It was a proper Scottish winter climbing day today with all the challenges that involves! Chris, Martin and I climbed Tower Ridge last year under blue skies and on solid crispy snow. Today we climbed NE Buttress in the white room on soft snow and got quite soggy. It was a top day.

We approached by Slingsby's Chimney which is well filled in and makes for a quick way up to the First Platform. The route has some great solid snow on it low down and very few rocks sticking out for belays. A month ago The Man Trap gave the only two technical moves on the whole route. Today there is only one due to the build up of snow at its foot. If you want some ice climbing at the weekend you might try the Minus Face. Routes on Minus Three Buttress looked good today and had the wind blowing onto them. Lots more snow fell last night and today so walking down was a real test of navigation.