Euan, Ivor, Nettle and I were out climbing in the Cairngorms today. We visited Creagan Coire Cha-no. The buttresses weren’t rimed, so the steeper rocky lines weren’t justifiable today. However, the turf was well frozen, old neve was very solid and there was snow on the easier angled lines.
We had a very pleasant day climbing a number of routes and getting to know some bits of the crag we hadn’t visited before. Euan and I started with Captain Fairweather, whilst Nettle and Ivor climbed Plasma Gully with a possible new steep finish on it’s left. Nettle and Ivor then climbed Captain Fairweather, whilst Euan and I checked out the North end of the crag and climbed a possible new line up the gully immediately left of Once Were Alpinists and finished with a quick solo of Wide Gully.
It was well below freezing at the crag all day, with clear skies until late in the afternoon. Southerly / South-westerly winds were very light early on, but increased during the day with some transport of soft snow on to the sheltered areas of the crag rim e.g. the top of Wide Gully. Unfortunately, it looks like freezing levels are heading above the summits during the day tomorrow. Euan has put some more photos from today on the Climbnow Facebook page and Nettle has put some on the Routes Mountain Sport Facebook page.
