Haute Route De Ben Nevis

The Grey Corries

It had to come to an end at some point and Tuesday proved to be a fitting climax. With mild westerlies predicted to set in on Wednesday, it looked like the last day to enjoy the awesome spring skiing conditions on the hills. Last week I’d wanted to take advantage of the ski-lifts on Aonach Mor to gain height initially before traversing the Aonachs and then the high ridge of Grey Corries. However, only the Gondola was running due to high winds and I couldn’t be bothered to skin up the piste, so instead I went and skied the two mountains just north of the A86 near Fersit, Beinn Teallach (917m) and Beinn Chaorainn (1049m), a very pleasant afternoon in the sun but kind of ducking the main challenge.


Nearing the top of the Ben


On the summit on skis - strange

So on Tuesday morning I found myself leaving the car park at Achintee at the ungodly hour of 3.45am about to set on the ‘Haute Route de Ben Nevis’. Rather than risk the capricious nature of the lifts at the ski centre I’d decided to extended the traverse, starting by ascending the Ben, down and then along the arête to the summit of Carn Mor Dearg, across to Aonach Beag before finishing along the high level ridge of the Grey Corries and the final slog down to the road. It looked like it was going to be a fairly long day of around 32kms and 3000m of ascent. Hence the early start.


The way ahead

I’d never walked up the tourist track on the Ben before so didn’t have much of a clue how long the 1300m climb would take especially lugging skis and boots for most of it. It was actually pretty painless, well-graded track, head down, ipod on but no need for a headtorch in the pre-dawn light. I put skis on at about 800m and then skinned up the Red Burn and along the summit plateau with familiar cliffs of the mighty Nordwand dropping away to my left, before reaching the summit at about six thirty. The weather wasn’t as sparkling as previous days, a very strong wind (that was only to get worse) battered the summit shelter and although clear, the sky was a depressing shade of uniform grey, not a place to linger.


Dawn over the Mamores

A steep descent down to the head of Coire Leis on grippy, re-frozen snow augured well for the rest of the day, before I shouldered skis and scrambled along the airy knife edged arête to the summit of Carn Mor Dearg (1223m). The 450m descent from here to the col below Aonach Beag (1234m) was probably the best of the day, a small cornice drop and then a perfect steep bowl coated in delicious spring corn (a slightly worrying sign that temperature was already rapidly rising at 7am). It’s moments like that that make long climbs worth it. No one else around for miles, no evidence of other skiers and a wide expanse of whiteness to rip up.


Looking back to the Ben and Carn Mor Dearg, descended bowl on right of peak just right of centre


I made a slightly poor decision on the ascent to Aonach Mor – Aonach Beag Col, starting the ascent a bit early and having to scramble along some exposed ledges in order to regain more secure ground, the rest of the climb was too steep for skins and I slogged up to the summit of Aonach Beag in the constant wind. At this point I had a decision to make, the wind was a concern (I’ve rarely been out in such a strong, constant wind, I guess around 35-40mph with no gusting). In the end I decided to press on, the ski down to the pass was another goody with a steep and narrow couloir off Stob Coire Bealach, I also passed a Spanish walker who’d bivvied on the ridge the night before, the only person I saw all day.


The low point of the traverse


Looking back along the ridge, the Ben is the big one in the background

The col at 750m was the lowest point of the day and I had to take off my skis to walk a few hundred metres to begin the climb to Sgurr Choinnich Beag (963m)and then up to Sgurr Choinnich Mor (1094m). There was a fairly decent descent off this Munro to Bealach Coire Easain where the Grey Corries proper started. From here the ridge never drops below about 950m so I kept skins on throughout as none of the ski descents are massive and the terrain fairly undulating. I was still making good progress despite being pummelled by the brutal wind and by the time I reached the final Munro of Stob Coire Claurigh (1077m) the sun had even come out. From here a big bowl of snow led steeply and invitingly downwards into Coire na Ceannain and the Lairig Leacach. The snow at the top was excellent but towards the bottom it had turned very heavy despite being north facing and was hard going with heavy legs. It eventually ran out at about 600m and I shouldered skis for the last bit of the descent. When I reached the path I still had a good 5kms down to the road but the it was a good landrover track and Coirriechoille farm soon appeared.


Nearly there


Looking back at the final descent

The plan was for Gaz to maybe pick me up here so I could collect my car round at Achintee. I’d been much quicker than I expected, only taking about 12hrs for the whole trip and he’d gone up to Tunnel Wall for the afternoon so wouldn’t be able to pick me up for a while. So I dumped my bag in the woods and ambled the three miles down to Spean Bridge to try and get the bus back to the Fort. Unfortunately I’d realised I’d left my car keys in my bag when I got to Spean Bridge and I couldn’t be bothered with the six mile round trip to get them so I sampled the delights of Little Chef and then the Commando Inn for 4 hours until Gaz could pick me up and I could start the trip back to Edinburgh.


The walk out

A great way to end the winter, starting at the highest point in the country and then traversing some magnificent and remote mountain scenery with the added bonus of a few excellent descents. Let’s hope that summer 2008 lasts as long as winter did.



I've also stuck on a few photos of the tour of Beinn Teallach (915m) and Beinn a'Chaorainn (1049m) that I did the week before.


The Aonachs


Taking my skis for a walk


Summit of Beinn Teallach


Creag Meagaidh looking snowy


Pick a hill, any hill


Looking North


Top of Beinn a'Chaorainn




On the way out, descent in the background


Alaska?

A Lucky Escape...

I've been a bit slack updating recently, been up to quite alot a really enjoying this late season Highland snow bonanza, I'll stick a load of photos up in the next couple of days.



Anyway, yesterday Duncan, Viv and I went for a ski tour round Creag Meagaidh in the Central Highlands. At the moment there is absolutely tons on snow everywhere in the Highlands, pretty much complete cover above 700m with the Cairngorms absolutely plastered (most snow at this time of year for 15 years apparently).



We had to walk about 40mins or so from car before sticking skis on for the first Munro on the circuit Carn Liath. The snow was absolutely perfect, soft and grippy, more reminiscent of midwinter than mid April. At this point the weather began to change from the glorious sunshine of the early morning, the clouds came in, the light flattened and we made steady progress following the fence posts along the ridge tops with occasional views to the massive cliffs of Coire Adair.





As we descended down to the Window (the lowest point of the ridge) the weather began to clear. Earlier on in the morning we'd seen a steeper descent off the ridge that I was keen to ski. As we peered over the heavily corniced edge it was clear that the slope I was after was a few hundred metres further back, I told the others that I was going for a look and skinned back up, leaving them to descend to the Window. There was no obvious way over the heavily corniced rim as I backtracked, keeping a few metres back from the edge(for those of you who don't know, a cornice is an overhanging lip of snow formed by drifting and blown snow). Having been carefully avoiding the edge, I went closer to what seemed like a less overhanging section. Then, deciding against dropping down I was just about to go back and join the others when I began to fall. The whole cornice broke away about 6 feet from the edge, just where I was standing and took me with it.



I saw the crack appear as I began to silde down, surfing on top of the large blocks of snow and ice, falling for about 30-40 feet until I suddenly came to halt, wedged amongst the blocks. Below me there was an ominous rumbling as the avalanche continued on for another 500m towards the coire floor. After a brief moment I realised I wasn't hurt but was missing a ski that had probably been buried under tons of snow. It was soon clear there was no way back over the 10 foot cornice above and I gingerly made my way down to valley bottom along a rock rib.



As I sat pretty shaken at at the bottom, just below the debris from the avalanche run out, I began to go over what had gone on. Clearly what looked like a vertical cornice was heavily undercut and thus prone to collapse. As I looked up at the path of the subsequent avalanche I really shuddered. If I hadn't fortuitously come to halt so soon I would have been funnelled down the gully with it. At best, had I been spat out I, I think the large blocks of heavy, wet snow would have broken bones, at worst I would've been buried under tons of wet snow with the consistency of concrete. Considering the others were over a km away and we didn't meet up again for around an hour, this would have certainly resulted in me dying. Although a cornice could have collapsed on anyone I was definitely too close in retrospect, but the really stupid mistake was impetuously venturing off by myself, leaving little hope of speedy rescue if something went wrong. Lessons learned.



Eventually the others came down to me, extolling the quality of the snow on the descent down to the Window (so good they did it twice) and then on the ski down to me. I'll have to make the trip back up when the snows have melted to try and find my lost ski, at this rate that won't be until June as the quantity of snow on the mountains is breathtaking. Out to enjoy it again tomorrow.



On a slighly happier (ish) note, I went and saw Portishead in Edinburgh on Saturday night, absolutely amazing, Beth Gibbons has an extraordinary voice; at one moment quiet and melancholy and then suddenly a raw, powerful scream. Lots of old classics: mysterons, wandering star, numb, glory box, cowboys. Lots of stuff off the new album, the only track I knew was machine gun which I really rate and of course the spine tingingly unsurpassable roads as an encore.