Another calm settled day on the Ben
26th February 2024
It was another calm and settled day with little change in the snowpack. After a few days on Aonach Mor, I had a pleasant ramble around on Ben Nevis. There is a fair bit of loose soft snow above about 700 metres. Fortunately there were some good tracks around the hill. It must have been pretty hard work the first teams breaking trail into Coire na Ciste a few days ago.
There were quite a few teams out and about climbing, with Tower Ridge looking to be a popular choice today. Although conditions are not great at the moment, they are a lot better than they were 5 days ago when it was essentially down to patches of snow and very little ice remaining.
Looks like a bit of a change tomorrow to more unsettled windy weather with a fluctuating freezing level and some fresh snow.
A team of climber heading up from the CIC hut.
Just for comparison, this is how conditions were looking just 5 days ago. Thankfully things have improved significantly since then.
A closer view of the Observatory Buttress/Point Five Gully area. You can just make out a climber on Point Five Gully. Later I spoke to a team by the CIC hut who had abseiled of after the first pitch saying that the ice was very soft.
Carn Dearg Buttress from the CIC hut.
Creag Coire na Ciste.
Looking over to Central Trident Buttress. Ice is starting to form on the line of Mega Route X, but a fair way to go yet.
The area around Glover’s Chimney. There were two parties on that route.
Looking towards Carn Mor Dearg. The obvious lower rocky buttress is the Douglas Boulder. From time to time people could be seen appearing at the gap, and heading up and rightwards along the lower part of Tower Ridge which was a popular choice today.
Number three gully buttress
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John Mackenzie
26th February 2024 5:24 pm
Brilliant photos, better than a guide book but definitely on the lean side. Given global warming and a big growth of moss (perish the thought) the number of mixed lines would be legion…!