“Smoking the White Owl” had been on my list ever since I’d heard of it since moving up to Fort William 5 years ago. However due to its low altitude and work etc etc, this was the first time it had been in condition and I was free to climb it since then. Although known as “Smoking the White Owl” perhaps its proper name should be; Finnisg-aig falls, which is the drainage line it climbs. There are lots of opinions about the name for this climb but Im chosing to use the more fun one, because why not!?
Sarah and I cycled in from Nevis range car park, taking the big forestry road to where the Allt nah-Aire crosses underneath it, stashed the bikes and walked up to the base through the forestry. We had heard horror stories of this approach but were pleasantly surprised at how easy it was, reaching the the base of where we were going to start in about an hour from the car.
Looking up we could see 2 teams already established on the route and knowing we didn’t want to be behind teams on it we took our time, having a snack and racking up before setting off. The ice had formed 3 distinct pitches with the lower falls not in climbing condition just yet. We pitched from an obvious ledge up a ramp to just underneath a rocky buttress, on stretch, even for the 60’s, then a short 15m pitch saw us to the base of the final steeper pitch.
Here we caught up with the team of two ahead and realised it was Steve and Damien, who we knew from work, so had a nice shouted catch up whilst Steve led off and I made a belay off to the left so as not to be below anything he dropped down.
Steve and Damien climbed off and we tackled the final pitch which had a variety of lines on it but we had a line somewhere between III/IV, the ice was good for screws, apart from right near the top where it turned slightly cruddy.
We had been pretty surprised and impressed at how un-windy it had been, given the strength of the wind in the forecast but topping out were met with strong gusts and buffeting. We descended, about 50m to the east down an easy angled slope, returning back to the approach path for a sandwich and gear sort before heading back to the bikes. We were back at the van in roughly 15 minutes and even managed a quick run down one of the blues on Nevis range (with care). Great to get this in and in good condition!
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