John, Doug, David and I were out climbing with Falkirk Community Trust today. Given the recent winds we opted for the walk over to the Loch Avon Basin and had an excellent day.
David and I opted to nip around to Stag Rocks and climbed Truly, Madly, Chimbley. The first pitch had good, firm snow, ice and turf. However, the chimney/cave pitch had a deep, hollow layer of unconsolidated sugary snow. I decided on a rising traverse out left below the chimney, which gave a delicate variation pitch at a similar grade and rejoined the original route above the through route.
The recent strong winds have scoured exposed areas of the plateau, which are very icey. There are large areas of hard wind slab on sheltered locations, particularly North through to East aspects and careful route choice is required. Turf is well frozen where exposed, but soft where buried by snow.
