Ben Vane

[ospreysfan]

Left car park at 8.30am, followed path up the valley and past the substations before taking the second turning left over the bridge. No snow at ground level here. Cut up right just past quarry, the walk onto the ridge was very muddy and there had been a small landslip recently.

Fairly straight forward walk up to the cave. I made the mistake of turning left not long after and going up the north side rather than following the obvious path. Lot of snow and a not that stable the further up I went.

Rejoined the path further up and made my way over several false summits. There was a good cover of snow in addition to the ice from here on. Used my crampons all the way from here. Made some interesting ascents including walking up a bank of ice and snow with my back against a boulder to get onto the next rise. Near the summit there was a lot of snow and what looked like a cornice build up which was easily avoided by taking the easier route to the left (north).

Descent this time all the way by the obvious path.