After the heatwave comes winter again of course! Overnight cold temperatures had frozen up the existing snow pack wonderfully and then there had been fresh snowfall overnight of around 3cm down to 750m. Paul got in touch with me only a couple of days previously for a days winter guiding prior to his planned Mont Blanc ascent in the summer. He certainly got some good winter conditions today as we headed up to the North face of Ben Nevis. With a few snow and hail showers through the day to give the day added spice. The winds eased through the day and we got good views. Paul progressed well and so we headed on up to No. 4 Gully. Excellent hard, frozen snow all the way up. We only saw two other climbers on the hill, they had just been up No.2 Gully, down No.3 Gully and then raced past us up No.4. The last 20m is quite steep but the cornice wasn't a problem and Paul did well on his first day out in winter! We did some simple rope work on the descent down The Red Burn which was good snow too, but The snow here is now receding.
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