Yesterday Craig, Graham and myself went to have a look whats been going on on the Ben. The initial idea was to try Glovers Chimney but with the recent heavy snow fall and high avalanche risk we walked into Corie na Ciste with a very open mind, hoping to find something that would be safe to climb.
A quick look at Glovers showed worryingly large amounts of avalanche debris at the base of it so instead we headed for No. 3 Gully Buttress (III). The approach was somewhat dubious, crossing large areas of windslab and eventually after literally swimming up the final part of the approach in waist deep powder we reached to bottom of the first pitch.
We climbed the route in 4 long pitches with myself taking the 1st icefall pitch, Craig taking the 2nd traverse pitch, G taking the 3rd traverse pitch with the steep rocky step and myself finishing up the final pitch. I think we may have gone slightly off route on the final pitch. Rather than making an exposed step and finishing up snow ramp we took a steep line directly above this, up a short but steep corned.
On the decent we stopped to have a quick chat with Paddy Cave who had just completed Andy Tunrer's route The Secret IX9. Congratulations to him! Great work
Doesn't sound off route at all when leaving the final ramp to climb the headwall direct is a standard variation and a good finish! :-)
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