On Tuesday, I set off up the allt a mhuilinn from the car park at Torlundy along with Dave and Andy. The goal for today was to climb Vanishing Gully V,5. Making good time to the hut, we were treated to a cup of tea in the CIC hut. I had never been inside the CIC hut so this was all very new to me and I found it quite inspiring as I sat with Dave and Andy at Raeburns original table, drinking tea and pondering what ambitious plans had been drawn up upon it over the years and by who. After our tea we geared up and headed to the base of our intended route. Vanishing Gully V,5 consists of 2 pitches, Dave lead off on the first pitch, an increasingly steepening icy chute that narrows into a gully where he set up a belay with some use of insitu pegs and tat directly below the crux of the route. The second pitch starts abruptly with a very steep (vertical) water ice crux which I definitely remember feeling it in my arms as I got continuously bombarded by multiple spindrift avalanches, turning my face into a frozen white facemask which resulted in instant brain freeze and zero visibility. After the crux, easier ground above and some good insitu gear on the right wall leads to a final icy steepening before a good block belay at the top of the 1934 route. We used this insitu belay to abseil back down the 1934 route down and to the left to another abseil station directly above a V shaped groove, one more abseil got us back to the base of the 1934 route, from which we walked off. A great day!
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| Vanishing Gully V,5 |
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| Dave on the approach |
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| Andy making his way to the base of the route |
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| Dave Anderson, high on the first pitch |
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| Smiles from Andy! |
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| The Ben Today, Smiling down upon us |
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