With John Walker to North Ridge of Stob Ban. Although SAIS was showing only orange risk for South Gully, we correctly assumed that it would be loaded & we should stay with the ridge. Mostly a walk with 50m of grade 1 at 850m. Thick soft snow sometimes needed sweeping to see what we were doing. We didn't need the rope & each of us led the way for a while. At the top we got on to a very sharp ridge in quite white conditions, so it needed some care. Summit cairn completely buried and, aware of large cornice, we were very careful. Tricky step down onto east ridge is not for hillwalkers. Then down into Coire Mhusgain (9).
Area :The Mamores
The Mamores provide some extremely fine winter mountaineering ridge scrambles and also some classic and popular climbs on Stob Bhan. Also included are the rarely formed Steall Falls in Glen Nevis.
With John Walker to North Ridge of Stob Ban. Although SAIS was showing only orange risk for South Gully, we correctly assumed that it would be loaded & we should stay with the ridge. Mostly a walk with 50m of grade 1 at 850m. Thick soft snow sometimes needed sweeping to see what we were doing. We didn't need the rope & each of us led the way for a while. At the top we got on to a very sharp ridge in quite white conditions, so it needed some care. Summit cairn completely buried and, aware of large cornice, we were very careful. Tricky step down onto east ridge is not for hillwalkers. Then down into Coire Mhusgain (9).
