After humming and hawing this morning weather I should go into lectures today or not I decided to get out and on the hill. With no objective other than fitness I decided to head for the N.Ridge of Stob Ban. I had previously been up this route in summer with Dan and Mark, and a winter ascent was always on the cards this season, and so it was the first. The north ridge is a route that is over before it begins which is a shame because it is exciting, with exposure and stunning views back down Glen Nevis, east at the Devils ridge and west to Mullach Nan Coirean. All of the fun comes after a sweaty slog from 70m above sea level up to 800m. Today I gained the height in 1hr 30mins. Meeting Kev, Davie and Dave was a bonus but it was a solo day I had planned for and continued on past where they were donning there crampons to the start on the scrambling, here a put my crampons on for the first time outside this season, winter has started.
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| Looking back down Glen Nevis |
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| The fun part of the day |
After putting my crampons on I made for the scrambling, scratching through soft powder on rock and unfrozen turf underneath to the top of the ridge in under 10 minutes. Decided to head west along the long ridge connecting "the mullach" to Stob Ban, this ridge is the the top of 3 cories, the original plan was to reach the summit of Mullach nan Coirean then descend back down into glen nevis, but when traversing the ridge you come to the top of a broad easy angled gully. I took my time deciding wether this was a sensible descent route before throwing caution to the wind and going for it, though after 20 meters down I questioned my exuberance and I had to convince myself that this was a good decision on a number of occasions while descending the shallow snow and loose rocks. And I am glad I did, it turned out to be a great route down and made for a nice mountaineering circuit done and dusted in 5 hours. Even had time to get some training on the Ice wall with Max and Neil which has got me psyched for the season to begin proper.
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| Gully descent |
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| Hmmmm |
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