Chasing goals in the mountains, great ice on Ben Nevis

Having a climbing trip planned in advance in the UK never quite goes to plan and with the weather looking rubbish for the weekend,  Jack and my trip to Tremadog looked a mess.
However, one phone call from Ben, saying John and himself were heading to Scotland, the weekend had some very different aims. One goal in our heads; Point Five Gully.

We had a late one, arriving at the North Face car park just after midnight. We donned our heavy rucksacks and headed off towards the CIC hut, pitching our tent close to the hut for shelter. After a wild few hours sleep with the tent sounding like it was about to take off, the 5am alarm came far too early. It was blowing a hooley outside with snow in the air as we headed up Observatory gully towards Point Five. The wide top snow slopes of Point Five funnel spindrift straight down the gully, we watched and timed how long between each dump, 3-5mins. The route would have been a nightmare, but we wanted it so bad; "an outstanding climb, probably the most famous ice gully in the world." 

Jack on the first pitch of Italian Right-hand with the main pitch on the right in the background.

By now our early start was no longer an advantage as we headed round to Coire an Ciste, and up towards Italian Right-hand. Recommended by Ben, I had never heard of this route,
or even noticed it in the guide before. I don't know how I'd managed to miss seeing it before as the main ice pitch looked immense. The route definitely gave us a flavour for the ice, after a predominately mixed season for myself and only Jack's second winter route. The route was quite stepped out, but that did not withdraw from the quality of the ice, with top placements and good screws being the order of the day.

Italian Right-hand takes the ice smear just left of centre.

We descended Broad Gully back into the top end of the Coire, we traversed round to Central Gully Right-hand, which gave a quality gully line, good ice and neve. We descended Number 4 gully en route towards the tent.

Jack approaching the belay at end of pitch 2 of Central Gully Right-hand

The ice route of Vanishing Gully caught our eye on the way down, we'd covered a lot of ground and were pretty tired, but only being two pitches, we couldn't resist. Jack lead
a sterling pitch, with steep bulges followed by a narrow strip of ice heading to the ice cave belay. Chatting to some fella at bottom, they commented, "so you've got the meaty top pitch then?" "I guess I have" I replied. I hadn't thought about that yet, I'd never climbed this grade before, it looked ok from the bottom I thought. I joined Jack at belay and prepared for steep wall above, I felt pretty shaky and nervous to begin with and placed a couple of screws. I made good progress, it was definitely steeper than it looked from below. After a brief respite after several metres, another screw in, I was getting pumped as I started to place another, it just wouldn't bite! I had to move on, fumbled the screw back onto my harness, the climbing wasn't too bad, good placements and a slightly easing angle. I tried again to place a screw, and the same thing; pumping out, a shake of the arms, few deep breaths,  I had to continue. Another few metres lead me to a snow slope and the end of the difficulties, with another 20 metres to finish the pitch. What a quality route, my first venture into grade V ice, to which I had always felt a bit intimidated by, perhaps it was because of the reputations of the classic routes at this grade combined with my fear of failure on them. This was to be a new chapter in my climbing.

Vanishing Gully - Ben and John on the route after we descended the gully to the left.

Jack nearing the steepening ice on Pitch 1

 3 routes in the day, we'd nailed it, but pretty shattered, cooked some food and a nap in the tent, woken by John saying there was room in the CIC for us! Sweet. 

Following a quality nights sleep, another early start had us thinking we were going to be the first team on Point Five. Still strong winds and blue skies, we turned the corner into the approach gully to see a team on the final slope to the base of gully, the goal was smashed. They moved off really slowly, and there was no way I was queuing for over an hour with so many quality routes in condition. We continued up Tower Gully towards Indicator Wall. An intimidating line following ice a wall of rock rather than a gully line. The route was in top condition, and not as stepped out a routes from the day before. Again Jack lead a top 40m pitch, following a steep groove and thinner ice to a screw belay, bomber.

Jack throwing some shapes on Pitch 1 of Indicator Wall

 I continued in a brilliant position, stepping out from recessed belay looking up at the steep wall of ice that lay ahead. The pitch was beauty, sustained but never desperate, I was in a amazing position on a quality route. The route was top class, leading me to the highest belay in the UK around the trig point of Ben Nevis.

Looking across to two climbers on the Eastern Traverse, Tower Ridge. Another sterling day in Scotland.

Having specific goals can sometimes distract from appreciating the other quality climbs, crags and mountains that are right in front of you. We had climbed 4 top class routes over the weekend, none of which were planned. I had thought my winter season over, I was so wrong after this top weekend and with another potential trip planned for next weekend, could that be the finale.