Pamela hasn’t been out winter climbing for over 3 years, so the aim of today was a nice, fun and relaxed reintroduction. We decided on Coire Creagach, a minor crag near Drumochter developed by Davy Virdee and pals. Additionally, we didn’t top out in order to stay in the shelter of the coire and below the very cold south-east wind.
A pleasant day was had climbing Easy Gully and a steep icy step on it’s side wall; Gully II and Lost Chock Groove descending each time via Easy Gully. The ground was frozen from the road with ice in any boggy sections. Some good ice was developing on the crag. The snow level in the coire started on the slope below the crag, circa 850m. The snow was all very solid refrozen old snow. The snow forecast tomorrow will load in to the coire on top of this layer and is likely to represent an avalanche risk. There are already big cornices above north and east facing slopes, this is worth bearing in mind if there’s a thaw or additional loading. There was existing avalanche debris in the coire from cornice collapse earlier in the week.
