Day 1 on 'le Ben'

Just back from a fun 2 days winter climbing on Ben Nevis...

I was lucky to get a place (by club lottery) at the famous CIC hut nestled at the base of the north face of Ben Nevis this weekend. We took a leisurely drive up on the Friday so we could walk in during daylight hours. Its quite a knackering walk in with food/gear and supplies etc, but we were only packing stuff for 2 days compared with a group of Italians we saw coming up for the week when we left. They had 160 ltr haul bags, which even included Bialeta expresso makers (one between 2 I think!)!!!

On the walk in great views of Orion Face (plastered). Note the queues on NE Buttress (ridge lower left) at the 'man trap', and lots of people (ants) on Orion Direct (further right)!

The CIC hut is a great place (never been in before). Its warm (note - don't need 4 season sleeping bag next time), with gas fires, electric lights, sleeps 26 (it was packed) and even has stinky toilets! Brilliant.

CIC luxury - don't worry that mans not got a bandaged head. He's french, and cool...

Friday night people were arriving all night, in fact Loz and Shaw (who'd come up earlier), only got back at 10.30 pm after an epic time on Minus One Gully (VI, 6). They were happy but knackered! There were 8 of us from the Kendal Mountaineering Club and we enjoyed wine (thanks for carrying in a wine box Paul!), 'posh' Vodka (nice one Pete), and Whisky (thanks Shaw ;-) ).


An early (for me) start on Saturday, after limited sleep (dorms) saw us heading up into the clag trying to find a route to climb. It was fairly poor weather initially so we took Conan's advice, found Garadh Gully (II), went up this (fun little gully) as it finishes just at the base of Glover's Chimney (III, 4). This was a great marker, but also luckily the weather did clear as we got to the base of Glover's so we knew we were in the right place. Amazing views as the cloud dissipated, queues on Comb Gully +++.

Weather starts to clear and we see the start of Glover's Chimney

Looking up to the tower gap - check the people (ants) just on the left of it about to cross it

 We started Glover's at a perfect time, because the route was clear ahead of us, and there were 3 teams slogging up to join us on the route.

Being chased up the route. Note all the people heading diagonally left up towards Comb Gully

What a great route, nice first ice pitch, followed by lots of easy ground in the middle. All the way up, we could see a continuous stream of people crossing 'tower gap' above us. The last, crux pitch was brilliant, a 35m mixed chimney. It was choked with ice so gear was slightly limited on the top half - but brilliant fun. Its great finishing/pulling out into 'tower gap'. All the passing traffic had gone so we didn't see anyone on Tower Ridge when we yomped up this to finish our days climbing.

Paul in the chimney, note the teams below!

Paul nearing the belay and top of the chimney pitch

On the summit with 1-2 hours daylight left, it was a hard call, another route, finish in the dark, or tea and cake at the hut!?!?!

On top..... (lomo style pic)

The weather improved during the afternoon and as we descended we got great views of Glover's Chimney.

Glover's Chimney, helpfully marked for non climbers to spy our route!

Peter and Fiona had carried in a chilli for all 8 of us (heavy?), so another great social night was had by all. I slept much sounder Saturday night.......................