User:Munrogue/Ben Nevis Climbs

RESEARCH

This page is about scrambles and comparatively easy climbs on the northeast face of Ben Nevis, and my progress through them. All the Easy, Moderate, and Difficult routes on the face are listed here, as are major VDiffs with E/M/D variations.

Page references are to the 2002 Climbers' Guide, edited by Simon Richardson.

OBSERVATORY GULLY (inc NORTHEAST BUTTRESS)

Group I: routes to First Platform

 p60 22 Green and Napier's route 150m Diff
 p60 >22 Raeburn's 18min route 135m Mod
 p60 23 Slingsby's chimney 125m Mod
 p60 24 Slab Rib Variation to RH Wall Route 150m Diff "cleaner [than RH Wall Route]"
 p64 25 Right-Hand Wall Route 150m Diff "vegetated and often wet"

SO FAR: I've ascended all these. Only Raeburn's line is a sensible descent route. Slingsby's Chimney is undergraded.

TO DO: Descend 24: probably quite hard. It's a good, clean, sustained ascent line, but access is awkward in early season because of a large snowpatch at the foot of Slingsby's Chimney.

Group II: Observatory Gully proper

 p53 11 Northeast Buttress from First Platform 300m VDiff *** "One of the easier classics"
   11v3 Northeast Buttress from First Platform by Tough-Brown Variation (declining Mantrap) 300m Diff
 p58 <17 Observatory Gully 300m Easy
 p70 <38 V-Traverse 90m Diff
 p70 <38 (=41) Epsilon Chimney 110m Diff "easiest exit from the Basin"
 p78 55 Observatory Ridge 420m VDiff *** (has vars 1 Mod 1 VD)
   55v Left-Hand Start (to Observatory Ridge) 70m Mod
 p90 79 North-West Face 75m Diff "poor and messy"

SO FAR: I've been up and down the two easiest major routes here: 11 and 55. Observatory Gully is a snow gully in early season and a scree gully the rest of the time so ascent is "purgatorial" - instead I've crossed it many times and slid down it once or twice. 79 is an approach route to Indicator Wall (110m VDiff, "dirty and not recommended"). The V-Traverse is a crossclimb which I've done in both directions (it's useful, joining NE Buttress to Observatory Ridge). 55v is effectively a crossclimb too, from the foot of Point Five Gully: it's the easiest approach to the Raeburn hand-traverse, but that isn't terribly useful except perhaps to test someone's ability to tackle the ridge without committing to it.

TO DO: Epsilon Chimney? I've refused it once but I suppose another go won't hurt, though it's quite pointless because it's slap bang next to the V-Traverse (with which it even has one dozen-foot-long section in common). The third major Observatory Gully route, Observatory Buttress, is VDiff; my occasional climbing partner and I have talked about taking it on. Raeburn soloed it in 1902, the year after his "inspired" first ascent of Observatory Ridge. Bell's 1942 Long Climb (420m, Very Severe) is an ambition for the future.

TOWER RIDGE

Group III: Tower Ridge east face and Great Tower

 p100 101 Tower Gully 120m Easy "consists of loose scree and is not recommended for descent"
 p100 >101 Tower Face Crack 30m Mod "about halfway up Tower Gully"
 p100 102 Eastern Traverse from Tower Gully 120m Easy "an easy means of gaining Tower Gap"
 p102 106 East Wall Route (from Tower Cleft) 110m Diff "is started up slabs to the left of Tower Cleft"
 p104 114 Chimney Groove 110m Diff "vegetated"
 p104 115 Lower East Wall Route 125m Diff "loose"
 p103t Tower Gap Gullies 20m ???
 p105 116 Tower Ridge (from East Gully) 600m Diff **** "A time-honoured classic"
 p106 p123r >116 Recess Route 45m Diff
 p107 p123c >116 Rotten Chimney 45m Diff
 p107 p123w >116 Western Traverse * 70m Diff "loose in places, but the climbing is good"

SO FAR: I've ascended and descended 116 (including the relevant part of 102) several times. I've never bothered with any of the east face routes, which seem all to be mediocre ways of getting in and out of Observatory Gully. I've done the Western Traverse by some line or other. I declined the Recess Route along the way.

TO DO: Climb Recess Route and Rotten Chimney. Along with the Eastern and Western Traverses, these are basically all different ways of surmounting the 150ft Great Tower, and there are a few VDiff routes on it too: A long day spent top-roping all of them beckons. The easier of them might even be viable in descent.

Group IV: Douglas Boulder

  >116 Tricky Chimney 20m(?) Diff
  <1 East Gully ?m Easy
  <1 East Ridge 60m Diff "poor"
  5 Lefthand Chimney 215m Diff (but only "just", amazingly (Kellett); hard!)
  12 South-West Ridge 180m Mod - 14/8/12
 p110w West Gully 140m Easy - 1/8/12

SO FAR: I've been up all of these except East Ridge and down all of them except 5, which is undergraded and not viable in descent. On East Ridge I bypassed difficulties.

TO DO: Not much, apart from ascending East Ridge at some point. I've ascended a couple of VDiffs on here, but none leaps out as a downclimb. Part of Direct Route, maybe?

Group V: Tower Ridge west face inc Secondary TR

 p112 14 1934 Route (2nd TR) 185m Mod
 p116 21 1931 Route 125m Diff
 p118 >27 Garadh Buttress 95m Mod
 p120 29 Broad Gully 200m Easy "possible descent"
 p124 40 Glover's Chimney 150m Diff (grade from SR '02, but GGM '54 has 250m(!) and VDiff)
 p128 42 The Gutter 90m Diff (variant of 40) "start by climbing [40] for 80m"
 p129 47 Raeburn's Easy Route 300m Easy

SO FAR: I've climbed 14 a few times (but never descended it: a descent would be logical if the Western Traverse can be downclimbed). 29 is a crossclimb linking to foot of the Little Tower to the top of Garadh Buttress and is easy enough in either direction.

TO DO: 21, which has a VDiff variation, too: that's a Kellett grade so I'll take a rope. I haven't descended the Garadh yet, nor 47. 40 and 42 are dubious because access to either is probably VDiff.

COIRE NA CISTE and CASTLE CORRIE

Group VI: Three Gully Buttress and Creag Coire na Ciste

 p145 89 Three Gully Buttress 150m Mod
 p148 98 Thompson's Route 110m Diff (descent)
 p152 106 Three Gully ?90m ?Easy "descend right (south) of pinnacle; loose rock at top; impressive rock scenery"
 p153 110 South Gully 120m Moderate
 p158 117 Central Rib 120m Diff
 p160 126 Four Gully ?120m Easy
 p160 >126 Four Gully Buttress ?100m Mod

SO FAR: I've ascended (only) 89 and descended (only) 98, both more than once. The foot of 89 is blocked by snow until late season, though it is possible to traverse-in from Green Gully. 106 and 126 are scree gullies: the exit from 106 is muddy and very awkward. Four Gully Buttress is a fine scramble but access involves much painful crossing of scree; best is to traverse under Creag Coire na Ciste from Three Gully Buttress.

TO DO: 117, which also has a VDiff variation (Kellett again). 110 possibly. 89 and 98 the other ways, I suppose.

Group VII: North Trident and Ledge Route (inc Moonlight Gully Buttress)

 p164 147 Jubilee Climb 260m VD (Jubilee corner-and-ramp is surely only Diff)
 p169 154 Nereid Gully ?90m Mod? Diff? (awful)
 p169 155 North Trident Lefthand Ridge 150m Mod?
 p169 156 Neptune Gully ?155m Mod?
   156v Direct Finish 90m ???
 p171 161 Moonlight Gully 150m Easy '54 (Mod?)
 p171 163 Diagonal Route 150m Mod
 p171 164x Right-Hand Chimney Left Rib Variation 90m Diff? Steep and exposed.
 p173 167 Five Gully 450m Easy
 p175 <171 Easy Chimney ?35m Mod
 p175 171 Ledge Route 450m Easy ***

SO FAR: This is the most easily-angled part of the face and there are many vague scramble lines, often over vegetation and/or loose rock. Ledge Route is the usual through-route and was my standard descent for two years until I began downclimbing the major ridges instead. I've been up and down much of 147, 155, 156, 163, and 167 too. Most of 154 is horribly vegetated and ascent in summer is not justifiable, unless I decide to clean a broken crack-system on the left of much loose rock. Descent would be interesting/insane. I remember that climbing 161 was unexpectedly awkward at one point. Easy Chimney has a good VDiff variation in ascent.

TO DO: Descend 164x. Descend Easy Chimney? Scramble down 161, maybe?

Group VIII: Castle Corrie

 p194 31 Staircase Climb 215m VD
   31v3 Deep Chimney Variation (to Staircase Climb) 40m Diff
 p198 38 Harrison's Climb 275m Diff ***
 p206 48 The Castle 215m VDiff
 p207 50 North Castle Gully 230m Diff
 p207 51 Castle Ridge 275m Mod **

SO FAR: I've been up 51 several times and down through the crux section once.

TO DO: I've had a good look at the start of 31: an early corner-crack is hard - an early Climbers' Guide suggests wedging a knee in it. It might be prudent first to establish an exit from the upper corrie by effecting a descent from Ledge Route above it; 38 reaches the same place, ultimately. 48 is very imposing, both at the steep start and higher up. I was defeated by loose rock in 50. Generally, I don't find this to be very attractive part of the mountain, and I would want to establish at least one easy route through the corrie system before taking on any of the lines in anger. By contrast Brian Kellett kept returning here to climb the North Wall of Carn Dearg, an attraction that cost him his life. Ken Crocket speculates that he, like many others, were intrigued by vague early route descriptions by Luscher (in 1920) and Nelstrop and Byrom (in 1940); the most recent Climber's Guide dismisses these accounts as being "impossible to reconcile with the Buttress".