Run away from Aonach Mor

Views of Ben Nevis

Descending Easy Gully

 Buttresses thawing and going black

Me

Today Geoff and I took the gondola up to Aonach Mor to get a route or two in. On the way up it seemed ok but once we abseiled into Easy Gully it suddenly got very warm and the temperature shot upwards. As we were gearing up at the bottom of White Shark IV the cornice above Aqua Fresh next to us started to collapse and throw snow down at us. I decided we would be very quick but by the time I was about 6m up the route the cornice above us started collapsing and after being hit by some blocks of snow I down climbed and we ran away. Within minutes of leaving the bottom of the route I looked back to see considerable cornice debris falling down where we had been. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour we headed for the climbers col to get away. At least 2 other teams (one of whom had been knocked out of Tunnel Vision by falling snow and slid a full rope length) were running away with us. There was some cornice collapse in Right Twin but Kenny got up Left Twin with his two clients safely and a team were climbing on Morwind though it was with bare hands not axes as it was not exactly in condition.
Once back on top, Geoff and I strolled out to the summit of Aonach Mor at 1221m before heading back down. The ski hill has been stripped quite badly and there is no cover on the lower slopes.