UKC

Anyone been on the Ben today?

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 BnB 27 Mar 2016
Arrived in FW last night and was out on Devil's Ridge today. Albeit at "only" 1000-1100m was surprised not to find as much snow accumulation as last night's storm suggested. Has it ALL blown into Coire na Ciste to foil my plans for the next two days? Or did anyone find the vicinity in relatively safe condition today? Thanks for any pointers.
 AlH 27 Mar 2016
In reply to BnB:
Watch for Ken's report (West Coast Mountain Guides) on South West Ridge of the Douglas Boulder today. We were on the west face of Aonach Mor- plenty of fresh snow cross loaded into the gullies and evidence of a big cornice collapse yesterday in Easy Gully.
Post edited at 16:42
OP BnB 27 Mar 2016
In reply to AlH:

Thanks Alan. I'll look out for the blog. Decent if distant view of the coire from the approach to Western Gully of the Boulder so hopefully Ken will have some observations. One of the Western Ribs is our backup option. Beautiful day on the Mamores today!!

 Rob N 27 Mar 2016
In reply to BnB:

We were climbing yesterday and it was pretty damn awful! There were some decent size avalanches coming down off the NEB and a lot down hadrians too. We seen two massive avalanches coming down from up above tower scoop and it kept going as far as we could see. Good Friday climb also popped which was fun when we were in the middle of it. Everything was slush yesterday and there was a decent amount of fresh wet snow that fell last night so we bailed out this morning.
 KA 27 Mar 2016
Quite nice today, once the rain and clouds cleared. We climbed the SW Ridge of the Douglas Boulder, which was fine. Not many other people about today and options are quite limited until this snow consolidates, which it will be doing as I type.

http://www.westcoast-mountainguides.co.uk/news/pays-start-later-sw-ridge-do...

OP BnB 27 Mar 2016
In reply to KA:

It was quite warm up high this afternoon wasn't it? Will have helped bed the new snow for sure.

Hmmm. Chance it tomorrow or hold off until Tuesday? Whichever way I go, it'll be the wrong choice!!
1
 KA 27 Mar 2016
In reply to BnB:
It warmed up a bit, and snow was sloughing as a result, but it was minimal. Remained about -2 degrees on the summit of Aonach Mor for much of the afternoon, so I think part of feeling warm was due to the lack of wind.

I think NW facing routes up high could be well worth a look tomorrow...
Post edited at 20:36
OP BnB 27 Mar 2016
In reply to KA:
Indeed and thanks for the pointer. We were looking at Glovers and The White Line for that very reason. Concerns probably focus more on Garadh gully or the Coire middle than up high!!
Post edited at 20:38
 AlH 27 Mar 2016
In reply to KA:

Didn't feel like -2 strolling across Aonach Mor today. We were all warm and the freeze wasn't hard enough to penetrate into the snow up there, the old stuff was soft with a crust on top.
In reply to BnB:

We did Garadh Gully and White Line on the 18th March. The short middle ice pitch of Garadh wasn't there, just bare rock and running water, got round it by climbing rock steps to thr right for 20ft at II-III. First two pitches of White Line were complete and good although the smooth slabs just below and to the right of the first pitch were shedding ice. The ice at the start of the third pitch pitch had melted so it would have been some awkward mixed moves to reach ice a quarter of the way up the pitch. Water was dripping down this section but bear in mind we climbed it during that inversion so it was warm up top. We detoured round pitch 3 by traversing right then back left on steep good snow. Final couple of pitches were quite good, we may have cut out left from the shallow gully too early on a crumbling snow runnel, possibly better to go straight up if anythings left. Top snow field was fine. The top two pitches get late afternoon sun. Most of route is visible from the CIC if the sky is clear. Obviously it's ten days on since then so things may have changed a lot. Start of Glovers was iced up and if thin you could detour round to right using first pitch of White Line. I imagine the top of the chimney may be quite bare and rocky as Tower Gap gets sun during the afternoon. We couldn't see this pitch from below, so just judging it by how bare the Gap looked from the top of our climb.
 SteveHolmes 28 Mar 2016
In reply to BnB:

Garadh Gully was broken and running with water last week, that was until avalanches swept over the Chute and filled the Garadh back up with soft snow. I caught the end of the avalanche on video which you can see here:

http://verticalfever.co.uk/2016/03/26/playing-it-safe-on-ledge-route/
 KA 28 Mar 2016
In reply to BnB:

Here's another update. Unfortunately, the clouds selfishly obscured views for much of the day. http://www.westcoast-mountainguides.co.uk/news/softshell-day-ledge-route-ca...
 AlH 28 Mar 2016
In reply to KA:

I got one good panorama showing how much soft snow there still is on the Ben http://alanhalewood.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/end-of-winter-but-only-for-me_28...
 hpil 28 Mar 2016
In reply to BnB:

Went up for a look at point 5 but backed away just before the belay - nasty snow on the approach slope pointing to nasty snow in the top three pitches. Observatory buttress was cruddy ice at the bottom so so took a high line on the left side of Observatory Gully up to indicator wall and did that - two pitches of cracking ice followed by two pitches of snow wading and spindrift avalanches. Tired legs now!

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