Today, with the north face of Ben Nevis starting to look snowy again after the thaws of the past fortnight, I climbed Number Three Gully Buttress (III) with Adam Thomas. There was more new snow than we expected and perhaps not many routes at anything like their best, but that didn’t seem to stop ‘Team Petzl’ (with Ueli Steck among their number?) racing up Coire na Ciste to film some hard stuff. We also met Andy Nelson from Glencoe on the hill.
After I’d spent some time setting up a belay (impeded by constant showers of spindrift from above) at the top of the lower snow bay, Adam led off up the first pitch but, despite being first on the route, we were outflanked by two other teams avoiding the obvious short ‘icefall’ we took direct, and had to wait some considerable time above to get at the subsequent pitches. (So the overtaking might have been slightly cheeky with the second team actually passing us on the traversing second pitch, but the banter was good and we’re not declaring war over a sociable climb!) Spending much of the day getting cold and wet while watching others tackle what we yet had to do did, however, sap my morale enough to be glad that the trickiest part of the subsequent traverse fell to Adam (who despatched it very nicely indeed), although my motivation returned enough to enjoy leading a fine, long last pitch that seems to match the ‘steep icy chimney’ alternative better than the continuing traverse and ‘finish up icy slabs’ (not that we saw much ice anywhere!). We were followed up this final pitch by a fourth pair from the Lakes who’d spent much of the day wandering all over the Ben in search of a route in condition and seemed to be climbing comfortably and quickly in comparison to the teams preceding them.
Overall, we thought it a fine route (as a three-star classic should be) and technically straightforward, but feeling somewhat insecure under soft, new snow with little beyond buried rock hooks solid enough for the picks on the steeper sections. The Red Burn bumslide is suffering, however, with some very big holes that could take the unwary travelling at speed metres into the burn and under the snow with potentially serious consequences!