After a couple of very wet days in The Highlands it was nice to get a dry and bright day again. The weather window came in perfectly for Mark and Malc on their guided day on Ben Nevis. They wanted a day of scrambling and some navigation/route finding training. Over the last week or so it has been quite cold on the tops and snow showers falling above 1000m so we took the winter hardware 'just in case'. There was a good coating of snow on the upper section of Tower Ridge and some of the gullies are filling up but Ledge Route was clear of snow/ice. We had a quick rest at the CIC hut, then shortly after the sun broke through the clouds. The Autumn colours in The Allt a' Mhuillin are wonderful just now and the was a solitary stag below Carn Dearg Buttress roaring away as we headed up to Ledge Route. We saw no one all the way up and as we got onto the ridge section the sun was out and blue skies over head. There was just a few bits of soft snow on the final 50m but the ironmongery wasn't required but lugging it all up is good fitness training as the winter approaches. The plateau has a good few cm's of snow from the top of the zig zags and the path well trodden so becoming icy, as the trainer clad folk were finding out today. The guys did a great time on the day, up and down in 8 hours which included some map skills as we made our journey across the plateau. Winter is on it's way folks :)
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