UKC

Does anyone have an opinion on where to find the best tower ridge route description. I'm thinking about going up early May, so am looking for either an online, or even a printed description so long as it's good.

In reply to climbingrev:

Uh............. the Ben Nevis Guide?

In reply to climbingrev:

Alan Kimber did a good video on the ridge. It's on vimeo if you do a search.

In reply to climbingrev:

Are you thinking of a summer or winter ascent cause in early May it could be either or mixed depending on how winter's been and what the April weather will have done.

There's a webcam that gives views of the North Face of the Ben which (when the cloud's not down) shows you the amount of snow. I looked at it every day before doing Tower Ridge in early June as a summer route a couple of years ago, I think it might have been a bit spicy in early May.

In reply to Michael Hood:

Never seen it as a summer line in early May ever.

In reply to Offwidth:

Fair enough - I only looked at it in 2012 when early May definitely didn't look summery - I didn't know how typical that was.

In reply to climbingrev:

Thanks to everyone suggesting that summer conditions will not be likely on Tower Ridge in early May. I was thinking of this as a bad weather backup for a trip to the Cuillin if Skye weather is rubbish. Think again! Any ideas (looking for a mountaineering challenge rather than rock only.

In reply to climbingrev:

I would keep it in mind anyway. I've been up there when it's been totally fine late May which I'm sure isn't uncommon, and that's only a few weeks difference.

Plenty of other good long mountain diffs though. Great Ridge on Garbh Bheinn, East Buttress on Beinn Eighe etc etc

In reply to Michael Gordon:

I'll keep an eye on the webcam. Thanks; Ardgour would be a bit closer than Skye too. Got guide in "Scottish Rock".

In reply to Michael Gordon:

Best part of a month with about 18 hours daylight and the sun direction coming in up to 30 degrees north of east and west at the start and end of the day makes a huge difference. Plus season to season variations were huge. I used to climb in Lochaber for a week every easter and in rare good years routes were in to valley level in glen coe and in the bad ones only the routes high on the Ben were in.