DATE 01/07/16
ACTIVITY
Hill Walking, Scrambling and Trad Climbing
REGION
Scotland
AREA
Lochaber
DESCRIPTION OF ROUTE:
Ben Nevis Tower Ridge, Decent CMD route.
Continuing the theme of the week today again was wet and windy; I met my mate in the north face car park and left the cars just after 9am. It took us two hrs. to walk up to the CIC hut and then make our way around the gully between the Douglas boulder and the start of tower ridge. There was another team in the gully when we arrived but moved in front as they where pitching the gully. Once on the ridge line we where engulfed in cloud, at this point we where both pretty wet and pushed on up the ridge, The route was great fun there’s something fascinating about being in the cloud knowing that there where big drops either side of us, we moved roped together for the majority of the ridge and then Alt Lead different sections when we felt the need to. We arrived at the summit just before 15:00hrs and then made our way down the CMD route, as we joined the arête the cloud lifted and revealed views of the north face and the route which was a great finish to the day. We followed the route around and made our way back down to the north face car park and arrived back at the car at 19:00hrs.
Area :
Ben Nevis, Aonach Beag and Aonach Mor (Summer)
Ben Nevis and the Aonachs are of course best known for their winter climbing, with the exception of the outstanding trad climbs of Carn Dearg Buttress. But the north face of 'The Ben' also has many other fine crags which tend to get lost amongst the immensity of it all, well worth exploring. The classic ridges offer fine summer outings of a mountaineering nature, and a limited number of summer climbs of similar style can be found on both Aonach Mor and Aonach Beag.
