Last great icefall climbed on Ben Nevis by Greg Boswell, Hamish Frost, Guy Robertson

Greg Boswell, Hamish Frost and Guy Robertson have made the first ascent of what Scottish winter climbing expert Simon Richardson has described as "the last great unclimbed icefall on Ben Nevis", namely the magnificent lefthand drip on the Little Brenva Face.

The icefall froms sporadically and in February 2013 Dave MacLeod and Andy Nelson climbed the righthand fang which they reached via mixed terrain, calling it The Snotter. The lefthand fang had remained unclimbed and, acting on a tip-off from Steve Holmes who had noticed that this had come into condition, the trio climbed the line on the 6th of March.

Writing on his IG account, Boswell explained "It was climbed 99% on ice, apart from the odd bridging out foot on rock. I gained the massive ice tooth from the icy left wall and proceeded to teeter my way up, with a 20m run-out section into the exposure ridden abyss, as I wasn’t keen to place any screws incase the whole thing detached!"

Fear Factory has been graded WI6R "as the Scottish ice system didn’t really work for such an out of the ordinary route."

Links: FB Greg Boswell, IG Greg Boswell, gregboswell.co.uk, www.scottishwinter.com
Greg thanks: SCARPA, Petzl, Sunto, RAB, Leki, Lowe Alpine, Edelweiss, Sea2Summit, Cab9