I was out today with John and a Falkirk Community Trust Outdoors Introduction to Winter Climbing team of Alistair, Bobbie, Matt and Russell. We headed for the North-East Coire of Beinn an Dothaidh near Bridge of Orchy. After walking in we did a quick session on removing rock and turf gear before heading up the bottom part of West Gully and climbing Stairway to Heaven. This route was in excellent condition with all the turf well frozen, a covering of fresh snow from Saturday and even some ice.
We descended via the ridge west of the coire with light snow cover down to around 500m and the ground being fairly well frozen right back to the car park.
The major gully lines are still very lean with the approach up West Gully on snow covered rock and turf until level with the bottom of Stairway to Heaven, where there was some older firm snow and a building accumulation of wind blown snow on a strong south-easterly wind. Taxus looked very lean with mostly soft snow in the gully. However, the buttress routes that don’t require ice looked in good condition.
