An exploratory day on Pinnacle Buttress, Ben Nevis

An absolutely amazing day out on Ben Nevis today, with clear blue skies and no wind.  It doesn't get any better!  Mike, Scott and I didn't have any concrete plans when we met up this morning, but by the time we had reached the car park, we had decided to head up to the lesser climbed area of Pinnacle Buttress on the eastern side of Tower Ridge.  On the approach, the snow had firmed up after a substantial thaw and good re-freeze, making travel around Coire Na Ciste pretty straight forward.  There was some avalanche debris at the base of No. 2 Gully and The Trident Buttresses.
 

Mike venturing up pitch 1.

Mike led the first pitch of 'Pinnacle Buttress Direct V,5', which sported some good snow-ice, but also some patches of very brittle hard ice.  An interesting mixed move right finished off a great intro pitch.  Mike had spotted a corner which may or may not have been climbed before, so Scott led us to the base of the corner.  I took over the lead, and found the 'possibly climbed before' corner quite bold, but with good ice and turf, the pitch felt reasonably secure.  The crux was a steepening at about two thirds height, which was fortunately well protected by an awkward to place thread.  Mike's next lead was pretty uneventful, up easy snow slopes, so he then led the final pitch to the top of the Great Tower.  Again, a variety in the quality of ice made the pitch quite tricky, particularly an awkward move right over a very thinly iced up slab with very small features for feet.  This brought us out onto the Great Tower, just before Tower Gap, and with the sunshine on the plateau looking so appealing, we finished up Tower Ridge.


It was a pretty quiet day on Ben Nevis, with teams on 'Glover's Chimney III,4', 'Green Gully IV,4', 'Hadrian's Wall Direct V,5' , 'Moonwalker IV,3', 'Garadh Gully' and numerous teams going up and down 'Number 4 Gully I'. The crags of Coire Na Ciste look a lot blacker than those on the eat face of Aonach Mor, but I did hear of some mixed action on some of the modern test pieces taking place today.  The higher buttresses will provide some good mixed climbing, but it does look like the ice lines will be getting a lot of attention over the next few days.
 

Dramatic scenery on the top pitch.

It seems that we weren't the only ones to have been climbing on Pinnacle Buttress of the Tower recently: first ascent of 'Goodfellas VII,8'