Had an epic drive on our hands as we decided to set off for Scotland at 8pm to go winter climbing last weekend.
Had a great weekend living out of New Blue (van), very little sleep, some good and some bad climbing and generally a good old catch up.
Here are a few photos.
On day 1 we walked into Coire an't Sneachda to go try Fingers Ridge (IV,4) but after the first pitch we found the masses of snow just finding routefinding impossible. So we abseiled down and climbed a very very tenuous and thin Red Gully (II/III), which turned out to be very scary at the grade - about 5mm verglas under the thick snow!
As we topped out and walked off, my eyes met with a chap coming over the top of crotched gully... it was a look of desperation.... So Hi Duncan... from CUMC - It was us who pulled you over the top!
Saturday night was spent in Mambo's where we met Dave who had climbed Sterling Bomber (V,7) on the same day - Sterling Effort, this was on Fiacaill Butress, more steep and faces more east so not as snowy. This was followed by a beer and a few games of pool in Glenmore Lodge's Bar.
Sunday, after a damp and rough nights sleep we walked into the same Coire, hoping some lines would have been hoovered the day before. Unfortunately we were faced with more snow, soft snow and again no real objective. We thought about Invernookie (IV,5) but were feeling so tired, so thought we would try something easier.... Hidden Chimney (II/III), werent entirely sure where it went, so sprinted up Jacobs Ladder for a quick exit from the crag. This turned out to be great fun getting over the cornice!!!
Fun weekend ended in a Curry as we arrived back to Sheffield!
