Tower Ridge is one of several ridges protruding north east from the summit plateau of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the United Kingdom.
The ridge starts close to the Charles Inglis Clark hut below Coire Leis and terminates close to the highest point of the mountain. The normal route up Tower Ridge is a graded 3S as a scramble (the highest scrambling grade), and contains short pitches of rock climbing graded as difficult. It is one of the few mountain routes in Scotland with sufficient length and exposure to be considered Alpine in character.
In winter it is graded Scottish Grade IV, partly because most of its difficulties (in particular the Eastern Traverse and the Tower Gap), lie high up on the route.
A number of distinct features can be identified on the ridge. In ascending order, these are (page references are to the SMC's 2002 Climbers' Guide, edited by Simon Richardson [1] ):
Tower Ridge was first climbed in descent by J., E. and B. Hopkins on 3 September 1892. They had ascended it as far as the Great Tower the previous day. The first ascent and first winter ascent was Norman Collie, Godfrey Solly and J.Collier on 29 March 1894. They turned the Great Tower on the right by the Western Traverse, which is harder than the Eastern Traverse; the route normally used today. [2]
Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in Scotland, the United Kingdom and the British Isles. The summit is 1,345 metres (4,413 ft) above sea level and is the highest land in any direction for 459 miles. Ben Nevis stands at the western end of the Grampian Mountains in the Highland region of Lochaber, close to the town of Fort William.
In rock climbing, mountaineering, and other climbing disciplines, climbers give a grade to a climbing route or boulder problem, intended to describe concisely the difficulty and danger of climbing it. Different types of climbing each have their own grading systems, and many nationalities developed their own, distinctive grading systems.
Scrambling is "a walk up steep terrain involving the use of one's hands". It is an ambiguous term that lies somewhere between hiking, hillwalking, and easy mountaineering and rock climbing. Sure-footedness and a head for heights are essential. Canyoning, Gill and stream scrambling are other types of scrambling. Gill scrambling in the UK is a type of scrambling where the base rule "is to take the hardest route and the one closest to the water, straying from the streambed only when the direct way is impassable".
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