Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Tower Scoop, Exploration and North Gully - Ben Nevis




I have been out with friends Dave and Andy today on the Ben. We headed up Observatory Gully and started off with Tower Scoop (III) where the ice was nice and squidgy after a couple of days of thaw and a freeze last night. There was also plenty of fresh snow about. We had been planning on heading onto Good Friday climb afterwards but were put off by large accumulations of wind slab between us and the route so headed into the bottom of Tower Gully (I). Half way up on the right hand side we spotted a great little icefall that we followed to the top. I am sure it has been climbed many times before but is not mentioned in the guidebook. It gave a nice pitch of grade III ice and then easier ground above. We descended number 4 gully which was a very friendly shallow angle and then quickly soloed North Gully (II) before coming back down number 4. A great day out.

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