Ben Lui and Ben Oss
I was desperate to get out and make the most of the rapidly vanishing winter conditions and so e-mailed round a few folk to see if anyone was up for some icy action. Alex and Chris responded and with a quick check of Ben Lui's conditions on UKClimbing.com we planned our adventure.
The alarm went off at 5am and within 3 hours we had met and were all plodding along the long, long walk in to Ben Lui's central gulley. After a two and a half hour walk in we stopped and geared up at the foot of the impressive gulley with crampons, twin technical axes, helmets and with some rope and protection within easy reach just in case it got a bit "interesting" near the top.
The slope increases as the gulley is climbed and it's only when you look back down you get a sense of the angle you've been climbing. With the snow in such good consolidated condition and every ice axe placement and crampon stab feeling bomber secure we continued confidently up the slope and topped out to freezing winds without need of rope or protection. Literally 20 or so steps later we were at the summit cairn of Ben Lui.
A quick bite to eat and we trotted off to bag Ben Oss "on the way back" which turned out to be a pretty long and tiring trek, possibly due to the "post climb legs" and the heavy rucksacks containing all the ropes and gear we didn't end up using. From Ben Oss we dropped back down to the Allt Coire Laoigh and followed it back along the glen to Cononish Farm where we rejoined the track for a further hour or so to get back to the car.
A long walk (24ish Kilometers / 15 Miles)with heavy rucksacks but well worth it for the brilliant gulley and stunning mountain.
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