Wednesday 20 October 2010

LEDGE ROUTE & CMD ARETE, IN WINTER?







It was -1 degrees C at seal level this morning after clear skies overnight. Doug had previously been out in The Alps with me and wanted a taste of Scottish hills. We headed up onto Ledge Route on ben Nevis this morning. We had the whole place to ourselves. There was a light dusting of snow and frozen ground at 900m, we enjoyed the best of the bright weather all the way up. Around noon the snow showers came on, just as forecasted. The usual charachters were struggling up to the top of The Ben, including one guy with one of those see through plastic emergency poncho's and not much else! It could have been any month in winter today in the biting NW wind. We soon left the crowds again and headed across the CMD arete. Quite awkward descent down the boulders with the fresh snow. The showers eased and we had a nice decent view along the ridge. By the time we descended off Carn Mor Dearg the snow line had lowered. Just got to the car park when the rain came on heavy, still only plus 4 degrees at sea level so plenty of snow will be getting dumped over night and into tomorrow. I think this was a 'proper' winter day and Doug had a big grin most of the way round.

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