What do you do on a bank holiday Sunday with good weather and conditions? Nettle and I chose to go for an adventure away from the crowds. From the A9 we carried our skis a short distance before skinning up the track to pt. 902m between A’Bhuidheanach and Carn na Caim. We then skied down towards Meall Odhar Mor and dropped in to the delightful Cama’ Choire. This feature is more of a steep sided stream line than a normal coire.
Based on some vague memories from a trip in 2006 and some waterfalls shown on the map we were hoping to find some ice to climb. After descending the coire for a while and having to bypass a couple of steep steps we poked our noses in to one of the side streams and found what we were looking for.
The stream gave three good icey pitches (the longest steep section being about 25m) with some easy ground in between and then a solo out of the top. The ice was good, but quite hollow sounding in places and care was required around plunge pools. I’d guess it’s a new line at around Grade III. The climbing was generally escapable on to the sides of the stream, but is in a pretty remote location.
Once the angle in the gully eased back we put on skis and skinned up the gully and then around to A’Bhuidheanach Bheag before heading back to pt. 902m. The day finished with a glorious ski down excellent snow on the South side of Coire nan Cisteachan.
Snow conditions are currently excellent for ski touring in the area. There are some areas of windslab in sheltered locations and some icey scoured areas. Turf in the area was frozen from road level and there’s a fair bit of ice around. There’s also a lot of surface hoar, which will form a weak layer if more snow falls or is blown on top of it. Below freezing all day. Light South-East wind, sunshine and cloud, but no precipitation during the day.
