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Climbing Ben Nevis in Winter
The frozen faces of the UK’s highest peak are a playground for winter climbers, as Mike Pescod reveals.
The highest mountain in the UK, Ben Nevis, is also home to the greatest cliffs, ridges, gullies and faces to be found on these shores.
Although not easy to appreciate from a walk up the mountain path, its North Face is a different world – and one that is regularly explored by winter climbers. At some point, they will all make a pilgrimage to Nevis to test themselves on the mountain’s trickiest flanks, dive into the deep history of the place and experience its immense scale.
In the dying days of March, as the glens began to feel the first warm breath of spring and buttresses and rocks were starting to reappear lower down the mountain, the summit was still in the grip of winter. Bright sunshine and daffodils at sea level gave no hint of the thick snow and ice up above. The ice climbing was at its best. Sally Hudson, Caspar McKeever and I chose this moment to tackle some of Ben Nevis’s classic climbs.
Fawlty Towers – Grade II, 3*
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Fawlty Towers – Grade II, 3*
There are several lines to choose from of varying difficulty, but four or five pitches on Fawlty Towers reach the very narrow crest of Tower Ridge. To get down, we abseiled from the narrow snow crest into Douglas Gap and then down the gully below. It was a wonderful first foray to learn the layout of the North Face and get a feel for its scale.
Glover's Chimney – Grade III, 4***
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Glover's Chimney – Grade III, 4***
From the security of an ice cave, Caspar led the way up a very impressive pitch with intense exposure, spiralling up the cascade into a vast arena of open space. The angle eventually relented and a few pitches of steady snow led straight up towards the final narrow slot, which offered super traditional chimney climbing – with ice for the picks and rocky ledges for the feet.
The White Line – Grade IV, 3**
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The White Line – Grade IV, 3**
The second pitch was so sustained – on glassy, smooth ice – that we were constantly on our front-points, protected only by ice screws. Our calf muscles were screaming for a rest well before we topped out. The wind swirling around Coire na Ciste only added to the sense of exposure; we were a very long way up, and the ice that broke away from our picks took a long time to tumble all the way down.
Tower Scoop – Grade III**
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Tower Scoop – Grade III**
Tower Scoop was climbed in three pitches of great ice followed by a big snow slope. Caspar was lucky to find some ice to belay on at the top, but quite often you need to protect your second with a snow anchor belay. On this steep slope – directly underneath Tower Gully – it feels like a very exposed position to anchor yourself to the snow.
Upper Tower Cascade (Right Hand) – Grade III**
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Upper Tower Cascade (Right Hand) – Grade III**
This was a chance to enjoy the view from Tower Ridge without having to negotiate the complex route up the ridge itself. Up here, the scenery opens up to reveal the whole of the North Face and the mountains of Càrn Mòr Dearg, Aonach Mòr and Aonach Beag, stretching all the way beyond to the Cairngorms. It would have been easy to feel overwhelmed, but a few minutes of straightforward mountaineering got us up the last few steps and onto the summit plateau.
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