We were looking forward to blue skies and sunshine but we got low cloud and snow. However as the Northern Corries are very quiet at the moment we wandered in and had the whole of Aladdin's Buttress to ourselves.
Despite the fairly deep soft snow on the approach slopes, the snow on Patey's Route was great for climbing on with snow ice now in the grooves and on the ledges. The third chimney pitch also had some good ice for axes and crampons though still not thick enough for ice screws. The two chokestone pitches including the crux have just enough ice to use though they are still poorly built up and harder than normal - being very technical they are well protected and really great fun!
The snow and ice buildup in the Cairngorms is looking great and with a brief thaw and the forecast prolonged freeze over Easter winter looks set to continue for a while yet.
I was hoping to video the whole climb and post it on the Blog but unfortunately the cameras video clip setting was accidentally set to small - and they are really tiny...!
I was hoping to video the whole climb and post it on the Blog but unfortunately the cameras video clip setting was accidentally set to small - and they are really tiny...!
More details at http://www.marmotte.co.uk/blog/diary
No comments:
Post a Comment