It was a nice bright start to today but with stronger winds and snow forecast for the afternoon few people went up very high on Ben Nevis. The snow was a litle firmer since the temperature was down a degree or two but there is still some soft and wind blown snow about. A large avalanche came down from The Cascade area into the coire yesterday as we crossed Tower Gap that is yet another very big pile of avalanche debris now.
When the snow does finally settle down there will be some enormous cornices to deal with! When you look at the picture above remember that Point Five Gully is 300m to give you some scale on the size of the cornice! There are cornices above many long sections of cliff tops and gullies. Getting out of Green Gully could be tricky just now!
Because of the limited range of climbs safe to tackle at the moment they are getting busy sometimes. Bryn and I climbed SW Ridge of Douglas Boulder today along with most other climbing teams on Ben Nevis including some charismatic French folk. A little patience is useful when it gets very busy. I was overtaken then held up all day by one team which seemed a little unnecessary. The Curtain was climbed today along with a small selection of other routes.
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