I’d sort of promised Ivor a new route for his birthday last week, so today saw us out on North Craig on Mayar. We walked in from Glen Doll, however with current conditions and a bike an approach from Glen Prosen would be much quicker. From about 700m the Kilbo path has sections of steepish hard neve and walking along the ridge of the Shank of Drumfollow is probably a nicer option; we used this in descent.
Despite well frozen conditions on the approach, a forecast freezing level 200m below the crag and cloud cover keeping the sun away the crag wasn’t in great condition. There wasn’t a lot of ice around, the turf was variable and the snow soft on the lower sections. We had to settle for an easy line of I/II using soft snow ramps and turf about 50m down left of White Plains Drifter. The ramps led in 55m to a small col on the ridge like left edge of the crag, from where an easy 10m pitch lead to the top. If it’s a new line we’ll call it “68 Guns”, which is too good a name for the line, but fits with the intentions of the day. From the top of the crag we took in the summit of Mayar on the way out. A good day covering plenty of ground, if not quite what I’d hoped for.
Snow from the tree line in Glen Doll (circa 600m). Fresh and wind blown snow accumulating on North and East aspects and in sheltered areas on top of old firm snow. Lots of avalanche debris around, presumably from Sunday. There are still some very large old cornices around on North and East facing aspects and these are building again with fresh snow. Cloud most of the day above 700m. Freezing level circa 750m during the day. Some light snow showers later in the day falling as rain below 600m.
