UKC

If Carslberg did last days out of the winter....

Lazy start meant better weather, and an absolutely stunning trip up Ledge Route, over Ben Nevis, and round the CMD Arete before an epic bumslide back to the CIC and some excellent single-track on the bike on the way back to the van. Custard doughnuts from Morrisons completed the day.

Teams on Tower Ridge (looked busy at the Great Tower), and possibly a team in Comb Gully but they went out of sight.

Several inches of new snow yesterday has transformed things again - other than some crud at the bottom of the "access gully" on Ledge Route, it's crampons and snow all the way. CMD is also properly snowed up again. Some (small) fragile corninces formed yesterday as well. Snow was actually pretty good above about 1000m, and the plateau was well frozen, as was the higher areas of CMD. Some rime forming as well.

Some BIIIGGG cornices still about. Number 2 gully looks epic.

Likely my last day out of the winter, nice that it finished on such a good day given all the shit days out I've put up with this season!!

Photos do things more justice than I can say, drop me an email if you recognise yourself on Tower Ridge and want the originals emailed through:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152290539125865.1073741872.7386...

Cheers,
Gordon

EDIT - forgot to say, there's some real deep holes waiting for people at the moment, the new snow has filled in glide lines and "thaw holes" in amongst the rocks - careful where you're steeping folks!! Went down one about 5m back from the edge on Carn Mor Dearg coming off the summit, pulled a move worthy of Macgiver complete with froward roll to avoid dropping into it fully. Some knee bashing holes discovered on Ledge Route as well. Stay safe, we don't have knees like storks...

In reply to peebles boy:

Brilliant as usual!

Really surprised by how good tower ridge still looks. Down here in the sunshine it's easy to think everything has gone.

In reply to peebles boy:

Is the 12th pic from the end The Ledge?
It looks totally banked out, was a slab of ice when I did it years ago.

In reply to peebles boy:

A great selection. What an extraordinary mountain. Them cornices look awful. Wouldn't like to be going up any of the gullies at the moment.

In reply to peebles boy:

Additionally, I found an Outdoor Designs glove a couple hundred metres down the path from CIC hut, let me know if anyone thinks it's theirs and I'll post it on to you.

Cheers,
Gordon.

In reply to Lusk:

Lusk - yeah, bit banked out at the start of the ledge at the moment, steep sugary snow, but this leads to a scrappy section before returning to snow halfway up the initial gully. Did it a couple years ago with thin snow cover, was a bit scrabbly in crampons, but I've yet to see it in the desperate ice sheet state I've heard friends talk of!!

Cheers,
Gordon

In reply to peebles boy:

I think it was us you saw heading up comb gully. Conditions were excellent and no cornice problems. Great day out.

3 friends of ours did ledge route and CMD too, so you probably followed their footsteps.

In reply to mikefergy:

Aye, met them on CMD and thanked them for the trail bashing on Ledge Route, returned the favour up to Carn Mor itself!