North East Buttress

Looks good on the walk in

Great sky

Alan enjoying the wade

must be a placement somewhere under all the snow

Tired and happy

Last pitch

The start to this winter season is just getting better and better.  Today was my first days work on a winter route.  I was out with Alan who I have been doing quite abit of summer climbing this year and some winter climbing last year.  Today was Alan's first day out for the season and was more than happy to go along when I suggested North East Buttress, despite it being described as a big day.  I was super pleased as neither of us had done it in winter before and to guide it was great fun and quite a challenge.  Despite swimming up deep snow most of the way and finding the 40ft corner utterly desperate, we still managed to get from the bottom of the ridge to the top in 5.5 hours.  It really felt about IV,5 today and it was great to see Alan putting in such a great effort.  His performance was clearly down to all the weight saving tips! ;)  So another brilliant day just before some foul weather is hitting us.  On a personal note, I have now done all the great ridges on Ben Nevis in summer and winter.