Another fine day on Ben Nevis yesterday. I climbed with Matt and Adam which made for good banter on the belays and a nice light rucksack as everything was shared out a bit more.
We headed up into Coire Na Ciste again and for a few ice routes we’d spied from previous visits last week. Adam was happy to coast along (having done about 15 days in a row) so Matt and I were able to practice some more guiding techniques by leading a route each.
I led Comb Gully Buttress with the ice variant which was a brilliant IV, 4 with a little brittle ice but good climbing past hanging ice daggers. We then abseiled into number 3 gully and Matt led us up Winter Cascade (IV, 5) a rarely formed ice streak to the right of winter chimney. A long 60m pitch took us above the difficulties where a short pitch on snow led to the plateau again.
It was still early, so a double abseil down number two gully took us to the bottom of Comb Gully where we soloed to the start of the steep climbing. Matt led us up The Comb, Left flank another great IV, 4 with some thin ice but some nice plastic stuff as well. Two pitches took us to the top again and we met up with some friends at the top of number four gully which made for a social descent back to the car park.
So a good day on Scotland premier mountain, just a shame I left the memory card out of my camera!
