Ben Nevis Ice..

Andy Lole, Graham Stein and I decided to head up Ben Nevis today to see what had survived the recent thaw.

Although choices are a bit more limited than in recent weeks, conditions were generally good on the mountain. We opted for 'Slav Route' VI,5 (along with Mike Pescod and Radek) while other parties climbed 'Orion Directissima' VI,5, 'Orion Direct' V,5 (Alan Kimber), 'Astral Highway' VI,5, 'Zero Gully' V,4 etc.

It was fairly warm resulting in dripping and plastic ice with some routes suffering. 'Point Five' V,5 was climbed but was very slushy resulting in a couple of teams retreating. Fingers crossed the conditions will improve a little if the freezing level comes down...