Tower Ridge and the CIC Hut

Tower Ridge is a route that has captured my imagination since I first ventured into the mountains. A ridge of almost Alpine proportions, with easy climbing and some magnificent exposure, leading almost to the summit of Britain's highest peak - what aspiring British climber wouldn't want to tick this one off?

We 'gave it a go' in August 2012 at the end of a week in Scotland, following successful trips across the Aonach Eagach and up Curved Ridge. We did everything we possibly could to guarantee failure that day. We set off far too late from the car park in miserable weather. We were horrendously underequipped with one 30m rope between 4, and lacking in the sort of basic skills to use it safely. And owing to an unfortunate piece of news regarding a girl, my head was completely in the wrong place before we even got to the North Face. I wanted to climb it to soothe my ego and threw all caution to the wind.

Some scrambling over the slippery slabs above the CIC hut leads to the base of the Douglas Boulder. In a fey mood I stormed off around to the right of the boulder, without waiting for my companions to catch me up and forcing them to follow. (Anyone who has climbed the route will immediately have spotted my mistake). The route led diagonally upwards across some steep and unstable screes poised above a deep river canyon. At the bottom of the Western Gully I waited for my companions to join me.

After a long wait they eventually did. As Ben had been crossing the slope, the scree had started to slide beneath him and didn't stop until just above the lip of the canyon. After this close shave, going back across the scree slope was not an option. At the same time, heading up through the gully seemed particularly uninviting. Some basic research in hindsight reveals that the correct route would have been the Eastern Gully on the other side of the ridge, and the gully we were in is only ever used for winter ascents when banked out in snow and ice. There's a good reason for this. The floor of the gully was covered in scree and slimy moss-covered rock. Every promising looking handhold broke away as soon as it was weighted. It was impossible to avoid knocking down rocks at every step and impossible to protect against a fall.

After scaring ourselves silly all the way up the gully and the exit chimney from the Douglas Gap, we finally arrived on the actual ridge. At this point we finally accepted that we were in trouble, and had no chance of safely negotiating the ridge before darkness. So Ben bit the bullet and phoned mountain rescue. After a well deserved telling off, they informed us that any chance of a helicopter rescue was off and they would mull over the options. So we had a little comfort food and sat tight. They got back to us shortly with the news that incredibly, there was a grassy escape path leading down from the ridge almost right next to where were stood. It wasn't long before we were all down again, had informed mountain rescue of our position, and were on our way back to the pub to drown our shame in a round of pints.

In the two years since that day we've learned a lot. We're certainly not immune to mistakes (as evidenced elsewhere on this blog), but we'll no longer head into the mountains with such a lack of forethought. We decided to stay in the CIC hut so we could wake up within a stone's throw of the Douglas Boulder. Actually getting hold of the key was a minor epic in itself. After a day's drive up from Bristol, during which we heard the news that Scotland had narrowly voted to remain in the Union, we lugged our gear in from the North Face car park.

Carn Dearg Buttress rears up behind the CIC Hut

The Saturday dawned bright and full of promise. The upper reaches of the North Face were still shrouded in a blanket of cloud but we were hopeful the weather would improve.

There's not much really to mention, since everything that was wrong the first time round was right this time. The Eastern Gully was much less of a death trap and I was happy enough to not use any gear in the climb out of the Douglas Gap. The weather was fine and the Tower Gap section as thrilling as I'd expected. Apart from a brief detour in which Jack strayed off route and had to traverse delicately back across, everything went without a hitch. If anything it felt a bit anti-climatic given how long I'd wanted to tick off this route.

Will and Adam queuing to cross Tower Gap, a deep notch in this narrow section of ridge

The summit of The Ben was predictably both crowded and misty. We had a quick stopover then continued over to summit to the slope leading down towards the Carn Mor Dearg Arete. As we descended down beneath the cloudbase, stunning views towards the Mamores and Glencoe were revealed.

The Mamores from the CMD Arete

Eventually the ridge rises again towards the summit of Carn Mor Dearg and and as we continued around, the entire North Face in all it's glory was revealed as well, giving us a view of the morning's climb. From the summit we descended down the screes and grassy slopes back towards the CIC hut and a hard earned rest.

The North Face of Ben Nevis. Tower Ridge and the Douglas 'Boulder' are left of centre