Ben Nevis Ice

Saturday I was up in Lochaber and with a promising forecast from MWIS we decided on an early start and headed up to Ben Nevis from the Torlundy car park. For a while I've been wanting to knock off some of the grade V ice classics on Ben Nevis, having done most of the IVs but only one of the V's. Point Five seemed like a good option so once at the CIC hut we made a beeline for Observatory gully to check out conditions. Orion Direct looked thin at the bottom and we'd heard from others that it wasn't in nick, Hadrian's Wall looked better however lower down it was still a little thin. This left is with Zero gully and Point Five V, of which we chose the latter.


I was climbing in a three with Stu and Julie and unfortunately we got beaten to the first belay. This meant a lot of queuing behind two parties, who in turn were slowed by less then favourable conditions and spindrift for nearly an hour and a half. Eventually I left the belay, leading a nice long pitch over the first steeping, past the ledge and moving left up the initial vertical wall to the in-situ belay. In place the ice was good however in other is was poor and I was a little dubious of a few of the screws I'd placed should I of taken a whipper. The hardest part was passing the almost overhanging bulge near the top on the left as the ice the had lined the slabs that you can bridge on had all been hacked or kicked off which made it all a little spicy.

Above this I had to spend another half an hour or so waiting for the belay, constantly getting showered with spindrift and ice from above. I also got hot aches, which made the experience even more delightful. I say the pitch felt about WI4 in continental grading. Eventually I brought Julie and Stu up, who found it pretty hard, with Julie almost coming off the crux. We had a chat at the belay and I set off up the next chimney pitch, getting five meters up before Julie made her feeling clear that she didn't feel up to completing the route (she's been ill on the walk in). I contemplated just lowering Julie off so she could walk out and me and Stu could continue but with it being late in the day, and the time that that would take, poor conditions, deteriating weather, and being behind two other parties we made the call to all go down and save it for another day.


Once at the bottom we had a quick bite to eat and Julie composed herself and started the trudge down Observatory Gully. Stu and myself decided that with a few hours of daylight left we could still get something else in so we quickly headed round under Observatory buttress and ran up Tower Scoop III in two long pitches. It felt about right for the grade, apart from the top section where I led a steep pillar to the far left which felt more like IV. Once at the top we decided with half an hour left to head up and make the exposed traverse back right to below Tower Gap before climbing the mixed ground to the gap itself and finishing up the final section of Tower Ridge IV to top out on the Ben.


We didn't get our original objective done, but what we did climb of it was excellent and I'm very keen to get back and tick it off for real.