Sunday 11 May 2014

CMD ARETE, SUN, HAIL, SNOW


Mike enjoying the views of the NF Ben Nevis

Summit of Carn Mor Dearg
NE slopes of CMD
Still worth carrying an ice axe
On the arête and the cloud rolled in
High cloud despite snow and hail showers
Well done Mike, top of Ben Nevis
Best of the sun today
Over in the west this weekend and today I was guiding Mike from the Netherlands on the Carn Mor Dearg arete and Ben Nevis. The recent unsettled spell of weather was forecast to continue but despite a poor forecast we enjoyed a mostly dry day. Mike made great progress and we were soon on CMD with wonderful views and sunshine at times. Halfway across the arete and we got an hour of sleet, hail then snow but the cloud base remained high. We only saw 3 other folk before the summit of The Ben. On the top there was someone playing the cello! The snow on the plateau is shrinking slowly but in poor weather you'll still need to keep your eyes on the ball as its quite easy to stray into the Red Burn. Mike did well today, we were up and down in 8.5 hrs. He told me that today was as tough as when he climbed The Matterhorn!

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