Tuesday 15 August 2006

Ben Nevis II, Dave nil

Arriving on the Ben - wet, cold and windy.
The Comb appears from behind the clouds
A last minute blast of sun offers some hope for the next day?
Tourists inspecting indicator wall
A nice broken spectre lines up with the Comb's triangular shadow
A sublime morning
Reflections of north face on the Coire na Ciste lochan
I bit the bullet and headed back to The Ben for a second blast on the arete. Day 1 was wet and boring, i'd finished my book by 4pm. With the hut empty, the only options were weather inspection, gear inspection or introspection. Day 2 was better but the cliffs were soaking and I figured the Nevis summer season was probably over. Day 3 was stunning and I was able to get my shoes on and climb some moves at last. I don't think I'm good enough to climb the project right now. I'm sure I could do it if I could get more time on it, but that is pretty difficult as the good dry conds are hard to come by at 1100m on the north face. To do it in a few days would need 9a rock fitness and a healthy dose of deathwish. Maybe I need to train more for a bit. I'd like to go back to my aim of repeating some other hard E's. I have a feeling this route could be really hard, but I need some more comparison. Who knows when I'll be able to back to it? Next week would be nice, but next year would mean I'd have the chance to prepare. We'll see how things pan out.

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