Surprisingly pleasant on Comb Gully

With ferocious winds forecast for first thing this morning, Matt, Dave and I had a slightly later start, and despite the odd squally wind, had a fairly reasonable walk up to Coire na Ciste this morning.  There had been some overnight snow, but only the lightest of dustings.  The slopes leading up to Comb Gully had refrozen well through the night, making travel up to the mouth of the gully quite straight forward, although there was an icy crust in places.

Ben Nevis this morning

Once established in the gully, it was clear that spindift was going to be a constant feature of the day, but asides from that, the gully gave an enjoyable climb, with good axe placements where it really mattered.  There was a bit more ice (and snow) than when I climbed it the other day, but overall, it felt quite similar (bold yet fun and steady climbing).

Above the first steepening

The final pitch of Comb Gully was cornice free, so again, very straight forward. A French team, staying at the hut climbed Green Gully and reported it to be fine after a thin (for 5m or so) first pitch. Other than that it was very quiet up there today.

Final steepening