Thursday, February 10, 2011

Green Gully, Ben Nevis

We have had a stunning day here in Scotland today, what a difference a day makes! We put the skills that we covered yesterday into good use today on Green Gully (IV,4) which gave 5 great full length pitches of snow ice to the summit plateau of the Ben. The early morning mist soon burned off and we had crystal clear blue skies and sunshine all day with stunning views from the top. Yesterdays thaw and last nights freeze put a crust on the snowpack that was not quite neve but was still lovely to play on. The route itself had a similar crust on it and I had to work a bit to get gear placements but there was also some lovely squeaky neve higher up. The only bad news was that the Red Burn was not complete for a bum slide down! A brilliant day where Scotland proved itself to be world class once again. 







Dave and Andy climbed North east Buttress (IV,4) and reported similar cruddy conditions low down but getting better higher on the route. There were teams on Point Five, Zero Gully, Observatory Buttress, Vanishing Gully, Fawlty Towers and Ledge Route. Thanks to Dave for the following photos from North East Buttress. 





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