Glissading is the cause of many accidents. This smooth slide downwards over hard snow, with the axe used as brake and steering pole, is exhilarating and highly convenient; far preferable to climbing down rocks or jolting over frozen grass and scree at the end of the day. But the most important thing about it is to be able to stop. The first instruction Lees gave his men in winter climbing was not glissading or cutting steps, but stopping after a fall. Glissading itself is not dangerous, but it can be fatal if the climber is unable to stop himself above a drop or before he loses control.

Some mountaineers maintain that no slope should be glissaded unless it is known to the climber. Others go farther and say a slope should never be glissaded unless the climber has climbed it that day, since conditions change so rapidly with temperature and weather. Nor is it correct to say one may glissade safely where there is a clear run-out: no pitches and no protruding rocks or debris, for many climbers who have lost control on snow-slopes have sustained more and worse wounds from their own axes than from the fall itself.

The safest method is to practise falling and stopping continually, then to glissade on easy slopes before venturing on steeper snow. Before becoming proficient one has two choices in descending the more difficult slopes. The first is to glissade one at a time, roped and belayed; the second: to kick or cut steps down, which is slow and laborious but safe.

There are other ways of coming to grief in strange gullies. One may be climbing down conventionally and slowly but - in winter particularly - this may simply lead you into danger if you are in the wrong gully. The climber on a strange mountain may find it almost impossible in mist and darkness to distinguish the way down. On all cliffs there is a quick way down and a long way round. The quick way - often down a gully - is always the harder and in winter it is actually a climb in reverse. It is more difficult than its ascent because going down is harder than going up; more dangerous because climbers are not fresh at the end of the day, therefore less likely to take precautions.

So a honeymoon couple, descending the cliff under Stob Coire nan Lochan in mistake for Broad Gully, which lies at the side, came to grief: the wife slipped and was killed. Had they been in Broad Gully a slip would probably not have resulted in a fatal injury, since the latter is shallow, snow-filled, and with a good run-out: a known glissade. As it was, they were descending the snow-slope above a three hundred foot cliff.

On Ben Nevis the easy ways down, for an experienced party, are the numbered gullies: 4, 3, 5, 1 (Tower Gully), 2, in ascending order of difficulty. Continue to page 4