Catching Up

Midweek play in the hills with Lucy and Wally who are in Fort William on hols and working...lucky them.  East Buttress of the North Ridge of Stob Ban was the plan so we met in Glen Nevis and headed off at 8 am...an early start from Glasgow...

One of the warmer stances!

It's a long walk in, with soft snow and a some recent avalanche activity nearby.  Once at the base, we kitted up and swung leads to the top with a slim rack, with me getting the first pitch which had a couple of nice steps on it.  It's a fairly long mountaineering route going at II/III but it never really felt at the grade for me; maybe a solid II but Wally felt it was solid II/III.

Wally on pitch 4

To be honest, grades are irrelevant as this is a lovely route up the mountain and we got it in pretty friendly conditions - cold, windy but reasonable placements.  There are a couple of nice traverses on it which demand your attention but all moves are well protectable.

Posing...

Moving well, five and a bit 'pitches' later, we got to the outlier summit and got some food down us.  Then striking north down the ridge, which was fairly spicy at grade 1 probably, saw us back to the car in reasonable time.

Craig on p1

First time on this ridge and it was entertaining, and the company was great as always.  Nice to catch up with the Arran duo and hopefully not so long til next time.

Enjoy the forthcoming biking, walking, skiing and climbing...livin' the dream :)

Most pics courtesy of Lucy