Saturday 9 February 2013

08.02.13 - Fawlty Towers, Ben Nevis III

After a good day on Curved Ridge II/III,3 on Buachaille Etive Mor the day before we were keen to get on something a little steeper today.  Our initial plan was to climb Glover's Chimney III,4 but after having seen how much fresh snow was on the ground we decided to go for something a bit lower thus avoiding what looked to be unstable loaded slopes.  The route itself I found was quite pleasant with the odd (not overly) tricky step on each of the first two pitches.  I lead off on the first pitch encountering a very short section of very steep, cruddy ice to a good block belay with insitu tat and then Andy took the second pitch up past a series os short steps and grooves with an interesting cholkstone move to a good spike belay before I took the relatively short third pitch slightly leftwards to the crest of Tower Ridge.  From the top, we had a short walk down the ridge to some insitu tat which  facilitated an ab into the Douglas Gap, some more insitu tat enabled us to make a quick 60m ab down the Douglas Gap, East Gully.  The Ben was quite busy today with teams visible on Ledge route, Green Gully, The Curtain, Point Five Gully and Vanishing Gully.

Looking over towards Carn Dearg and  the Trident Buttresses, Climber visible on The Curtain IV,5

Coire na Ciste

North East Buttress and Observatory Ridge, Climber visible on Point Five Gully V,5

Max Hunter and clients (heading for Douglas Boulder SW Ridge III), directyl under the line of Fawlty Towers III

Fawlty Towers First Pitch

Me leading off on the first pitch

Finishing the steepest section of the first pitch

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