16 pints and the CMD

Day 2 with Ian and Steve working for Adventure Peaks, we went to Ben Nevis to find ground a little bit more scrambly. We headed in towards the head wall of Coire Leis and picked our way up steepening snowy ramps, of about grade 1, on the north east to gain direct access to the arete of Carn Mor Dearg fame. The guys performed excellently on their second outing on snow. Especially as they had had 8 pints each the night before, which they confessed to me on the way down. No wonder they were sweating so much on the way in.
Reasonable snow cover exists and whilst nice and firm in the shade of the head wall, anything in the sun is very soft.
We continued on to the summit, past the little Brenva Face which was shedding much of it's load, and down the Red Burn which gave the best bum slide I have ever had. It's like a flume and we shed around 400 m in 5 minutes. Caution required here as time goes on though as the snow bridges over the stream will be on their way out soon.