It appears that people in general have been lying to me for some time now about the “Scottish Winter” experience. No-one ever mentioned the blue skies, lack of wind, cold clear mornings…

Indeed, that’s how the MPS New Year trip started, and how it continued for an entire week. On the first day I did a nice loop around Aonach Mor and Aonach Beag (photo below), which gave occasional views and was a good introduction to the general geography of the Ben Nevis area, since this was my first visit.

On the second day, it was an early start to tackle North Gully (II) with Cat. After a dark and boring walk-in, the route was excellent; a lovely first pitch of nice ice, followed by amazing neve all the way to the top. This was via the best belay in the world, in the form of a very cosy and comfortable overhang / ledge / cave arrangement. Hard to explain, but very nice.

On reaching the top, I was surprised to be greeted by Luke, with whom we’d done Central Trinity a couple of weeks before! Of all the gullies in all the world…

With my Ben Nevis cherry popped, so to speak, we were treated to a great sunset on the way down, and met up with Chris and Hamish (Tower Scoop and Tower Ridge) and Pete and John (No. 2 Gully) for the walk off.

Anyway, the excitement proved too much for my knees, which steadfastly refused to even carry me down stairs the following day. After a whole day of sitting in the accommodation and twiddling my thumbs, with little improvement, I made the executive decision to head home; better that than risk another four days sat there on my own all day while everyone else was out having fun. I therefore came home the next day, four days early and with a damn sight less done than I would have liked. However, my gentle introduction of a route was ace, and I’ll certainly be heading back for more!