BACK TO WINTER

Nice cumulous clouds above the North Face of The Ben

The guy's first view of the arete from CMD summit

Paul & Matt enjoying the arete

The ridge just keeps on coming and blue skies!

More sun and Aonach Beag peeping out

NE Buttress white again

Paul on the final exposed bit

And finally the summit, to ourselves

The team were all keen and eager for the CMD arete onto Ben Nevis after our half day of winter skills yesterday. With a good forecast of  sub zero temperatures, lighter winds and pleasant sunshine we were away from a busy north face car park. It wasn't long before the snow showers piled in from the west and they got more frequent and prolonged as the morning progressed. Not much in the way of views but great winter weather back on the hills at last. The winds were still relatively strong when we reached the summit of Carn Mor Dearg and after our lunch stop we headed off along the arete. Then the showers stopped and at last we were rewarded with great views as the cloud was blown away off the ridge and some lovely sunny periods. The final slopes of old refrozen snow up to the summit of Ben Nevis were great for cramponing has we headed back into the cloud. Heading down in the late afternoon the sun shone again as the clouds lifted and it was back into Spring temperatures, which saw some very under dressed folk wandering up the Pony Track. We finished at dusk and the guys were all pleased with themselves has they thought they may be doing this classic ridge onto the Ben in summer conditions just a few days ago.