Crowberry Gully - Creag Meagaidh - Ben Nevis

First pitch on The Pumpkin

Alan,

A bit of an epic week; Tuesday, we did Comb and Green Gullies on the Ben on fantastic neve; a few teams out on Goodeve's Route, Italian Climb, Tower Ridge.

Wed did The Pumpkin on Meagaidh; no-one else around. Last Post (some impressive ice), Staghorn and South Pipe Direct all looked in, although we didn't get that close. Nothing else looked climbable, certainly on the Pinnacle and Post Faces. In the inner corrie, The Wand and Diadem were also not in condition. The Pumpkin was do-able, but poor ice made the first two pitches very trying; two tied-off ice crews in 50m anyone?! Some brave souls had skied Easy and Raeburn's (!) Gullies, which are full of snow.

Thursday we did Observatory Ridge; a ten hour epic on cruddy ice, powder and rock. Wouldn't have missed it for the world! Teams in Zero Gully and on Observatory Buttress, but a couple of attempts on Orion Face were repulsed. Not much in along that face. Saw three skiers do the lower part of Tower Gully (not quite sure where they started from). One was telemarking; impressive!

Duncan
Observatory Ridge

Comb Gully. The R-Hand variant looks fantastic above.

Green Gully

Late shift for great views.


Alan
Had a great day out yesterday on Crowberry Gully. Took my 65 year old dad out for a trip down memory lane. The first time he climbed on Buchaille Etive Mor was 1964, lots of things have changed since then, but one thing remains the same, the quality of the climbing. What adds to the magic is having the mountain to ourselves. The route is in good nick at the moment with good ice on the main pitches.


The photo is of Hugh Morris above the Thincrack Chimney.

A great website,


Cheers


Dafydd