Days like this can be few and far between. Scotland at it's finest. Stable weather, wall to wall blue skies and fantastic winter climbing conditions. We were up at 5am to make the most of what turned out to be a long day on the move. As I came inside the house, from sleeping in the frosted up van, I was greeted by a very cheery Mo and handed an enormous bacon and egg sandwich. The psych was high and we made sure we were well fed before setting off, once again up the Ben Nevis North Face path. This time without a breath of wind and a stunning sunrise.
Soon we had crampons on and were crunching our way up towards the CIC hut. The snow was frozen hard and squeaked under our cramponned feet.
Near the base of Tower Gully, a shaft of sunlight cut over the CMD arete and gave us a short blast of light and some long shadows.
Above us, the North Face loomed!
We soloed our way up the steep snow to the base of Observatory Buttress, barely leaving a trail as only our front points and axe picks stuck into the snow ice. Mo reached the rock first and soon had a reassuring belay made for us to clip into, as by now we were several hundred metres up a rock hard snow slope and it was no place to slip!
The main bulk of the climbing began from here and I was glad this time to remember to put on my extra duvet. Even with six layers of expensive clothing on, we still felt the cold as we hung from the ice screws and paid out the rope.
After following Mo up the first steep icefall, we soon warmed up though!
Jamie then led through for a few pitches and Mo and I were left to sort ropes, eat and chat and revel in our position.
Pitch after pitch, we continued climbing...
...and shared stories on the belays while sorting the ropes. As well as being a brilliant climb and adventure, it was also a great way to catch up!
Across from our route, was the famous Tower Ridge and we could watch as climbers made their way gingerly across 'the gap'.
Down below, the shadow of the mountain cast a great silhouette.
The excitement and sense of relief mounted as we sensed that we were nearing the top of the climb - and indeed the top of the mountain.
Three pitches from the top, the sun peeked around the ridge and we could feel its warmth as we hung from our ice screw belay. A beautiful double circular rainbow formed around the sun as it reflected light on the ice crystals that were blowing off the summit.
As we climbed into the sun, the angle eased and so did my nerves! We were almost there!
We pulled over the top of the climb, crawled onto the plateau and stood on flat ground from the first time in about six hours. We were at the highest point in the United Kingdom where the summit shelter was buried in rime ice.
The views were 360 degrees.
I think it's fair to say we were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves.
The summit marker is on top of a huge cairn, but there is so much snow currently, that only this little top was poking clear!
In order to stay in the sun for the maximum amount of time and enjoy the views, we walked down the tourist track to the Red burn, then cut across the heather back towards the car.
The sun was just hitting the horizon as we walked down through the forest. My altimeter had recorded 1470m of height climbed and we'd been on the go for 12 hours and 2 minutes. The van seats felt good.
As we drove away, the top of the mountain glowed pink. A stunning finish to a stunning day. A great climb, with great conditions and most importantly, with great company.
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