A week of extremes...

A series of short sharp storms interspaced with high pressure provided us with the best and the worst of Scottish winter climbing this week. Rob and Jude made their annual pilgrimage north looking to climb some classics. Warm wet and very windy conditions were the order of the day on Monday. We got a great result making the trek up to Stob Coire Nan Lochan finding thin but good sticky ice in SC Gully (III 4). Sheltered in the gully while climbing we had a good battle getting back down the ridge as the wind speed rapidly rose. Back down at the road it was all a bit epic as my campervan had been moved two meters by a particularly big gust and the Glencoe Ski area reported a maximum of 138mph!
Tuesday was glorious with light winds and sunshine. Glovers Chimney (III 4) on the Ben gave us a bit of everything - ice, spindrift, neve, mixed climbing and an exposed finish to the summit for a spectacular sunset. The exit from Tower Gap provided the crux of the route with unhelpful snow on the ledges. The international team ahead of us had a good battle on this before exiting left up the bypass chimney
The next two days were characterised by reasonable conditions early morning and late evening with the bulk of the day giving us a couple of violent storms. We took the oppurtunity to test our waterproofs and look at the technical skills of mixed climbing, stance management, escaping the system and multi pitch abseils. Thursday we managed to sneak up the Zig Zags to the summit of Grear Aonach in spring like conditions.
It all came together on Friday with one of the best days of the season. Back up on the Ben we climbed Green Gully (IV 4) on hero neve. It was a bit soft for ice screws but climbing in sunglasses and a fleece made it a very pleasant experience. We were also following Alan Kimber who was mentoring a couple of MIC trainees which meant the belaying was very socialable if alittle cramped. A quick solo down No 4 Gully allowed me to retrieve my sunglasses which had been removed from my face by a chunk of ice and we wandered out under a starry sky.
There was a strange buzzing heard from the vicinity of Ledge Route today! Rob Johnson getting some stunning footage with his drone;

Ben Nevis, Ledge Route - Aerial filming using a drone from Rob Johnson on Vimeo.