Friday 9 December 2011

THE CALM AFTER THE STORM

The north face of Ben Nevis
NE Buttress and Tower Ridge looking good
CMD arete and Ben Nevis
Ice rimed arete
What a contrast from yesterday's very wild weather. Today I headed out into a very calm morning, onto Carn Mor Dearg. There was hardly a breath of wind all the way up onto the ridge. The weather looked like it wasn't going to play the game, a few snow showers and cloud to lower levels this morning. Hard going in the unconsolidated snow but a lot easier than the last few days. At around 850m there was a breakable crust and the going just got better and better with superb crampon terrain at 1000m. I just got to the summit of Carn Mor Dearg when suddenly the skies cleared from the SW and the Ben revealed itself. The CMD arete was superb, no one had been on it and some excellent windblown sections and other bits corniced. The wind was bitterly cold but this blew the clouds away so absolutely wonderful. It must have been cold as my battery in the camera suddenly died, just as the views came! So I resorted to the good old warming the battery in my hands and managed to get some shots in the sun. Views so good I came back along the arete to get the cracking views of the North Face. As you'll see from the photos it's all looking absolutely wonderful on The Ben.  The only living things I saw all day was a solitary hungry snow bunting on the arete and low down the usual herd of young deer, quite used to me wandering close to them now! A hard frost and more snow showers tomorrow. I have my first winter skills course running  tomorrow, the snow turning up bang on time!

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