Roger Webb moving up the easier central gully section on the first ascent of Ben Alder Diamond (V,4) on the South Buttress of Garbh Choire Mor on Ben Alder. Until this week, only one other winter party is known to have climbed on this remote 200m-high buttress. (Photo Simon Richardson)
Ben Alder was a natural choice for anyone looking for classic Scottish winter climbing last weekend. Its huge eastern corries are renowned for holding snow blown from the extensive plateau area, and the recent thaw and freeze were perfect for stabilising the snow. It is easy to have too much snow on Ben Alder however, (on both the crags and the approach), and since the mountain lies 14km (as the crow flies) from the nearest road, this is a serious consideration.
On a hunch, Roger Webb and I decided to visit the South Buttress of Garbh Choire. This crag has been on my hit list for over 20 years, and I was rather envious when the emerging team of Malcolm Bass and Simon Yearsley made two visits to the South Buttress with J.Clamp in March 1996 and added four fine-looking routes to the cliff. This was the first time anyone had climbed on the buttress in winter, and to my knowledge their routes are unrepeated, and nobody has climbed on the cliff since.
There are good reasons for the neglect of Garbh Coire’s South Buttress. It stands proud of the main corries and lies a little lower and strips more easily in a thaw. It is also a longer walk, and on the way you pass under the enticing Alderwand face in Garbh Coire Beag, which (quite understandably) has attracted the majority of the climbing attention on the mountain to date.
Roger and I left Dalwhinnie early on Sunday morning (January 15) and by daybreak we were looking across to a wintry South Buttress. As expected the gully lines were full of snow, but as a bonus, the more shaded north-east side of the buttress had caught a little of Thursday’s snow that had fallen across nearby Creag Meagaidh. Back in 1996, the fledgling Bass-Yearsley machine had very effectively scooped up the major lines on the cliff, but there was one remaining unclimbed feature – the impressive barrel-shaped buttress to the right of Raeburn’s Gully.
The buttress is defended by schist slabs at its base, so we decided to climb up into a steep overhung niche in the hope that a hidden through-route would take us through the steep lower section. Our optimism was not completely misplaced, as we could see accumulated snow in the base of the niche that had to come from somewhere, but even though no hidden tunnel appeared, a steep groove behind a tower led us up into a series of icy grooves.
Five pitches later we thought it was all over, but a short final headwall loomed with tricky chimney and we emerged on top of the buttress with the sky turning red as the sun set behind us. We had enjoyed a classic Scottish winter outing, but our day was far from over. We still had to return 24km back to the car!
