Mountain climbers mystified by blood curdling scream
When a "bloodcurdling screaming" was heard on Ben Nevis on Thursday, I feared the very worst.
When I winter climb I like to listen. I listen hard.
There are so many useful cues that the ear can pick up on. Cues that tell you what's going right and what's going wrong.
There are sounds that comfort the winter climber, like the rising tone of a piton being seated into a welcoming crack.
There's that thud an ice axe makes as it vibrates in really good, sticky ice. The clip as a karabiner snaps shut, holding the rope that will stop you if you fall.
Then there are the sounds that warn us. The whoomf of windslab on a slope that's primed to avalanche. Or the skittering of crampons on bare rock in a desperate search for ice.
And then there are the sounds you definitely don't want to hear. Sounds you wish you could forget.
Awful sound
In recent weeks, we've seen some of the best ice climbing conditions in years in the west of Scotland, especially on Ben Nevis.
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