Mountain Diary and Conditions

On the 14th of March Mehmet guided a team of 4 up Ben Macdui.

Below are some words from Mehmet Karatay.

Chris, Christopher, Stuart and Tony are friends from Leeds. Chris wanted to introduce his friends to the delights of Scottish winter walking and to test his own boots and crampons out for an ascent of the Matterhorn later in the year.

When booking with West Coast Mountain Guides they chose to go up Ben Macdui, Scotland’s second-highest point and a remote-feeling peak on the Cairngorm plateau. It has acres of the big open spaces that the Cairngorms specialise in.

The reality of Scottish winter meant that we didn’t have much chance of getting to the summit today, with 40mph headwinds forecast and the readings from the Cairngorm summit weather station coming in higher. The group were keen to have a go though. We ventured out with open minds and with a number of contingency plans inbuilt into our day.

On our way up Lurcher’s ridge, the group learned a variety of winter skills, had an excellent view of a couple of mountain hares, and generally got a bit battered by the winds. When adventuring in the mountains, especially in winter, good-quality open communication within the group is essential. We managed to establish this early on so when the time came, the decision to turn around was an easy one. There was some thought of trying to loop through the northern corries but the temptation of a hot drink in the Cairngorm Mountain cafe won us over.

The day was full of smiles, despite the challenging conditions, and everyone was satisfied with what we achieved.

We're back up at the CIC Hut for the week, running our second and final hut based climbing course of the season. With a deteriorating forecast, we made an early start and climbed Minus 3 Gully, which after the milder temperatures of yesterday, had refrozen well through the night. As we were abseiling down Slingsby's Chimney, the winds picked up a notch.

I then took Phil and Shaun round to Gutless, which was well sheltered from the increasing winds. The route was mostly well frozen, but some of the snow-ice on the upper groove was a bit crusty and took a bit of care. The vegetation was still rock hard.

From the top of Gutless, we traversed over to the SW Ridge and then descended the West Gully of the Douglas Boulder, which was starting to fill up with fresh wind-blown snow. Other teams on The Curtain, Vanishing Gully, Minus 2 Gully, SW Ridge of the Douglas Boulder and Fawlty Towers.

For the past couple of days, I've been out with Blair. Yesterday, we headed up to Stob Coire nan Lochan with a few options, but on seeing a gap on Twisting Gully, made an ascent of that, which was in good, icy nick, if a wee bit soft in places, but perfectly climbable.

Today, we climbed the East Ridge of the North Top of Stob Ban, which was very snowy, slightly soft lower down, but it hugely improved with height. The most notable thing of the day was the huge avalanches out of North/South Gully and between the North and Central Buttresses. These avalanches were most likely caused by huge cornices dropping off, releasing the snow slopes beneath. I've certainly not seen such large amounts of debris on Stob Ban before.

The snowline has definitely crept up over the past few days, but that should change as the freezing levels drop through the night, accompanied by plenty of snow.

New Heights – Active Brands

For the fifth and final day of our CIC Hut Week, Neil, Paul and I wrapped things up with an ascent of Minus 3 Gully, another route that has been seeing a lot of attention recently. With an early start, we were well ahead of the hoards and enjoyed a relaxed ascent, before abseiling back down Slingsby's Chimney. The weather closed in a bit earlier than expected and brought with it some sizeable volumes of spindrift piling down the Minus and Orion Faces.

The two steeper steps of ice on Minus 3 Gully are starting to show signs of wear from the numerous recent ascents, so this current thaw followed by a re-freeze should help restore the ice and generally improve conditions higher up the mountain as well as hopefully getting rid of some of the huge cornices that are sitting above large areas of Coire na Ciste.

Other teams on Platforms Rib, Minus 2 and 1 Gullies, Orion Face Direct, Zero Gully, Vanishing Gully, The Curtain, Curtain Rail, Harrison's Direct, Gemini, Waterfall Gully and Nordwand.

With the sheer volume of snow and upcoming conditions, we can expect this season to continue well into April (and beyond?).

New Heights – Active Brands

We're running our CIC Hut Climbing Week on Ben Nevis this week and have had three brilliant days so far. Due to the distribution of snow and associated avalanche hazards, we've been exploring the First Platform and Minus Face and racked up a far bit of mileage on the routes around there. The routes on the First Platform (Green Hollow Route, Bayonet Route and Ruddy Rocks) are all climbable, but they are a bit thin in places and quite tricky to protect.

To the right of Slingsbys Chimney, there are a number of routes that have seen a lot of action recently. Right-Hand Wall Route is an overlooked route, which is currently in great condition and well worth seeking out. The top pitch follows a series of shallow but well iced grooves and whilst poor for screws, gives excellent and steady climbing.

Today, we took our teams up Minus 2 Gully (well hooked out) and continued up a super snowy North East Buttress, which felt quite Himalayan in character. We popped over to the summit and then had a look into Coire Leis by where the abseil posts used to be, but decided against descending there due to the risk of triggering an avalanche, so instead continued route the Carn Mor Dearg Arete and dropped back into Coire Leis much further round.