The Ben is a mountain of two sides. Every year, tens of thousands of tourists make the slog up the benign and boring tourist track – a wide path, never steep, and of minimal interest to the climber. The North Face feels entirely different – home to the biggest cliffs in the UK and some of the best winter climbing in Europe. At the mountaineering club’s Ben meet, Lara and I spent a day sampling the climbing on this immaculate mountain.
The day started early: unlike the Cairngorms where you can drive up to 700m, here you start at sea level and every metre of altitude is hard earned. At just before 7am, we left the North Face car park and began the long slog to the CIC hut. There was some gentle snow in the air, and the mountain looked spectacular! Exciting stuff!
After a brief rest at the CIC, we continued slogging up to Corrie nan Ciste. The original plan was Green Gully, a 3* IV 3 that looked utterly brilliant, but upon seeing a party on the first pitch with absolutely no protection on a 40m ice pitch, we opted for a different route. In the current conditions with lots of snow-ice, the climbing on Green Gully was straightforward (Meg and Charlie had an ace day on it), it was unprotectable as the snow ice did not yield any worthwhile screw placements, and often belays were on the marginal side and unlikely to hold a factor two fall. In essence – the leader is always soloing, and at times in a position where a fall would scupper both them and their partner. This was not a day that Lara and I fancied, so we opted for No 3 Gully Butress instead: another 3* mixed route but with some rock gear meaning it was far better protected in current conditions.
The first pitch was straightforward and easy angled ice: highly enjoyable. Lara made short work of this pitch – glad of a peg on the side to provide some protection as screws were marginal at best.
Parties above us kept showering us with falling ice and snow: Lara had to pull herself into the wall as she was bombarded by large chunks of snow ice. I was belaying in a more sheltered spot, but was also getting bombarded by football size chunks of ice. I put my backpack on and pulled it over my head to provide some protection from the shower from above, and I was mighty glad for my helmet.
I followed Lara up the first pitch and began the next pitch: a straightforward snowy slog to a rocky band where I belayed. Lara’s next pitch looked excellent: a snowy slog leading to an excellent mixed step. Due to parties ahead, we were belaying slightly off-line. This meant that when Lara reached the mixed step, she had pretty awful rope drag.
‘The rope drag is fucking awful’. I could see that she was practically being pulled off the mountain. There was little I could do to help.
‘Come back if you want to – can still go down’. I said – not wanting to put any pressure on to commit to a dangerous section of climbing.
She paused, then hammered in nut with some difficulty, before commencing a delicate dance up the wall. Carefully positioning her axes and fighting immense rope drag, she fought her way up the pitch and swiftly built a belay. An excellent lead.
I followed and set off on the final pitch: a wonderful airy pitch with an enjoyable, but improbable looking mixed step in an excellent position. I clipped a peg and placed a good cam before searching for a good hook. Thonk. A smile spread across my face – a small but absolutely perfect incut hook, amazing. I swapped hands on my tool and reached across the rocky step to a sidepull to pull myself across the void on. Some more searching was required, but eventually I found a good hook and scuttled my crampons along a small edge. I smiled as I marveled at the excellent quality of the climbing. Swiftly, I placed one last hook and reached the comfort of a ledge. Here, I placed an excellent hex, and enjoyed a romp up a ramp after an interesting pull over the bulge.
Halfway up the ramp, it occured to me that I would not have enough rope to reach the top, and there would be no other opportunties to belay: I’d violated the age old rule and passed a winter belay. I placed a good cam, and hammered in an offset. I also clipped a bomber tool. It was good enough…just. As Lara approached, enjoying the wonderful exposed mixed step, I suggested she established a belay at the purple hex: a far better position and it would safe us from being solely attached to the wall by slightly sub-optmal belay. This worked excellently, and after she put me back on belay, I made short work of the final 20m or so of climbing to the top.
We descended via no4 gully, an excellent bum-slide. The slog back out to the car park was, as ever, a little longer than you’d like. But, we’d had an excellent day of climbing, and dinner tasted especially good that evening.
Oscar Outdoors 