Castle Ridge

The Ben from near Half Way Lochan

Six days on from the last significant fall of snow and the Scottish Hills are still covered in unconsolidated powder with low temperatures and blue skies. This is the winter that keeps giving. This week I'm working for Adventure Peaks on a Climbing Improvers course. For Nigel it's his final training for his Everest expedition in April. With the forest track still unpassable without four wheel drive we enjoyed the walk up to the Ben from the North Face car park. Our route was one of the five classic ridges - Castle Ridge (III). This gave plenty of grade II ground with a couple of definite cruxes on steep mixed ground.

Early morning sunshine lighting up the Ben.

Easy ground on Castle Ridge.

The crux corner at grade III with plenty of exposure.

Enjoying the descent towards Half way Lochan.

Descending from the climb with Loch Linne in the background