Page 15 - RAFMA Winter 2003

Surely I would wake up now? But no - the sky was still crystal clear, the ground frozen hard and the
face towering above; sugar coated in all
the places that mattered. As we plodded
with lunch in the sun on the windless summit. Then time to descend and climb Comb Gully before reaching the hut with grins as wide as the Alt a' Mhuilinn itself. Day 3 out before first light to steal the march on would be tigers heading for the Point. One more magic ascent with eyes fixed
again across the frozen turf and then onto and up the iron hard neve, I mused over the last 3 days; 3 wonderful days and 4 superb routes. Day 1 up to the hut dropped off the kit and up
Zero Gully to summit 3 hours
later at five in the evening
and look across a cloudless
evening sky to Skye itself,
only the very tops of the
Cairngorms painted with
winter hues. Day 2, beaten
to Point Five by another
party, we had carried on up
towards Gardyloo and
traversed left to try Indicator
Wall but the ice was very thin
and thicker stuff beckoned to us
from Smith's Route across the way.
An hour later I found myself
traversing steep but perfect ice to pull
onto the upper slab by the original route. Another perfect route on a perfect day finished
Martin Ball On I
Point 5
on that other shining plumb - Hadrian's Wall. Phone calls from the uncrowded summit
Martin Boll on Hadrians Wall.
Ben Nevis Plateau in perfect conditions.
Mike Porker on Point 5
conditions gave pitch after pitch of hard ice and even the top section glistened with it, replacing the snow of o usual March. Lunchtime saw us whooping over the cornice after the best RAFMA Winter Meet I have ever had on the Ben and even the thought of the drive back later
on that day did not dent the magic of it all.
Mike Parker on Smith's Route
B y M ik e P a lm e r
J9 jf
to our another
bosses extension
secured to the dream. That was yesterday and now we clicked into the fam iliar ritual, picks and crampon points finding their mark in the perfect ice as we worked our way up this perfect route. The lean
Journal 2003 RAFMA 1 5