1st March 2013 - Number 3 Gully Buttress

A happy Craig at the third belay

The interesting step after Craig's lead

Davie Scott, Dave Anderson, Craig McKay and Me

Descending Number 4 Gully - Looking to Number 3 Gully Buttress (centre)

Craig after topping out. Smiles all round

Today Craig and I were keen to get on Green Gully on the Ben which comes in at a cozy IV, 4 (but gives easy for the grade by all accounts). So after travelling up with Davie and Dave, who were aiming for harder times, we marched in to the CIC hut in good spirits. This winter everything has been in excellent condition so we were confident that the ice would be fat and very receptive to some screws!

After gearing up partially at the CIC, we started to make our way into the coire, which was looking pretty busy already. Our target of Green Gully soon went out of the window due to a number of teams queing at the base of the climb, so after a short while humming and hawing over what we should do we decided on having a bash up Number 3 Gully Buttress, which is the classic Grade 3 on the Ben and an oft forgotten gem.

After a tough trudge on bullet hard neve up to the base of the climb, we rigged up an ice screw anchor and got ourselves (rather awkwardly) sorted out to climb. After some classic Craig & Craig faffage we were good to go, and Mr McKay took on the first lead, climbing up good neve and ice to the first belay. From there I led on, and not knowing the route very well, annoyingly stopped short of an interesting but straightforward rocky step. Craig took over to lead a short pitch up and round the corner on an interesting snow shelf which provided little gear. I led on from here, covering some interesting rocky steps and a nice little traverse onto a solid ledge with two different ways to proceed. Having felt robbed of the rocky step previously, Craig let me have a bash at the super thin and crumbling traverse step to the right hand side, which involved a tentative down climb and a bold move to cross. However, after several attemps this way proved beyond me, and after a forage up to the left we realised this might be a better approach. By this time, though, my enthusiasm was sapped so we quickly swapped over and Craig made short work of the final snow ramp onto the summit.

From here we met Dave and Davie on their way down, and after a quick skoot down Number 4 Gully we were soon on the CIC track back to the car.

We had a cracking day, and it was just what I needed to get me back in the zone after recent events in the mountains. The banter was non stop, even between belays our laughter rang out across the mountain side and it was good climbing with someone with very similar values and goals.