Day 2 of our winter skills and Ben Nevis course.
With reports of very unstable snow in the Red burn at the half way point i made the decision to take it out of the equation by taking the more direct old runners route up to the zig zags.
This paid off with little snow on the slope and made for a steep but easy and safe walk up and down.
Everyone else on the hill followed the path and then turned around at half way, which was also good decision making, only one other guided party made the summit today taking the same route.
The visability on the zig zags was very poor and with lots of snow and ice. We made our own tracks to the summit not bothering to even try and follow where the path would have been.
The gully where the red burn runs has unstable snow at the moment due to the quantity of snow that has fallen, the wind direction moving the snow across the slope and the snow being deposited in the depression on the mountain (cross loading). The snow needs to melt and decrease in volume and then re-freeze before it becomes potentially more stable.
Safe way up.
At about 800m
The summit!
Summit shelter