Mixed Conditions...

Today Kev and myself headed up the Ben to have a go at No. 2 gully which neither of us had done before. I think it would be fair to say that neither of us were feeling psyched on the long walk in from Torlundy but the higher we got the less we muttered and grumbled to ourselves and by the time we reached the CIC hut we were both rearing to go!

Corie Na Ciste

Conditions today were a little strange. The ground is frozen down well below the level of the CIC hut and the prolonged cold spell seems to be having somewhat of an effect on the snow pack. Over the course of the day we must have encountered every snow type known to man, from knee deep powder to bullet hard neve and everything in between!

Once on the route its self we found conditions to be just as variable with the snow pack changing in feel more times than i care to count! None the less we worked our way up the progressively steepening snow slope, passing some rather impressive ice formation. The ice pitch at the narrows looks to be slowly forming but at present was just a thin layer of water ice covering powder. The cornice proved to be small and easily avoidable.

Looking down the route just before topping out

All in all a very enjoyable day in reasonable snow and weather conditions! Sadly back to work tomorrow though!