Cloud inversion on Tower Ridge

Indicator Wall with a wee bit of ice still hanging in there

This week I'm working for Adventure Peaks on a guided winter climbing course. With the promise of a cloud inversion we got the week off to a good start with an ascent of the classic Tower Ridge (IV 3). Winter arrived a the foot of the Great Tower where we put crampons on to enjoy the solid neve and dry rock which gave an alpine feel to the top half of the route. We'd climbed out of the cloud on the Little Tower and were able to enjoy a number of fog bows and brocken spectras before traipsing round to the summit in the sun. After a stunning sunset a quick descent down No 4 gully took us back into the gloom and the surprising sight of a gentleman with a monster rucksack walking into the CIC Hut in his big boots and boxer shorts!

A fog bow or white rainbow

A team on Good Friday Climb (III)

Climbing in to the sun on the Great Tower

A Glory, Brocken Spectra & Fog Bow from Tower Ridge

On top of the Great Tower

A team topping out on Comb Gully Buttress

The final gully on to the plateau

Pulling on to the Ben Nevis plateau

Cheesy summit photo!

Stunning cloud inversion

Aonach Mor & CMD framed by Tower Gully

Friday night film - Vanishing Gully & Tower Ridge

Tower Ridge

Tom on Tower Ridge's Eastern Traverse

Today promised to be warm but calm so a great opportunity to tackle one of the biggest and best routes on the Ben - Tower Ridge (IV 3) which has been at the top of Patricia's tick list for the past 6 years. There were plenty of folk heading up the Allt a'Mhullinn racing against the forecast rise in the freezing level. In the end it shot past us as we approached the Great Tower giving a very soggy end to the climb. Conditions stayed cloudy but there was always the promise of a cloud inversion above. Later in the day there was a lot of falling ice and a couple of what sounded like large cornice collapses.
Tower Ridge was in reasonable nick allowing us to make a quick ascent in around five hours including a couple of traffic jams. The snow was very soggy but there was good ice where it was needed. Teams were also on Zero gully, Hadrian's Wall Direct, Point 5, Tower Scoop, Glover's Chimney, Wendigo and North Gully all reporting a very wet experience.

Sheila & Patricia enjoying Tower Ridge with the promise of a cloud inversion

Tom, climbing with Nigel Hooker, starting the Eastern Traverse

Nigel Hooker beginning the crux moves to the top of the Great Tower

The scars of battle!

Approaching a traffic jam at Tower Gap

Patricia & Sheila in Tower Gap

Deep snow on Tower Ridge

Climbing on Tower Ridge below Little Tower.

Not liking the Met Office forecast of blizzards and gale force winds we opted to believe the MWIS version and headed off to the Ben with our sites set on the classic Tower Ridge (IV 3) which we hoped had been blown clean. Snow had fallen overnight down to 200m but the forecasted strong winds had failed to materialise and there was a pretty uniform coverage of new powder snow with a few patches of very soft windslab. We made good time up to the base of the route and soloed the easy gully to the Douglas Gap. However the exit chimney was almost banked out with soft unconsolidated snow requiring a lot of clearing. This theme continued with deep powder snow covering everything making very slow going. We eventually called a halt just below the Little Tower with a couple of hours of daylight left before making a very ordered retreat down our line of ascent. The day was finished with a quick stomp from the CIC hut to the lower car park in under an hour as I think the guys wanted their dinner!

The Ben was fairly quiet with one team making slow progress on Minus 2 Gully and a couple of folk swimming up Observatory & Tower Gullies. Despite the snowfall there was very little evidence of avalanche activity to be seen. However the forecasted increase in the north westerly wind is going to move a lot of snow around forming plenty of windslab in the coming days. Today I was working for Adventure Peaks.

Observatory Gully with a couple of climbers swimming up towards Gardyloo.

Just below Little Tower with NE Buttress in the background

Our highpoint on the ridge.

Abseiling down the ice variant just above Douglas Chimney

Abseiling into the gloom of the Douglas Gap