Ben Nevis reveals The Secret X 10

On 10 December Andy Turner, Steve Ashworth and Viv Scott made the first ascent of "The Secret" X 10 on Ben Nevis, Scotland. Possibly the hardest routes to be sent in such a clean and traditional style, this plum crackline to the right of Number 3 Gully had never been climbed before, amazingly not even in summer. Making the most of superb frosty conditions, the trio first climbed a difficult 35m approach pitch to get established at the base of the crack proper. Climbing leashless and on-sight, Turner then invented his way up the 70m virgin crack which the trio feel may be worth a mighty X 10 or, to put it in other words, one of the hardest and most serious winter outings not only on Ben Nevis but in the entire country.

Andy Turner kindly sent us the following report to give us some insight into their traditional approach to The Secret:


The Secret X 10 Ben Nevis by Andy Turner
"Myself and Steve drove up on the Sunday night from the English Lake District picking up Viv Scott on the way near Edinburgh. Eventually ending up in Fort William around 8pm after a terrifying car journey…Arriving in the Fort it was still raining but knowing the forecast was for it to be cold and clear the following day our hopes were still high.

Fort William has along tradition of hardcore doss houses, in the past these have been small pokey houses, generally really damp and not good for the health. But for the last couple of winter seasons we've had the pleasure of Rob Jarvis' house. An absolute palace.

After a night of luxury sleep on the kitchen floor we were walking by 6am from the north face car park. This is a 3hr walk to the base of the routes, no luxury here of lift access. Walking in in the dark we could see lights coming from the CIC hut way ahead, this sent a wee panic amongst us knowing that the line was a much eyed secret. With a quicker pace now being set we arrived at the hut to find the lights disappearing off up onto Tower Ridge, the classic ridge up to the summit.
After a quick drink in the hut we started the long walk up into Coire na Ciste. This was as the sun rose and greated us with a perfect picture of crisp white crags and plenty of lines for the picking. After the steep walk up into the bowls of Number 3 Gully we got our first sight of our objective.

Gearing up with that nervous feeling welling up inside Steve set off for the 1st pitch whilst Viv wandered around taking photos. What we thought was going to be the easy warm-up pitch had us thinking from the moment we left the ground. Steve struggled for nearly an hour to get up a horrible icy chimney to no avail. I decided to take over and take a different route. This proved slighty easier but wasnt really the warm up I was after.

Now on the belay and looking up at the crack the true steepness was obvious.
The hardest part was getting established in the base of it. With a good coating of rime on the walls and inside the crack itself both gear and rests were hard to come by. Being a little imaginative with the axes certainly helped. After getting over the first 10 metres you could relax a little but that just meant you had time to look up and see what was ahead.

The crack went from fist to finger width until eventually a hard couple of pulls landed you on a small ledge and a small respite before the last few hard pulls up a pair of twin cracks onto the plateau.

We eventually graded the climb X 10. This took along time to come to as neither of us had climbed anything that hard before. It was a complete first ascent, never climbed in summer amazingly, which makes it all the better."


VIDEO: Andy Turner on First Ascent of The Secret, Ben Nevis, by Steve Ashworth