GMC Scotland Winter Mountaineering Trip, 1st-6th March 2024
It’s been a while since we had an official club Scottish winter trip but on 1st of March Alan, Mike M, Jerry, Peter G and myself set off from Heathrow (with Paul K driving up).
A couple of hours flying and a couple of hours driving later we arrived at the foot of Ben Nevis and checked ourselves in to a couple of cottages we had hired at the Glen Nevis Caravan & Camping Park. Perfect little location for winter climbing in the area and really nice cottages suitable for 3 people in each (4 people if 2 share the double bed).
Alarms were set for 6.00am and plans were made to climb Aonach Mòr the following day.
The Epic One
Golden Oldie, Aonach Mòr, Saturday 2ndMarch 2024
By Paul Nicholls
Morning came, gear was packed and we set off in two cars to the Nevis Range to go and find our climbs. Unfortunately, on the way there, I realised I had left the inner soles of my winter boots back in the cottage, little did I realise at the time the impact that this would have on our day.
I dropped Mike M and Peter G off at the cable car station and whizzed back to the cottage (about 10 minutes away) to get my inner soles. By the time I returned to the cable car station the other guys had decided to get going up the mountain but Jerry, who was my climbing partner for the day was waiting for me with the bad news that we had just missed the last early cable car for mountaineers and had to wait for the cable cars to start again for skiers at around 9.30am.
So after and hours wait, and a rather nice cappuccino, we boarded the cable to ascend the first half of the mountain. From the cable car station it was then a 2.5 hour walk to find our climb. All of us were climbing Golden Oldie, a grade II classic.
As Jerry and I reached the foot of the progressively steepening climb, where it started to be a more defined ridge-line the other 4 in our team were already and hour or so ahead of us. As the ground steepened we both soloed the first small gully of rock to gain the top of the ridge, but soon opted to rope up. We decided to climb with 60m half ropes which in hindsight was not the quickest way of progressing.
From an initially overcast day, it had snowed a bit too on the walk in, the sun soon came out and we were in the wonderful position of climbing in Scotland, the mountains covered in snow, fantastic views and the sun shining. Lovely!
At one point, having been able to hear his dulcet Geordie tones crying out climbing calls for the past 20 minutes, we caught up (briefly) with Alan. But as I arrived at the belay Alan and Paul K moved off and we didn’t see them again that day. Mike M and Peter G were far ahead moving together much more efficiently with a single rope alpine style.
As the day went on and the sun started to go down Jerry and I were still on the ridge, the temperature dropping as the sun disappeared behind Ben Nevis. The light started to fade and everything started to feel a little more serious. The ropes began to freeze, my gloves had gone solid and my jacket was covered in a light dusting of frozen snow. By now we had quite a routine going, Jerry was leading running the rope out almost to its full length on each pitch, although this did make communication tricky at times.
Eventually, we had to switch on the head torches and climb in little pools of light that made everything close in and the drops on either side look even more severe than they were. At the top there were a few quite tricky manoeuvres which ‘alpine first ascenter’ Jerry took in his stride.
I’m not really sure where the time went, but I know I was starting to slow as I got tired. We reached the final slopes towards the summit at about 9.30pm I think, and this is where the real pain (for me at least) started.
Once on the summit plateau we had quite a wind blowing with plenty of spindrift snow in the air. Navigation was tricky but with Jerry’s compass and perfect map reading we found our way to the top of the drag lifts (which obviously weren’t running at this time). I was exhausted, so after trying to eat something and get some liquid inside we continued to follow the lifts down the mountain and look for the cable car station.
Now, rather naively I hadn’t realised that the cable car stopped running (it actually stopped at 5.30pm so we had missed it by a long way. Peter and Mike, who had been climbing very fast did make it!) This was quite a crushing realisation, knowing that we had to walk all the way back down to the car (getting the cable car at the start of the day is actually quite committing).
So after a little ‘rest’ in the snow we set off again. Jerry half cajoling, have dragging me through my exhaustion onwards and downwards.
Eventually, after numerous stops on my behalf, we reached the car by 3.00am!! A round trip of a total of 17 hours! Alan & Paul had done it in 12 hours and I think probably 8 or 9 for Mike & Peter, if that.
It was a fantastic day out and a real epic that I will always remember, I have a feeling Jerry will too. Thanks Jerry, you got me off the mountain!
The Scary One
Tower Ridge, Ben Nevis, Monday 4th March 2024
By Jeremy Norwood
Having had a rest day after Saturday’s epic, I partnered up with Mike for the Monday climb and we planned to head up to Ben Nevis and either do the Number 3 Buttress or Tower Ridge depending on conditions and timings. We opted for an alpine-ish start and set off around 06:20, conveniently walking out from our cottage and picking up the mountain track that heads east from the Glen Nevis road and up the Allt na h-Urchaire valley. The man-made mountain track offered an easy start to the day, allowing us to warm up and watch the sun rise.
As we reached Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe (a mountain lake!) we peeled north to loop round the buttress of Carn Dearg, crossing the snow line and continuing up to the CIC hut. Having never been to Ben Nevis, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but as the North Face started to reveal itself between the clouds, I was struck by the sheer scale of the mountain and the atmosphere of the coire.
We stopped and sheltered behind the CIC hut for a bite to eat and discuss our plans. Although the top of Ben Nevis was shrouded in cloud, the forecast was fair and the mountain looked in good condition to do either of our objectives. I was a little apprehensive about climbing Tower Ridge at winter grade IV/technical 3, having only done PD+ routes in the Alps and my first Scottish winter ascent of the grade II Golden Oldie on Anoach Mor two days before. But with Mike’s experience I knew we’d have a cracking day taking on the challenge, so Tower Ridge it was. I just wish I’d read the route description more closely the night before to know what to really expect!
From the CIC hut it is a relatively short approach to the ridge. We by-passed the Douglas Boulder and headed up the East Gully to the Douglas Gap. A bit of advice for anyone doing this route is to kit up before you get to the Douglas Gap as putting on crampons and a harness whilst balanced on a tiny col isn’t much fun!
Right from the start the route gets serious with an awkward 20m groove/chimney that leads to the crest of the ridge, which then rises gently and becomes quite narrow. Mike continued to lead and we followed the ridge up, overlooking Vanishing Gully before reaching the Little Tower. A couple of pitches put us on top of this and we had a bit of breather on the easier slope up to the Great Tower. Here we opted to go left along the exposed Eastern Traverse which was very cool albeit a little terrifying!
Mike then led up one of the route’s other crux pitches to give us access to the top of the Great Tower. By this point the wind had started to pick up, gusting to what we reckon was 60+mph, adding to the excitement and some interesting low profile climbing (aka crawling!) along the narrow and exposed ridge to the final crux move, the infamous Tower Gap!
As you approach the Gap, you are looking down at the significant drops of Tower Gully and Glover’s Chimney on either side, trying to focus on foot placements and keep a cool head. Setting up a belay station at the top of the Gap, Mike protected me as I down climbed the awkward block of rock to then be able to clip in to an in-situ maillon on a piece of 7mm (ish) cord. From here I belayed Mike down on to the narrow ledge and we sorted ourselves out for the climb out.
Mike aborted his first attempt, deciding it best to put his axes back on his leash as not really the place to be losing them! Feeding the rope out for Mike as he ascended the other side of the Gap I found myself precariously balanced on my front crampon points, desperately trying to fight the wind. Despite my best efforts, mother nature eventually won (as she does) and literally blew me off the rock and left me hanging over Glover’s Chimney saved only by the anchor! Pulling myself back up, I tired to calm myself down as Mike finished his pitch and I was glad when the rope went tight, and I could climb out.
Once out of the Gap, the main difficulties are over and on reaching Mike we then moved together on the last section to top out on the plateau. We stayed roped up as we navigated off the summit given the visibility wasn’t great, but as we descended the clouds parted and we were rewarded with an awesome view of the sunset over the north Highlands. Two hour trudge back down the mountain track got us home about 20:15 in time for dinner!
A massive thank you to Mike Moss for safely leading the route and patiently dealing with the mess of slings I handed him on one of the kit handovers!
Fortune favours the bold
The Slant, Coire an t-Sneachda, Tuesday 5th March 2024
By Alan Atkinson
Prospects for the last full day of our trip weren’t good: the forecast was for wet and blustery conditions and nowhere looked like a good destination. Faced with the unappetising option of a day shopping in Fort William, we took the decision to commit to a 1 ½ hour drive to Aviemore to see if we could fare better in the Cairngorms. Two teams set off, Mike and Alan were paired up, as were Peter G and Jerry.
With only a tiny bit of reluctance, we kitted up in wind and wet snow and set off from the ski station car park up Coire an t-Sneachda, Jerry and Peter destined for ‘Aladdin’s Couloir’ gully while Mike and Alan headed for ‘The Slant’, a Grade II traverse on the Mess of Pottage buttress. As both teams approached the base of their routes, the wind dropped and the sun came out as if to reward us for our commitment.
After a hard week’s climbing Mike was content to supervise Alan gaining some experience of winter leading. Having no doubt heard on the grapevine that Alan wasn’t too quick at setting gear Mike donned his full belay kit – jacket and gloves – in the sure knowledge that he was going to get cold.
The climb is a diagonal traverse of the buttress with no route finding difficulties, but it felt a lot more precarious than the ridges of earlier in the week, with any mistake leading to a big pendulum on your last gear. Mike’s clothing choice was justified as Alan’s fairly speedy climbing on snow and frozen turf was offset by going up the learning curve identifying and placing gear in ice filled cracks. To make the finish a bit more interesting we took a DIY route straight up the face about ¾ the way along, having overshot our planned finish up Hidden Chimney (Grade III). Alan led this again, experiencing not a little consternation when putting his whole weight on one or two crampon front points embedded in a skim of frozen turf on smooth rock. A small handful of similarly committing moves followed, on what just might have been the top of Yukon Jack (Grade IV).
Finally we were at the top, below a snow slope capped off by a cornice. To Alan’s eye this looked like a big scary cornice a long way away but, when Mike took on the challenge, Alan experienced a disorientating Alice in Wonderland moment when Mike quickly covered the ground and scaled a small cornice a very short distance away!
After escaping the blustery Corrie rim we had a pleasant descent to meet up with the others who had had a similarly enjoyable trip out in unexpectedly good conditions. Definitely a case of fortune favours the bold.