22nd Feb, No 4 Gully Ben Nevis

Today we were on Ben Nevis on day 2 of the course taking our group up to No 4 gully for their first winter mountaineering day. Conditions were better today with less wind and freezing conditions overnight consolidating the snowpack.

The walk in to the CIC hut was free of any snow and it wasn't till we approached the small lochans in Coire na Ciste that we needed to put on our crampons.

There were lots of other teams about today but surprisingly we had No 4 Gully to ourselves. We found some signs of old avalanche debris but the snowpack at present appeared very well consolidated and a low risk of avalanche.

Our group made good progress on the route and we soon reached the top of the gully.

Conditions on top were good with low wind speeds although the visibility was poor. We navigated carefully across the plateau using compass and pacing. It was also a good opportunity to orientate our group with the various gullies on the Ben before making our way across to the summit cairn.

The descent route was down the ridge towards the CMD arete and the abseil posts. We descended from here down into Coire Leis before walking down to the CIC hut and the path back to the cars.