Tower Ridge Ben Nevis

[WESLEY ORVIS]

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the North Face

After planning this one for over a year it was finally time for Tower Ridge, although i had done lots of Welsh and Lake District scrambles i thought this one was slightly out of my leaugue on my own, so I booked a guide.
I had already summited Ben Nevis three times via various other routes on other occasions namely via tourist path, Ledge Route(II) and North Gulley(II)) so i thought next time I would have to be something special to top all the others.
Me and Killer Kev set off from Kendal Friday morning about 11:00 a.m. for the long drive to Fort William, we arrived at the Glen Nevis campsite around 5:00 p.m.

preparing at the CIC hut

The next morning we were up at 7:00 a.m. had the usual porridge for breakfast, Kev made sandwiches like he worked in Subway, fast and efficient and we met Ken our guide for the day at the reception for 8:30 a.m.
We parked at the North Face car park and made very short work of the walk up to the CIC hut (well me and Ken did but Kev struggled due to lack of mountain fitness and not enough days on the hill)
We made it to east gully and soloed up the the top of the gulley inbetween the Douglas Bouldder and Tower Ridge, this was fairley hairey and got our adrenaline going immediatley, the weather was great but as we arrived in the gap the wind picked up and i thought here up this is going to be interesting especially when we come to the infamous Tower gap, fortunatley the weaher stayed great all day and was the last i heard of the wind.

the view from the gap above East Gulley

We geared up and Ken set off up the first pitch and onto the main ridge.

Ken up the first pitch

We scrambled all the way up with no incident in less than three hours, Tower Gap was spectacular and all in all was one of my best mountain days ever.

up the ridge we go

the little tower

a climbing pitch to get up

the view

Caern Dearg and the north face

Upon arrival at the summit the views opened up as far as the eye could see and we was met with admiration from the tourists on the summit who had watched us top out from the gap.

the gap

We descended via Ledge Route back to the CIC hut and was back at the car for 5:30 p.m.

me and Kev on the summit

the view from the summit

Scotland is amazing and i always go back to my home and usual stomping ground the Lake District thinking, but trying not to, "it's great here but it ain't Scotland".
Thanks for reading and happy walking.

[HighlandSC]

Good stuff, great report on an amazing route

Sounds like it's time you moved up here.....go on....

[Bod]

Great to see some of the route close up.....well done too!

[monty]

Tremendous stuff. Weather was excellent and the photos are superb

[WESLEY ORVIS]

Thanks guys!!! Would love to make the move North of the border but my long term partner is a Kendalian and they don't move nowhere for nothing.

[kw1980]

Superb report, Id love to give this a try one day. Hopefully get weather as good as you had. Well done!