The middle of February 2023, six of us went up to the Alex MacIntyre hut in Ballachulish, Glen Coe for a few days. The snowline was very high which meant that only the higher routes were in winter conditions. The most popular route with the group was No. 2 gully on Ben Nevis. Everyone did it on one day. Myles Harwood and myself did it on the first day, which was the best day for weather.
We started at the North Face car park for the long walk in to the bottom of the gully. This was mad worst by the fact that the snowline was very high and there was a lot of scrambling over boulders. The start of the gully was fairly easy with bucket steps so we did not use a rope. As we approached the cornice we caught up with another group who were pitching it. So we decided to let them go and got ready to pitch the cornice with myself leading. There was a piton in a boulder just below the cornice which I used. I also placed an ice screw in the cornice and was soon on the top, and brought Myles up to enjoy the sunshine. We went across the the summit and descended via the tourist route rather than No. 4 gully which looked to have a bit of a dodgy cornice.