waterfall Gully

Susie on the Cascades - coming through the mixed chimney

Jagged Globe - Winter Mountaineering

Unsure of the degree of thaw the ice had had, we made our way up to the CIC ice to see what was still possible. It was raining from the beginning of the day to the end of the day, and we found that there was still ice, but it was much reduced, and the crags were generally black and wet. Many of the cascades were still climbable. Andy C took the left main line. Dave H took a good line on the right, and I took a narrow ice line near the left - it's crux collapsed when I got to it, so it turned into a great mixed section. At the top Susie and Adam were having a great time and wanting more, so we headed up to Waterfall Gully which still looked great. The coaching yesterday in the Ice Factor seemed to pay off, because the team got to the belay fresh without pumped arms, and they said that they found it straight forward. I dug out the rock belay high on the RHS, but we later met a team that had earlier used the 2 doubtful ice threads - that were made last week, and much reduced now with a big thaw!

The Curtain also got an ascent early today - but I could barely see it with the poor visibility.

Susie getting to grips with belaying

Adam on Waterfall Gully

Susie coming up Waterfall Gully

Susie with calf burn

Wet but happy at the belay

A dripping Waterfall Gully

Waterfall Gully

Paul Platt on Waterfall Gully

Jagged Globe - Snow and Ice Climbing

I decided on Waterfall Gully today with John and Jim. When we got there Paul Platt was already there with his 2 clients, so we got a front row seat to watch and chill. The ice was fantastic, chewy and not brittle at all. Not everywhere was good for screws on the pitch however - but this was more than made up for in the upper gully where you could sink the longest screws anywhere on the left wall. After 40m of climbing there was an insitu double thread ab/belay. We decided to go on for another pitch to 'see around the corner'. I went exactly 60m before making a belay. We saw a team on Gemini having fun on the steep icy smear. Time didn't allow us to continue further up the gully, so back to the thread belay it was. We eventually ab'ed off 3 equalised threads. We no longer had time unfortunately to climb on the lower CIC ice falls which looked good. The Curtain today looked good (if a little thin and bold) - at least 1 team climbed it. There were other teams on the lower ice falls, Vanishing Gully, Tower Ridge and Ledge Route.

Tim - Jim says that you need to get over here and get on one of these courses.

Paul on pitch 1

The thread abseil

Jim after the steep ice

Jim on his way to the belay

John and Jim

Jim on his way up on the second 60m pitch

Gemini - the very steep ice smear before the right sloping grooves

John on the final abseil

Skills Around The Boulder

Orion Face, Ob Ridge, Point area

Abacus Mountaineering - Winter Climbing

On Guy's second day of his weekend he wanted to learn some of the basics, so we headed up to the Douglas Boulder and Observatory Ridge snow slopes. We had a long session on slipping, sliding, stopping a slip, and stopping a slide before we moved on to the East Ridge up to the Douglas gap. There we went through the nuts and bolts of abseiling. We moved on to Observatory Gully to look at snow anchors and some of the theory of how to stay safe in and around snow.

At this altitude (up to 900m) the snow was heavy with rain, soft and sticky. This made trail breaking difficult, but the snow was good for solid snow anchors. Moving up the East Gully was secure but a little heavy going. A team had climbed the West Gully. There were many climbing teams bailing left, right and centre today, but Mike Pescod climbed one of the CIC ice falls with Waterfall Gully, and Richard and Tony and Mark climbed a new VI,5 near Green Gully.

Guy learning the ropes - or actually arresting, with a great backdrop

Guy on his way out of East Gully

Guy getting to grips with body belaying

Guy trying various abseil techniques off a bollard

Number Three Gully Buttress - Friday

CIC Ice Falls. Waterfall Gully

Jagged Globe - Snow and Ice Climbing

On Friday I got a chance to climb with Fred again, who was at the end of his Snow and Ice Climbing week, with Jagged Globe. He wanted a mixed climb at about III/IV. He had ice earlier in the week. We chose Number Three Gully Buttress and headed up towards Coire na Ciste. We had very poor visibility for the entire approach. I had a couple of glimpses of the climb and could see another team on it, about an hour ahead of us. Elsewhere, lots of teams were on Ledge Route and SW Ridge of the Douglas Boulder.

Another view of CIC Ice Falls and a better view of Waterfall Gully

Fred walking up towards Coire na Ciste

The Curtain - not fully formed yet

The Douglas Boulder - lots of climbers of the SW Ridge.

Fred on pitch 2 of Number Three Gully Buttress

The fun little traverse onto the rock after the snowy bay

Quickstep

Two-Step Corner

Fred in the snowy bay with Two-Step Corner behind

Fred approaching the last belay, before the fun final chimney pitch

Fred climbing the last little section to the top

All the trail breaking earlier in the day on the approach paid off with the fun on the climb. We took the direct chimney exit at about IV, before the final ramp to the top. Fred enjoyed the climb more and more as the climb got more inrteresting towards the top.

Fred topping out with brilliant scenery behind

The main mountain path immediately after the waterfall

CIC Ice

Looking up at CIC ice falls, Carn Dearg Buttress to Castle Ridge

Jagged Globe - Winter Mountaineering

Today Jan and Jeff were keen to take time to learn a little about ice climbing and more specifically, alternately leading themselves up ice, placing protection and making belays. We headed up towards the Ben and found the CIC icefalls looking good, and currently being climbed in many places. The Gulch has a lot of solid ice and can be climbed from about grade 0.5 up to about IV. The day was one of the best on the Ben for a while, and yet it was pretty quiet. One reason for this was the Ben track. Our minibus didn't make it. I think you need 4 winter tyres or a 4x4 or both at the moment - or a slightly longer walk from lower down, like us today. Lots of ice routes around CIC were being climbed today as well as Tower Ridge, Number 5 gully and Ledge Route.

Jan and Jeff lead a few pitches doing all the work themselves and finally abseiled off an ice abseil to finish one of their first independent leads. Well done.

CIC ice fall

Number 2 Gully, Comb, Number 3 Gully Buttress

Falls to the RHS of the main fall. All climbed today

Further right

Ice around the approach to Castle Ridge

Compression Crack

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Waterfall Gully

Waterfall Gully

Point 5 Gully

Number 3 Gully and Creag Coire Na Ciste

Jeff placing screws into thick solid ice

CIC Gulch Ice

Jeff making his way up towards his ice belay

Ice fall below Number 5 Gully, and the start of the Curtain