the weather forecasts and conditions reports had also been all over the place - in the end Ben and I decided to try the NE ridge of Stob Ban in the Mamores; which seemed a sensible choice although it was a bit of a gambel (although to be honest any choice of route would have been a gamble and it was doubtful I could have handled the Ben Nevis walk in at the moment). Having a really easy journey up north helped no end and a nice pint made me feel nicely tired and able to sleep well in the car.
The 5am alarm was not met with any kind of enthusiasm at all - a VERY groggy Simon crawled out of his pit to find weather that was actually somewhat warmer than ideal..........however by 6.40 am we were heading uphill in the dark. There are actually several advantages to walking in whilst half-asleep - the first being that by the time you have woken up you are halfway there....and this walk-in was not that bad at all. The ridge appeared after a while and then we slogged up towards the route - often in deep snow; occasionally following footprints - the ridge has clearly become quite a popular route. We geared up and then soloed up an easy gully onto the ridge proper. We put the rope on at this point and Ben led off towards the first tricky section. Ben has been doing lots of winter climbing this season and therefore decided to take a harder variation to the left of where the route actually goes....me, having not done much winter climbing at all, elected not to when seconding!!! Another easy section brought us to the crux of the route; a steep wall with a possible escape to the left again (where the party in front had gone). Ben elected to have a go at the steep wall and, after a prolonged struggle and lots of Elvis (shaking legs) got over it......following this pitch I was SERIOUSLY impressed; I would say its probably the hardest winter climbing I have ever done and I would guess it was round about grade IV - although I don't claim to be an expert on this.......being leashless would definetly help, although even with leashless axes there is no way that I could have lead that pitch at the moment. Cresting the main arete - where the climbing gets a lot easier, we encountered the wind...I was actually reduced to crawling a few feet on a narrow section...nothing like stylish climbing!!!! From there to the top was simple; unfortunately the descent was a bit of a grind, the top 100m of the North Ridge being a little tricky and the last 1000' being on steep heather - some of which I avoided with a neat bum slide!!
Another benefit of the early start was an early finish - good for me as I got back to Cumbria in plenty of time and good for Ben as he is spending the week in the north......a great route and a trip I feel MUCH better for making...
pix at: https://picasaweb.google.com/simon.bigair/NERidgeOfStobBanIIIII#
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