A cancellation meant I was free today to go off on a little solo adventure. I started from Tyndrum and headed out past Cononish and up to Coire na Saobhaidhe, Beinn Chuirn’s North-East coire. A brief break in the clouds allowed me to see the crag and there were surprisingly large cornices, which have survived the thaw of two weeks ago. The cornices were over all the existing routes, see SMC Journal 2009 for details. I, therefore, climbed a line just left of the main gully, which finished up a barrel shaped buttress, this provided the crux.
I then headed up to the summit of Beinn Chuirn before returning over Meall Odhar, Drochaid an Droma and Sron nan Colan and descending to Tyndrum via the path just west of the old lead mine workings.
It was raining in Tyndrum, but above 350m this was falling as snow on an easterly wind. The turf was frozen from valley up and there’s still a lot of ice around. Older snow is generally very firm, but there are some crusty areas. Recent snow has accumulated in sheltered locations and there is wind slab around, particularly on westerly aspects. The crags in the coire were well rimed.
