Last week we had thaw days on Tuesday and Friday, and lots of fresh snow on the other days. Strong westerly winds have been transporting a lot of snow into deep accumulations and the avalanche hazard is pretty tricky at the moment. Ice has been growing well though on Ben Nevis.
Ice is now oozing out of every crack and chimney at the mid-level on Ben Nevis. The Shroud has touched down in two places, Gemini and The Shield Direct both look complete. Mega Route X looks good too and The Curtain is a bit snowy but not far from being formed. A couple of teams climbed Vanishing Gully and one team climbed Orion Direct today. Point Five Gully and Hadrian's Wall Direct are fat along with Smith's Route but it is a long way up big areas of windslab to get to these routes.
The great ridges are all very well covered with snow. Ledge Route has a trail up it and a few people climbed Tower Ridge today. The buttresses are very well rimed up but there is lots of ice in the cracks making protection tricky to find.
There are many deep accumulations of wind slab which is slowly settling down but still poses a considerable avalanche hazard. It would be worth being patient for the snow to settle down and the avalanche hazard to reduce before tackling some of the bigger approach slopes. Cold, calm weather will stay with us for the rest of this week at least.
Happy climbing.
Mike Pescod
http://www.abacusmountainguides.com/
https://www.facebook.com/AbacusMountainGuides 
