After climbing in Glencoe with Euan yesterday John and I decided to head to the Cairngorms today for some snowed up rock. We climbed Honeypot on the Mess of Pottage in Coire an t-Sneachda.
There’d been quite a lot of fresh snow in the Cairngorms yesterday and as this is unconsolidated it made for a fairly arduous approach and a lot of cleaning of fresh snow on the lower angled sections of the route, particularly the rising traverse section of the first pitch. The turf under the powder was well frozen, but there are very few moves on turf on the route. Cracks on the route aren’t yet heavily iced, so gear was good once loose snow and rime had been cleared. The route isn’t banked out yet and is probably an overall grade harder as per the description in Scottish Winter Climbs. A good route with interest on all three pitches.
Not busy in the coire with only one other team on the Mess of Pottage on what looked like The Hybrid. No wind to speak of and clear skies all day.
