{"id":293,"date":"2009-01-06T22:52:32","date_gmt":"2009-01-06T22:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/?p=293"},"modified":"2022-04-11T21:49:23","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T20:49:23","slug":"fort-william-new-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.haydnwilliams.com\/blog\/fort-william-new-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort William New Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

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…<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Towards

Towards the summit of Aonach Beag<\/strong>
(Copyright Haydn Williams 2008)<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"<strong>Best.

Best. Belay. Ever.<\/strong>
Copyright Haydn Williams 2008<\/p><\/div>\n

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

\"<strong>Easy

Easy snow at the top of North Gully.<\/strong>
Copyright Haydn Williams 2008<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"<strong>Hamish

Hamish and Chris at the top of Tower Ridge.<\/strong>
Copyright Haydn Williams 2008<\/p><\/div>\n

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!<\/p>\n

\"<strong>Ben

Ben Nevis sunset.<\/strong>
Copyright Haydn Williams 2008<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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