Today we aimed for the classic North East Buttress on Ben Nevis, maybe the lesser traveled of the main ridges but it still has some classic sections.
With the wind blowing we were glad of some shelter once approaching the ridge after the CIC hut. Then the tricky bit began, the approach to the start of the ridge at the 1st platform. This area has lots of steep broken ground and the rocks are alway slippery in the wet or dry. Very careful movements saw use to the ridge and onto the main scrambling.
The ridge lower down is steady away with lots of short steep steps and corners, progress was good but calculated on the slippy rocks. Once higher up we reached the infamous ‘man trap’, a 7ft boulder problem, slightly overhanging and off balance. Use of the old peg as a foot hold was helpful and we were both glad to be at the top of it with the rain just starting to fall.
Just the 40ft corner left which needed careful climbing in the wet, saw us at the end of the difficulties and at the top of the ridge in about 3 hours, before the rain started properly.
