Adam and I went over to Hell’s Lum on Monday and climbed The Chancer (a route I’ve wanted to do for twenty years). A very attractive ice pillar had formed on the left hand side of the exit from the gully of Hell’s Lum, soÃÂ I chose to lead this as the approach to the main pitch. I’m glad Adam lead the main pitch as I found it very steep and pumpy and parted company with the ice at one point.ÃÂ There’s photos on Adam’s site “Hughe’s Mountaineering”.
After the Chancer we had a look at the Cascades over on Stag Rocks, but as it was softening up a lot in the sun we followed a line up snow/ice combining the bottom of Auld Nick and the top of Escalator. There was plenty of ice around on the crag with teams on Brimstone Grooves, Kiwi Gully the Sneer and another party behind us on The Chancer.
Euan will probably report later, but we bumped in to him and Greg in Aviemore and they’d been over to Carn Etchachan and climbed Nathrach Dubh, reporting it to be good.
The southerly wind had moved snow out of Coire Raibert and Domhain making the approaches down in to the Loch Avon basin fine. Snow had been building on the northern aspects with probably further accumulation overnight Monday/Tuesday of wetter snow.
