Back in my temporary home of Newtonmore after two good days on the Ben.
The conditions after the thaw were interesting, lots of snow has been striped away but what is left has frozen hard into some fine neve meaning many routes are in great condition, you just have to pick the right one.
Rocio and I headed up pretty early on Thursday morning and walked up Observatory gully to below Smiths route. We’d both climbed it before but though it would be a good option as it’s pretty much the highest ice climb in Scotland. Despite this it was dripping, or flowing, with water and although in climbable condition we didn’t fancy the cold soaking on a route we’d climbed before. We left it for some keen parties behind and and carried on up Tower Gully giving the calves a good workout in the process.
We were still keen for a route, and both wanting to check routes for future clients, we headed down no. 3 and climbed Green Gully (IV, 4) in five pitches back to the plateau. It was in thin condition, with a few holes in places but totally climbable and a great classic route.
Today it was back up Observatory Gully and up to Indicator Wall. Neither of us had climbed it before and it looked like it was going to be OK, thin in places but it had had 24hrs of good freeze so the ice wasn’t dripping today. I headed up the right-hand variation which gave a good first pitch of V, 5 before we joined the standard route which Rocio led through, (Probably about V, 4 as the guidebook suggests)
We topped out at the summit trig point (the final belay around the post) and sat sun bathing in the sunshine, what a treat! It was completely still and we had amazing views, including some impressive close quarter flying by some fast RAF jet.
We were pretty sated, and stayed in the sunshine by heading down the zig zags and through the partially frozen bog back to the van.
Some great mountaineering routes in good condition at the moment; Tower Ridge, Ledge route, and probably all the grade I and II gullies. Some harder stuff; Tower scoop, comb and green gullies, central ice fall, Smiths, Good Friday, Indicator to name but a few. Basically if it’s got snow or ice on the route and looks complete it’s probably very climbable. The buttress lines are pretty black, couldn’t see any mixed routes in condition today. It’ll be busy at the weekend though, so keep a few options in mind when your heading up.
