Lochaber Winter Trip - Day Two

Another 5.45 start today, although leaving bed was made easier this morning by the absence of a screaming blizzard hitting the window. Nevertheless, the weather was still on the 'unsettled' side, so we all knew we were in for some good, honest Scottish Winter Ming.

In previous years the walk-in to Ben Nevis has started with the most unpleasant excuse for a path you can think of. It's a bog, and it's steep so it takes about 3 times the energy to climb than a normal path. Fortunately, our good friends in the Forestry Commission have built a new path through the forest which is not only shorter, but immeasurably better surfaced so it's a dream to ascend. It's still quite steep (what do you expect? You're climbing Ben Nevis ffs), but today it felt like a gift from a benevolent. smiling lumberjack. Hooray for that.

Myself and Jo decided to head for the mega-classic North East Buttress via the Slingsby's chimney start. The chimney itself is supposed to be trivially easy in good condition, but we found it plastered with soft, useless snow making progress time-consuming and tenuous. There were many emotional moments, and that section of the route took far longer than we expected but to top that all off, the weather turned seriously unpleasant as I topped out. Lukcily only my nose knew it was winter:



The voice of common sense blew in on the wind and told us to get the fluff off the hill so that we did. Backing off a route can be frustrating, but a big part of the whole climbing game is knowing when to throw in the towel and head for the warm glow of civilisation.

Tomorrow looks like a bit of a storm is hitting, so it's time to hunker down with a bumper box of tea bags and a foot long battenberg. All the ice high up is fattening, so there's likely to be some sport later in the week. Until then, it's loafing time.