The Cenotaph Corner of Winter? Cutlass, Ben Nevis

How Cutlass only gets one star is beyond me, the route is excellent!  Today, with stormy conditions, snow and a lowering freezing level forecasted, not to mention the high avalanche risk on north easterly through to south easterly aspects, James and I decided a route low down and westerly facing on Ben Nevis would be a wise choice.  Snow had fallen just about to sea level through the night, which was a good sign for our chosen route, 'Cutlass VI,7' on The Douglas Boulder.  This route requires low freezing levels for the turf to freeze, and useful ice to form in the corner crack.

Ben Nevis this morning.  CIC Cascades slowly forming.

Coire Na Ciste this morning, before the weather came in

Me on the crux pitch

We were the first team along the Allt a'Mhuilin path, which had a fresh covering of about 2 inches of snow, which was starting to thaw as we descended this afternoon.  The skies were remarkably clear, and the top of Ben Nevis could be seen.  This was the calm before the storm!  On arrival at the base of the corner, it was clear that the cracks were verglassed, which meant that Dave Macleod's tactic of leap frogging hexes, mentioned in this Planet Fear article, was not going to work.  I led up the first pitch, which was although quite sustained, was never desperate, and although gear was not overly plentiful, it was just about enough, and with good hooks and reasonable footholds, yielded with not too much of a battle.  Quite an absorbing and entertaining pitch, with great climbing!  James proceeded to lead through up a short chimney, with a tricky couple of moves round the capping chockstone, before easier ground led to the 'South West Ridge III/IV 4'.  We descended West Gully, and passed numerous teams from Plas Y Brenin and Jagged Globe, starting up the various routes in the vicinity, prehaps one of the few safe places to be today!  We did see people retreating from Coire Na Ciste and Observatory Gully.

James enjoying the steep crux pitch

James beyond the difficulties of the chimney pitch

Vanishing Gully seemed to be reforming, and must be close to being climbable, and numerous other ice lines lower on the mountain (CIC Cascades, Waterfall Gully, Bloomers Requim etc.) are all slowly forming. It's looking promising!