Just had a couple of good days in some interesting weather. Yesterday, Friday, I was out in Coire an t-Sneachda with Mac and Steve. The wind was forecast to be fairly strong, so we opted for a route where we could abseil off and not have to deal with conditions on the plateau. We climbed the first pitch of The Prodigal Principal via a mixture of good ice, thin delicate ice and some balancy mixed moves.
The ice on this route had significantly reduced from earlier in the week after Thursday’s thaw and it was quite tricky on the day and included getting over a small bergshcrund to access the route. We then moved into the top section of Doctor’s Choice; the lower section from the cave looked delicate on the day, but the upper corner had excellent ice and neve.
From the top of the route we moved left and abseiled down in to Alladin’s Couloir.
On the walk out we were asked to help out with an injured walker, who’d taken a tumble on The Goat Track, so we headed back in and assisted with the evacuation. Great to see a number of teams mucking in to help out and also the guys from Cairngorm Mountain, which made for a fairly swift exit for all concerned.
Today the freezing level was due to head above the summits with rain and strong West and South-West winds. Euan, Duncan, Scott, Steve, Tina and I headed for The East Ridge of Beinn a’Chaorainn. It was a pretty soggy walk in, but there was good firm snow on the ridge and the turf was frozen, which made for a good if damp climb. Visibility on the top was poor, so we dropped West then South-west from the summit and then back along the stream line to Roughburn.
Freezing level above the summits today with rain at summit level. Winds were lower than forecast whilst we were on the hill, but we were back to the car by mid-afternoon. I forgot my camera today, so no photos I’m afraid. At least two other members of the team had cameras with them, but chose not to get them out; it was that sort of day.
