Lonely on Aonach Mor

Ben Nevis from Aonach Mor

Today we went to a strangely deserted East face of Aonach Mor. The two Adventure Peaks teams had the whole crag to ourselves. Due to the foretasted high winds the Quad chair wasn't running meaning a slightly longer walk in but conditions were surprisingly benign as we arrived at the Ski Patrol hut. After quickly gearing up we descended Easy Gully by abseil which involved some novel rope work by the other team! There were plenty of large cornices but everything seemed pretty stable. We traversed below the crag to find the majority of the routes looking rather lean with none of the mixed routes in condition. The best options were Left Twin (III) taken by Rob's team and Siamese Twin (IV 4) which gave us a great little climb on good ice. We topped out by traversing left to the top of Morwind which doesn't have a cornice. After a quick bite to eat we dropped a rope down The Web (III) which also contained plenty of ice leading up to an impressive cornice which was outflanked to the right. Over on the Ben teams were reporting good chewy ice up high but with limited security from ice screws.

Abseiling in to Easy Gully

Sheila topping out on the first pitch of Siamese Twin (IV 4)

Patricia & Sheila on a comfortable stance