Glovers Chimney

Today Mandi and I headed up the North Face of Ben Nevis to see what was going on. The forecast stated high winds in the evening so I thought we would be able to get a route in. At first I was going to head for the SW ridge of the Douglas Boulder but there was a team already heading for it so instead we went up high and climbed Glover's Chimney (III,4), which I hadn't done before. We topped out just as it got dark and a blizzard started. This made getting off the top both exciting and hard work. The mountain was very quiet, with only one other team out. Conditions were good on the mountain. The ice routes were looking good but there was a lot of snow being blown around. Whilst climbing, I heard three significant avalanches somewhere below us. Then we were swept off our feet and partially buried whilst descending the Red Burn. Lots more snow was falling with high winds.