Spindrift on the Ben..

Chris Walker, Carrick Wharmby and I visited Ben Nevis today climbing the classic 'Green Gully' IV,3.

The freezing level was much lower today, halting the slow thaw of recent days. Some snow showers early on in the day also added to the experience creating vast amounts of spindrift.

I must admit, that this did bring a wry smile to my face as I remembered the first time I climbed 'Green Gully' as a youth, about 15 years ago! (The continuous spindrift avalanches hammering down the route made breathing difficult and we were rewarded with climbing the last two pitches in the dark, following our sluggish start).

Today, we made slightly faster time and descended by No.3 Gully back into the corrie. Conditions appeared to be improving for mixed climbing, with most of the buttresses starting to rime up. I suspect that there might well be a good covering of verglass as one party was moving very slowly on the first major pitch of 'Gargoyle Wall' VI,6. The mountain was busy with folk out on the BMC International Winter Meet, Iain Small making light work on 'Thompson's Route' IV,4.

Yesterday Zoe Hart and Simon Richardson also added a new line at IV,4 somewhere up near Pinnacle Buttress/Raeburn's Wall.

For a brief feel of the Ben today check out Carrick in action: