Ascensões em Ben Lomond por Scott Godwin

Really good. Some tricky bridging on the first pitch, and some really annoying shrubbery in the crack on the second. Amazing weather on this trip. Absolutely still, clear skies, and mild temperatures. I don't think I've ever experienced such silence on the Ben.

The first of the Trinity for me. Great adventure. Somehow felt much bigger than the 4 pitches that it is. An excellent route for connoisseurs of thrutch. Bloody hard work for those like us who are not well schooled in the art of the wide stuff. We brought two #4 and two #5 camalots, and used them a lot. Pulled on the gear a couple of times to get through some wet slimy sections. Started climbing around lunchtime after walking up but all the slow shuffling and some shenanigans with belays in the wrong spots ate up a lot of time. Got to enjoy an awesome light show while I was sitting at the belay at the top of the third pitch. There was a bit of smoke in the air over the central plateau and the distant peaks showing through the haze in the late afternoon light were amazing. When the sun dropped a bit lower the Fingal valley gradually filled with cloud and the shadow of the mountain was cast against it. We topped out just on dark, just in time to see an incredible orange full moon rising through the smoke haze above a sea of cloud. Wandered around the scree in the moonlight for a while before eventually finding the bivi spot at Tranquil tarn. Very happy to have scored dead calm, clear, warm conditions in late March.

First 'real' trad pitch post surgery. Ankle felt pretty good on the walk in and out. No problem with the climbing. Great looking crag. The approach is pretty long for a day trip. I'll be back to stay for a couple of days next time. Note. Bring a spare 3m tape or cord for a rap anchor.

Good climbing up an indistinct line. Started up Solaris but I think we ended up on Giant Vibrator in the top half. Interesting featured rock. Far less chossy than it looks, but still quite a few dodgy loose blocks to tiptoe around.

Repeat. Nice to do the second pitch again too.

With Emma and Will. A considerably worse performance than the first try two seasons ago when I fell off just a few metres from the top. This time there was much more resting and pulling on gear. Need more fitness. Nice to have lots of red cams.

Slow. Not feeling great.

Spectacular mid may t shirt weather on the Ben. I had planned for a big training day of crack mileage, but I was feeling pretty lousy and only ended up climbing two pitches, which included french freeing a lot of this. Dissapointing performance, but still a beautiful day to be out.

Amazing, unlikely, climbing. Great lead by Steve. I managed to second clean, but it felt pretty hard. My lack of face climbing fitness was showing.

Onsight for the classic second pitch, which felt soft for 20. Maybe 18? Rapped and did Hickory Wind, then finished up the unpleasant exit pitch, which felt burly and scary with only one big cam. 2x 4s and 5 wouldn't go astray.

Repeat of the first pitch, then rapped and use the anchor to top rope the Rigudon off width.

Giving Steve the grand tour. First pitch only.

In the blazing sun on the hottest day of the year. Still classic, but it seemed like the death block in the crack has gotten looser since I led it last time. Top roped the first pitch.

Got a bit lost on the first couple of pitches. Accidentally sent poor Nate up a pitch of unprotected chossy rubbish, and then a burly, awkward fist crack instead of the normal p2 chimney. Eventually got back on the route but with the late start, all the wasted time and a general lack of enthusiasm it seemed like a better plan to bail than to keep going up. Pretty lame, but you can't win all the time I suppose.

2nd pitch only. Accessed via Brother Jack Straw pitch 1. Great climbing. Never too physical, but mentally taxing, especially the rising traverse. Just enough gear seemed to magically present itself.

1st pitch only, then finished up Sudden Tremors. Great climbing. Some tough moves in the crack leading up to the traverse. Well led by Nate.

Was feeling nervous and jittery. Rushed the crux move and fell off when my foot slipped. Did it second go. Awesome, sustained climbing, with a firey, but very well protected crux move.

Climbed to access lunch. Felt a bit tired after all the stuffing around on Rondeau earlier.

Seconded Nate up the mega classic first pitch. Rapped from tat rather than do the awful second pitch, then proceeded to get our ropes stuck. I spent ages ascending the stuck ropes, got them unstuck, then re-stuck, then unstuck again. Finally got them back after a couple of hours of shenanigans.

Isaac led so that he could rap down Master Blaster to sus the gear. I followed to clean. A combination of laybacking and bridging works well. I had to sit twice to clean some very bomber wires.

Fell off with about 5 m to go. Left a trail of blood and tears up the upper half of the crack. This one is unforgiving! It lulls you into a false sense of security early on with lots of edges for your feet and the odd pod for a good jam and a rest, then slowly ratchets up the difficulty as the crack gets just a little bit thinner and all the helpful footers disappear. 3 green cams, 5 red, and 3 yellow (plus some smaller stuff for the bottom) are plenty as long as you manage them right, which I didn't. I'll be back as soon as the skin on my hands has grown back. They look like sausage mince now.

Nate laybacked to about halfway up the first pitch before pumpung out and whipping onto a green cam, munching the rope in the process. I top roped up to his high point and rested for a minute before finishing the pitch by stemming between the two cracks. We swung leads from there to the top. Great sustained laybacking or bridging (or both?) on the first pitch, burly hand/fist crack second pitch, and the usual chossfest exit pitch.

With Graham. 1st pitch only (the hard one), then rapped because we were running out of daylight. Accessed by top roping the rigudon offwidth from the chains on Ramadan. Just barely managed the onsight. I had to fight for this one! Intricate sequences of fingerlocks and pulling on rattly faceholds. We had an incredible sunset on the walk out.

Swinging leads with Nate. I led the long crack pitches 2 and 4. Nate got the scungy access pitch, the crux finger crack, and the burly last pitch that we accidentally climbed instead of the shared last pitch of rockaday johnny. Awesome, sustained and varied route. I was having a high gravity day though and rested a couple of times on the pumpy fourth pitch.

The resident wedgie was cruising around while we were racking up, which seemed like a good omen. Technically not really an onsight, but I'm going to claim it anyway. Climbed the first few metres and found the crack dripping wet and freezing cold so I backed off to warm up my numb fingers and wait for the sun to come around. Second go - crack still dripping wet but a bit less freezing. All clean with the rope still through the first three or four runners. It turned into an epic battle against the pump in the last ten or fifteen metres. Grant led the second pitch, which as second pitches on this buttress go is a really good one. There were still a few patches of snow on the ground at the top from the dump two days beforehand.

Repeat while we waited for the crag to dry. A bit of a sandbag but good fun.

Amazing pitch. I almost pumped off when I went in the wrong direction through the first steep bulge, then hesitated and climbed up and down for ages in the corner before the traverse. It looks so ridiculously unlikely that I couldn't convince myself that it was the right way to go, but when I finally committed it was much easier than it looks. Thanks Nate for patiently belaying me for so long.

Led p1 and 2. Pitch 2 is excellent, great stemming and technical chimneying. The rest is all pretty good too. Pulling past the loose block thing at the end of pitch 1 is scary.

Great day to be on the ben. Warm in the sun but cold in the shade. While shivering at the 2nd belay I watched a huge wedgie being chased by an angry currawong, then by two ravens.

Early season warm up. Should really have sacked up and done something new, but this was a nice way to spend a couple of hours on a great sunny october day when everyone tried to tell me it would be too cold to climb on the Ben. Nate led P1 and 3. I led P2.

Classic first pitch. I ended up making a hanging belay just over halfway when it became obvious that I wasn't going to have the juice or the gear to make it to the top. Amazing relentless jamming that keeps going forever. Bring many cams from 1 to 4 inches. Second pitch is the worst horrible death choss I've encountered on Ben lomond.

Onsight for the mega second pitch. We skipped the offwidth by rapping in. Had about three metres of rope left at the top of the pitch. Great climbing, easier than Ramadan. Lots of great stances mean it never gets too strenuous.

Meh. Nice enough climbing, but the dodgy flake wedged in the crack at 1/3 height and all the loose stuff on the face detract somewhat.

Climbed first pitch to the top of the pillar with the devious intention of swinging across to the second pitch of Rigudon, but Laura did something to her shoulder so we bailed. Still an awesome pitch.

There was a party on Ramadan when we arrived so we jumped on this first. Climbed as one long pitch to the top of the pillar. Definitely the way to go.

So good. 1st epic pitch only, then rapped.

Sandbagged by the guidebook. 'Easy roof' they said....I should have trusted my judgement that told me that a six inch wide, bottomless crack is never going to be easy. I don't think even an offwidth master would call this 18. I aided my way past it using a #6 cam. Andrew managed to layback it on second after pulling on the gear to get up to the chockstone. The solution is no doubt some desperate transition from offwidth thrashing to scary laybacking up the edge of the crack.

Seconding Laura

With Andrew. I led all pitches. Shoulder seemed to hold up ok.

With John. I led all pitches. Broke the first pitch into two at the ledge, but could have easily linked it with the rack we had. Excellent, sustained climbing.

After lots of rain the 1st pitch was very wet and slimy. Wandered our way to the top via two more pitches of contrived climbing on semi dry rock to the top of the buttress. Pulled on a couple of cams to get past the slime. Not great climbing, but a stellar day to be up on the Ben.

First lead in a ages since re-injuring the shoulder. Felt like a sandbag but it was great to actually climb something again.

1st pitch only then bailed. Shoulder not up to the job.

A fun day out on an extremely windy day. I lead all pitches. The route wanders a bit and route finding was tricky at times. Pulled on a few pieces on the last pitch in the interest of time as the day was getting on and the weather was coming in. A #5 cam is handy in a few places.

First climb on the Ben! Fantastic the whole way. What a place! Led all pitches. Rack - Wires and double cams from small grey camalot to blue, with a single #4. Extra reds and yellows are handy for the belays.