Battles on the Ben

In two days I had two of the best and worst experiences in my climbing life on two of the most contrasting days I've ever had. The plan was to climb "the Curtain" a 3 pitch IV 5 ice route of great reputation. Having been talked into it by my climbing partner Joe Barlow, and having eyed picture of the beautiful ice falls I was keen to get on the route! This is going to be quite a wordy one, hopefully that won't be too much of an issue

I arrived promptly at the St Andrews AU in very high spirits for what lay ahead. Before the end of my first semester at university I had booked myself onto what looked like one of the best mountaineering club trips of the year. Due to a last minute booking withdrawal for the CIC hut the mountaineering club had gained access to the hut for 1 weekend when the mountain should (weather permitting) be in perfect nic for winter mountaineering! The hut boasts some of the best facilities of any mountain hut in the country and arguably the best location of any hut in the country. 

We drove for a few hours to the north face car park outside of Fort Bill (stopping for chips in pitlochry on the way). Due to confusion in directions and some tardy students we began the walk in to the hut at around 10pm at night. The weather for the walk in was far from perfect, the cloud was very low and there was a fair amount of sleet falling. I had been told nothing but negative stories about the long walk in to the hut, however I was nicely surprised to see the walking was easier going than I expected, especially given our huge packs. The walk was fairly uneventful especially as almost all the surrounding mountains were shrouded in cloud for the full duration of the walk. The first party to reach the hut arrived at 1am and went straight to bed in preparation for an early start the next day.

Day 1

the weather was once again far from perfect, low cloud once again shrouded the Mountain and all of the buttresses visible from the CIC hut were sadly out of sight. Thankfully though it wasn't particularly windy and the snow had stopped falling. 

typical conditions on the Saturday

Having consulted the avalanche forecasts we decided the approach to the bottom of Carn Dearg buttress which contains the curtain would be safe enough for us to have an attempt on the route. Due to our early start and proximity to the buttress we were the first party on the route. Looking up at the steeply angled ice above us I started to get excited for the climb ahead. Joe lead the first pitch. looking very strong he made quick work of the first pitch. Due to low visibility Joe missed the "cave belay" mentioned in the guidebook and carried on up to a blank wall of rock about 7 metres higher where he constructed the belay. 

Joe yanked on the rope 5 times to let me know I was safe to climb. Another party by this point were preparing to climb after us at the bottom of the route. I began my quick progress up the ice, removing all the ice screws Joe had placed on the way up. I quickly got into a rhythm and began to enjoy myself, there is something very thrilling about being in a place where humans shouldn't naturally be.

The curtain is the white streak going up the higher rocky outcrop

As I got higher and higher my calves began to ache a lot, doing a pitch of ice is similar to standing on your toes for about 20 minutes it really works your calves! I was now very close to Joe and was glad that my legs would soon get a break. 

I began to unscrew the last piece of protection on the route when some heavy spindrift began to tumble off of the buttress above me. As the seconds ticked by and the spindrift didn't stop and only got stronger I began to realise perhaps something more serious was happening, The huge weight of the snow landing on me knocked my clean off the ice as it continued to pile down the route. Slowly I realised what was going on, despite having done nothing wrong on the approach to the route and the forecast being positive for the aspect of the climb, I was somehow in an avalanche.

The pressure on me began to pile up on top of me as the seconds ticked by, the weight of the snow tore the goggles off my face, pulled my hood down and then preceded to plunge itself into my jacket and down the back of my rucksack, I couldn't move and found my face and body pinned to the ice. the seconds continued to tick by and the avalanche showed no signs of letting up. Despite knowing what was going on I remember being very confused about how it had all happened, the sensation is somewhat unusual; similar (I imagine) to having a tipper truck of sand dropped onto you for an extended period of time. In the moment I wasn't particularly scared, just very confused. 

Eventually the slide let up, My first thought was for Joe. Looking up I saw that he was also covered in snow and apart from being startled looked fine. we shouted to each other to ask if we were ok, we each confirmed that everything was working and fully intact. Both of us were hanging from the anchor Joe had constructed which had more than done its job holding the weight of both of us as well as the freight train of an avalanche. I shook my axes free from the ice and rapidly climbed up to Joe at the belay, we looked at each other and for the next minute our vocabulary consisted of nothing but the words avalanche, bail, and swear words. We rapidly worked on solidifying the anchor so that we could abseil off of it. We didn't care how much gear we had to leave behind, we were getting off this climb as fast as we possibly could. My thoughts turned to the climbers stood gearing up at the bottom of the route and I realised they could easily have been buried by the avalanche. Looking down they were nowhere to be seen it seemed very likely at this point that we may have to start digging to find their bodies under the snow. 

As we set up the anchor, I began to realise all the little things that had come together to make me and Joe come off lightly.

1) The anchor had held

2) We were on steep terrain, so the snow couldn't accumulate on top of us and instead whistled past

3) No large lumps of consolidated snow/ice had hit us in the avalanche

4) I was on Guide mode belay, which was probably the largest thing that saved my life, if not I almost certainly would have plummeted to the bottom of the route

all in all we were very lucky to still be alive, however we were still unsure about the climbers below us. We descended quickly off the route and decided to abseil down the steep snow slopes below the route in case they avalanched too. Upon reaching the ground It became clear that No. 5 gully had avalanched too resulting in an absolutely huge avalanche with the debris stretching as far away as 200m from the mouth of No. 5 gully. Having completed both abseils, we descended the remaining distance to the CIC hut quickly craving the safety that it offered.

As we got closer we saw many groups of people retreating back down to the safety of the hut, we realised amongst them were the 2 climbers who had been racking up on the route below us, whilst not dead one of the climbers had badly damaged his face with his ice axe in the slide and had put his crampon in his leg which was bleeding badly. He was being supported off the slopes by a group of people who were clearing an easy path and supporting him as he limped down. Once sat down inside the hut with mountain rescue called and the injured man medically checked up we began to discuss what had happened. The two climbers caught in the full force of the avalanche had been carried about 150m by the slide before being spat out on top and very luckily unburied. The other climber in the pair hadn't managed to badly injure himself but in the slide managed to get his ropes tangled around his neck. A friend of mine was also climbing on the mountain and saw the whole thing happen apparently the whole of Carn Dearg buttress disappeared under all of the snow piling down during the avalanche, this couple with No. 5 gully sliding as well meant that it had been a pretty large slide that had occurred. The avalanche was most likely triggered by a large party on ledge route above us. The bleeding climber was a total trooper and after a brew began to walk (supported) down off of the mountain to meet the mountain rescue, after I had calmed my nerves I decided to sleep off the events and retreated to my bunk and fell asleep. 

Nothing else very interesting happened that day, and as far as I'm aware nobody on the mountain got a route done, but best of all no-one was seriously hurt or killed in the avalanche that ripped down the mountain. The four climbers (myself included) caught in the avalanche are all incredibly lucky to have got off as lightly as we did, for me it was a rough introduction to climbing on the Ben and one that I definitely won't hurry to repeat. 

Day 2
I awoke late on the morning of the second, originally we planned to mess around a little on the CIC icefalls which were in perfect condition, upon waking up however we discovered that they were going to be very busy with other climbers in the hut planning to climb them, we spent a little while flicking through the guidebook to select another route worth doing, after a small amount of deliberation we settled on waterfall gully (IV 4). Skylar had joined us for the climb, and we left the hut fairly late at around 8:30 am.

The glorious views from the hut

Everything about the Sunday was better than Saturday, visibility was incredible, the winds weren't strong and it had been very cold overnight with not too much snow which helped to solidify the snow pack. The views encircling the hut are some of the most incredible I have ever beheld, every single buttress of Ben Nevis was caked in rime, Huge ice falls flowed down the gullies and a bright morning sun pierced through the aquamarine sky causing the snow and ice to glisten in the sun. In the approach to waterfall gully we had to walk past the curtain, whilst walking past we couldn't help but feel tempted but nobody really wanted to give voice to the idea after the events of the day before. Upon discovering there was a large queue at the bottom of waterfall gully Skylar decided to draft the idea of perhaps having another go at the curtain. Whilst a little apprehensive about being caught in another avalanche (even though it was very unlikely with the days conditions as they were) I couldn't deny the curtain looked truly awesome!

The curtain looking epic on the left side of the buttress

This gives a better idea of the steepness of the route

Despite being very shaken up from the day before me and Joe both wanted another go at the route, we decided to go for it. We arrived at the bottom of the route and had to wait around for about two hours whilst the climbers above us cleared the initial pitches, Skylar took the lead on pitch one making quick work of the easier angled initial section. This time he successfully made it to the recommended belay spot that Joe had missed the day before.

Skylar pausing to admire the views

Joe on his way up pitch 1 of the curtain, which he led the day before

Now it was Joe's turn to lead the upper two steep ice pitches of the curtain, the difficulty of the climbing increases greatly with the steepness of the ice as it all becomes significantly harder work. Joe made easy enough work of the steepest section of the route on pitch 2. Upon finishing this section he decided he lacked the gear to link the final two pitches together into one and set up a belay on a small icy ledge three quarter of the way up the route. Skylar and I quickly ascended to the ledge too allow Joe too finish up the last pitch of the route.

Skylar finishing the steepest section of climbing

The last pitch of the route followed a diagonally trending ledge up the steep ice, this section had been climbed so much over the past few days that well worn pockets had formed in the ice, perfect for hooking your axes into. After the ledge was a very easy angled section of hollow ice, which had been broken through in sections exposing the rock and flowing water beneath (a bit worrying). As I came over the top of the route I saw the snowfield leading to the final belay, which I made a quick ascent of. We had done it!

Me warming my hands at the top of the route before the final snowfield

We quickly shoved all our gear into our bags and descended ledge route into No. 5 gully and safely down to the CIC hut. Upon arrival we discovered that the rest of the mountaineering club had left and we had a whole van to the three of us on the way back! 

Overall the weekend was one of the most phenomenal two days of climbing I've ever had, the single scariest experience of my life coupled with one of the funnest climbs I've ever done on one of the most beautiful days I can ever remember. I can only sit in awe of the incredible beauty that was created for us to enjoy and I am very grateful that I have the friends tools and knowledge that allows me to enjoy it!

"For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together."

WE MADE IT! :)