First Winter Ascent of Turkish on Ben Nevis

January conditions are prime for first and second winter ascents in Scotland. For more new Scottish routes, see here.

Turkish

Malcolm Bass and Simon Yearsley have made the first winter ascent of Turkish, VII, 7, on Ben Nevis. “Steep corners with exits on good ice. Consolidated snow allowing progress up compact slabs. And a delicate technical crux. We are fairly confident that we followed the summer line, but a 1967 summer route description defined by ‘loose blocks’ on pitch three isn’t the best guide to a snowy 2014 ascent,” said Bass said.

The Brass Monkey

Neil Adams and Andy Inglis pulled off an important second ascent on Ben Nevis January 1, when they repeated The Brass Monkey, VII, 8, on the east side of Tower Ridge. ““It’s not too hard for the grade but probably graded right at VII, 8. We ran the first two pitches together, which makes sense on 60m ropes as it’s easy climbing. We had decent weather on the route but the winds really picked up during the day so the descent down Tower Ridge was in a full-on blizzard and fading light, which was probably the spiciest bit of the day,” said Adams.

Source: Scottish Winter