Minus One Direct

The first weekend of July Neil Harold had booked the CIC hut on Ben Nevis for a trip with some friends. Two places were free and the temptation was too much. We had to settle an old score from last years trip. So rather than go on the Club trip to Wales, John Stockton and I decided to take up Neil's offer and go with them.

We parked at the garage opposite the Distillery and walked up the Allt a'Mhuillin to the hut. We were surprised to find the Distillery gates shut and that they no longer welcome climbers. The garage only grudgingly let us use their car park. It is worth noting for the future that there is now a purpose built car park at Torlundi that we didn't know about at the time.

Once settled into the hut we were just debating whether we should consider ourselves 'Black Sheep' for not attending the Club trip to Wales when a crowd of amiable Scots from a Club calling themselves the 'Lost Sheep' arrived. They were a club formed from ex St Andrews University.

Saturday morning was beautiful and the natural instinct was to dash up the hill and climb. John doesn't dash and after an extended trip across the hillside with the loo roll and an amusing demonstration of how not to put contact lenses in we were sort of ready. I had failed miserably with my task which was to sort out a rack of climbing gear so we set off with heavy sacks full of unsorted gear. Our intention was to do 'Minus One Direct' but didn't want to seem too enthusiastic in case we failed. We kept reminding each other of how long and hard the route looked. The previous year I had set off to do 'Astronomy' on the club trip to the CIC hut only to find the rock was very wet. We were very keen therefore, to do something on this face and this would be a classic. 'Long climb' was not an option because the 'Lost Sheep' were all following their leader up it by the time we got there.

The large snow patch at the bottom of the face made it seem very Alpine especially when we couldn't get onto the rock due to a Bergshrund (crevasse between the rock face and snowslope). We traversed around to Long Climb and stepped across on to the rock and then traversed along to minus one inside the Crevasse. Lying on a rock at the bottom of Minus One Gully was a trekking pole. There was nobody attached to it at the time and it looked as if it needed a new owner. A good find and a good start to the day.

We looked up at Minus One Direct, Astronomy, Long Climb and Minus One Gully. A grey mass of steep rock disappeared beyond sight above us in layer upon layer of complex walls ribs aretes and little overhangs. This was going to be a tremendous route.

The climbing proved to be excellent. The first few pitches were a bit lacking in protection but the rock was sound and the route finding a challenge. The whole character of this climb is based on the constant variety in climbing. We lead through alternate pitches each pitch being different moving from a ramp to a slab, to a wall, to a crack or a small overhang all the time looking for the correct route and above all the elusive protection. The steepness and the awe-inspiring scenery made for a breath-taking setting with views straight across to people climbing Observatory Ridge and Tower Ridge.

The original route is now by-passed in the central section by preferable alternatives named 'Serendipity' and 'Arete Direct' which give a series of tremendous pitches of 5a or more depending which guide book you have. Our guide book, the Kevin Howitt guide doesn't give the original route description and we think underestimates the grades. The top of Arete Direct proved hard, too hard. After about 600' of climbing we came to the crux pitch at the top of Arete Direct. Here the route traverses a steep wall to regain the arete. The idea is to use small footholds on the wall to traverse on and use an overhang as an undercling for your hands. The overhang is narrow but at chest height and lacking in anything substantial to hold on to. I got established on the start of the traverse after some difficulty only to find the overhang combined with the weight of my sack pushing off out of balance. To make matters worse the overhang made it very difficult to see what I was putting my feet on. Quickly before I fell off I climbed back to John at the belay. John clearly shared my opinion that this was too hard and said something about climbing Minus One gully or abseiling off. Both prospects put shivers down my spine. We had to find some means of making a 30' traverse left to the arete. Directly above the belay where John was patiently waiting was a mossy wall capped by an overhang split by a crack. This would lead to the slab above the overhang I had just tried traversing with underclings. I decided to at least have a look at this option. After placing a small forest of runners I struggled up the crack onto the slab above the overhang. The last moves were hard so I was now committed. The slab was undercut by an overhang and gave beautiful climbing on small holds to a belay on the arete. The whole situation was magnificently exposed. We are not sure but we think this may have been the original route and in the order of 5a.

Another 200' of excellent climbing lead steadily up the arete to finish on the second platform of North East Buttress.

Our elation at completing an 800' HVS was tempered by the fact we were wrecked and still had at least 500' of North East Buttress to do. Moving together with hand coils of rope seemed like a good idea but in the event we were too tired to move much faster. We moved slowly over the infamous "man trap' eventually stumbling on to the summit plateau. This was John's first trip to the summit of Ben Nevis and what a tremendous way to do it.

We eventually arrived back at the hut the last ones back. Sunday was spent doing very little other than scrambling up the Douglas Boulder the easy way. Our thanks to Neil for a very memorable trip.

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	Swaledale Outdoor Club

Minus One Direct

Steve Jenkins and John Stockton