Ben Nevis Weekend 1st-4th MAR 2013

This blog will be added to over the course of the next few days.

Stopped for lunch at the gate inn at Yanwath near Penrith very nice!

01/03/13 0800 cold clear sunny day here in Glasgow we'll be picking up Ginny the second climber at around 1300 to drive the 100 miles over the mountains to Fort William.
01/03/2013 Arrived Fort William around 1630. Sunny clear weather. Hired a pair of boots that can take crampons. Met up with Adam the guide and he briefed us on the 2 days. Tomorrow we go to Glencoe to learn the basics. Sunday we are going to the top of Ben Nevis using a climbing route rather than the path route!

 Sally & Ginny take in the view at the top of the pass before Glencoe

A nice reflection pic by Sally through the car window

 

07:30 a bit of drizzle falling and some low cloud about.  It looks like it could be a wet day up at Glencoe

18:35 02/03/2013 Phew! didn't do enough training!  We spent the first hour this morning walking up an incredibly steep track into a huge re-entrant where the snow was.  I must admit to being a little disappointed by the amount of snow up there but it was just what we needed to learn "the skills" 

 

We spent an incredibly long time rolling about in the snow learning how to arrest a headlong slip on the snow without an ice axe and then with an ice axe.  After that, cold and wet we put on our crampons and learnt how to walk and climb "the ice".  This was very interesting and the skills needed were not at first apparent until Adam explained the finer points. 

We then descended back to the car and are looking forward to going up Ben Nevis in the morning

See today's pics worth a look here     sorry about this link not working correctly for a while

Adam and Ginny descend an icy stream

 

03/03/2013 07:15  The forecast from a couple of days ago predicted that Sunday would be "the better day".  Looking out the hotel window we cant see any hills!, there's a chance the fog could just be floating around at the town level though.  Fingers crossed! 

03/03/2013 15:15  Back from Ben Nevis not long ago and i have posted the pics online.  We started walking up from thr car park at 08:15 and it was quite a slog up to the CIC hut and then onto the snowline

The knobbly bit in the centre of the picis where we are headed

 

 

We finally get to the snow and put on the crampons and harnesses looking up at the huge granite buttresses above us.  We are doing a climb called the ledge

 Here Ginny is tied onto the rope to Adam i'll beat the back

Well into the climb now

 

The weather was pretty kind and gave us some spectacular views of the climb and the bottom of the valley way below us.

 

Adam tackles the technical bit and we follow. 

 

We finally make the summit just before our 4 hour mark

Plenty of snow on the way down and we make it back to the car in a shade under 6 hours.  Fantastic day All thanks to Adam from http://www.hughesmountaineering.co.uk/ 

 

I uploaded a stack more pics and they can be seen here, enjoy.    I'll put some comments on them later this evening

 

07:30 05/03/2013 A cold frosty start to our day in the lakes, I'll post a new blog with pics this evening once we get back home