Scotland 2019 – Tower Ridge

Andrew Twemlow

Scotland in February: We were hoping for a winter ascent of the classic Tower Ridge on Ben Nevis, but it was far from winter. If you were quick enough you could have done it in t-shirt and shorts, we weren’t and glad we didn’t, as we topped out at 18:30.

Four of us decided to tackle the ridge as 2 teams of 2, Rob and Paul, Myself and Nick.

We didn’t leave at the crack of dawn but still managed to get a good view of sunrise over Ben Nevis

Nick and Paul, not posing at all !?
Fantastic views of the Ben on the walk in

After a quick bite to eat and gear up at the CIC hut we started up past the douglas boulder to find the start of the route

CIC hut
Unclimbable gullies full of loose rock
Great view of the rest of the north face, clearly not in winter conditions.

We were roped up and most of the time we were moving together, with the exception of a few pitches, on little tower, the eastern traverse and the gap.

Rob starting off on the Eastern traverse
Nick topping out
Sunset from the top of Ben Nevis
The final challenge of the day, crossing a stream to get back to the car

Photos by Rob M, Paul J, Nick S and Andrew T