The Long Climb

I recently fulfilled a long held promise with my good friend Mike to go and tick one of his few remaining "Classic Rock" routes on the north face of Ben Nevis. The Long Climb is (unsurprisingly) one of the longest rock climbs in the UK, scaling one of the biggest and highest mountain faces to boot. 

Its altitude and location on the highest mountain in the UK means that weather and conditions can be extremely hard to predict and as such, has gained a reputation for being a very serious undertaking. Many aspirant ascensionists have got hopelessly lost on its sprawling face with some even coming to grief. The necessity for good conditions combined with the difficulties of findings willing partners to go and do such routes in the first place mean that opportunities are rare, which only compounds the air of uncertainty and mystery that such routes hold.   

After agreeing this as an objective and setting a date, our attempt followed several days of warm and dry weather and so it was with great excitement that we set off early from the Torlundy car park under clear and calm skies. 

A perfect sunny summers day on Ben Nevis. The north face and line of the Long Climb just visible in the distance 

The first challenge was actually getting to the route from the scree slope below, with our way blocked by a very large patch of neve that extended for several hundred meters down slope from the start of the route. Whilst there is no risk of avalanche, the consolidated but decaying nature of this lump of snow means a slip and long slide in the event of a poorly placed foot or collapse of a snow step would be disastrous. After making a quick belay I set out across the neve and before long had run the ropes full length and secured myself at the base of a broad rib, roughly 60 m below the so called "first slab rib". 

One of the main challenges of this route is picking out the line as its snakes its way up the vast face, with countless possibilities, many ultimately ending in desperate or even insurmountable barriers. Notwithstanding, the face itself has a few defining features and it is these that the Long Climb seeks out. The three main features are the two "slab ribs" (first and second), which are separated by an easing of the rock angle in an area known as "the basin". 

After two surprisingly bold and delicate pitches, we gained the first slab rib, with the climbing on the rib comprising of a series of airy moves from a corner belay around a prow followed by some great finger jamming up two parallel crack lines. This really was a brilliant pitch, which Mike did a great job of leading. After a few easy pitches through the basin we eventually made it up and underneath the second slab rib (which is hard to spot from the face itself, however a large chimney to the right we noticed from below the crag is obvious, and was a helpful feature). The second rib is perhaps slightly harder than the first rib, but not by much and is superbly protected by wire and small cam placements (all of which needed digging out!). Whilst the digging did slow me down a little, i really enjoyed this pitch and reveled in the exposure of being somewhere some vast and intimidating. After that a long leftward rising traverse following corners and cracks led to an easing of the angle, and eventually the top. 

Mike on the first pitch. The slab ribs are visible above

Mike in a brilliant position on the first slab rib

We both agreed that whilst the ascent for us went very smoothly, we still had a few moments where uncertainty and doubt crept in and under anything other than perfect weather, the Long Climb would be a very different prospect to what we encountered. The abundance of vegetation, dirt and need to dig out all gear placements meant the route had a very adventurous feel, which when its considered the route "classic" status is perhaps a surprise. However the seriousness of the face, the general reputation and location on an extremely high and infrequently visited crag probably means accents are few and far between. Notwithstanding, its a fantastic route, with interest on every pitch. Its not the best climbing you'll ever do, but its certainly one of the best adventures the UK has to offer and has the added allure of being on one of the biggest cliffs and finishing on the highest point.     

Mike leading the pitch after the second pale rib

The view from the top