Pink Panther

On Pink Panther VI,6 Ben Nevis. Photo: Paul Diffley/Hot Aches

The day after doing Tripod I was heading back up the Allt a Mhuillin with Natalie Berry, intent on making the most of the fine ice conditions. We knew most folk would head for the Indicator Wall area, so instead we headed to the much quieter but almost as high up area above Raeburn’s Easy Route, just right of the Great Tower. We could see that the steep ice pillar of Pink Panther was looking fat and slogged up the neve to a spacious belay spot in the cave behind the icicle. Meanwhile, Paul Diffley abseiled in from the top to film us. The weather was beautiful and it was quite social chatting to Paul as I led up the crux pitch, which was actually quite easy in the current conditions.

Natalie led through up the easy snow to the top and we were rewarded with lovely sunshine and views on top. This was Ben Nevis at its most friendly and it was a nice relaxing day in contrast to the challenging new routing the day before. 

That great weekend will be my last of the winter season. It’s all change for me now, with 6 weeks of solid training for the rock season. More on that shortly.

We were accompanied by Paul Diffley and Chris Prescott from Hot Aches, who took some of these nice photos.

 Aye it wasn’t a bad afternoon on the plateau