Limited snow but good ice building in the Corries

Quite a busy day in the Cairngorm's with lots of routes being climbed in unusually icy conditions.... :-) A good winters day out despite me suffering from a cold and just wanting to move to keep warm!
There's limited snow depth but surprisingly good ice build-up on many routes, including some of the popular low grade ice routes! A number of folk out including John L soloing the icier gullies. The big easy snow gullies on NW aspects still have limited snow build-up compared to the last two years, so no ski descents down Jacob's Ladder or Aladdin's Couloir yet - however the NE aspects are now much improved with Cairngorm's Point Five or Half a Gully looking skiable!
Still very much early season conditions so grades will need to be treated with a pinch of salt - some are easier, some the same and some much harder! The recent wet weather  has provided a good water feed for ice build-up on the drainage and weep lines.
In Coire an t-Sneachda the westerly aspects have been scoured with buttresses quite black although with a white marbling of ice in the grooves and corners. Photo of a rather black 'White Magic' here!

Over on the higher Coire an Lochain the buttresses are looking much whiter and more rimed. The plateau is scoured and icy with deep drifts in some sheltered hollows. Climbing conditions range from a mix of slabby powder, some neve and some quite thick ice. Protection is tricky due to iced up cracks and fairly sharp crampons and axes will make the climbing more pleasant on even the rocky mixed routes!
It's worth mentioning that with the icy conditions under foot and with the exposed rocky run outs, poor crampon work our slipping is not an option.
A few of the routes we saw being climbed include, The Message, Hidden Chimney, Central (L&R), Runnel, Crotched Gully, Grooved Rib, Red Gully, Fingers Ridge. Invernookie, Fiacaill Ridge with John H and Dave on The Healing to check out the Hurting ;-)
Mark C was out again on the other side of the plateau on Scorpion! He some good links to other routes being climbed there as well as photos of Loch Avon and the Hell's Lum area. For more details see Mark's blog here

Cold and bright...

Xmas quackers on a snowy Sunday!

 

Nicer day than expected with some folk out skiing too!
A few pictures and videos on the Facebook page - please hit the like button if you want to view all the Facebook updates and video clips ;-)

More snow and winter climbing in the Cairngorms!

Pretty stormy with horizontal snow and blizzards outside my cottage this evening. The forecast is for significant snow over the next few days, so winter is definitely here and conditions especially in the mountains will change rapidly!!
A number of the harder mixed routes have been climbed over the past few days with conditions on Friday reported as being good for the higher and harder routes in Coire an Lochain. 


You can see some amazing photos on Pete Macpherson UKC Gallery at http://www.ukclimbing.com/photos/author.html?id=54636 including Friday's ascent of 'Nocando Crack' with Guy Robertson and Martin Moran.


Despite good conditions for the hard winter rock routes the conditions and build-up on the easier lines below 4/5 and especially in the gullies was poor. The good news is that with the current weather forecasts the snow and ice build-up will improve significantly over the coming week...

Winter climbing conditions in the Cairngorms...

My SD memory card seems to have packed in so no photos from IN Coire an t-Sneachda.
Fortunately I had another camera with me and took a few pictures before we walked into the coire before it's battery died!!!
Generally the snow cover in Coire an Lochain was a lot better than Coire an t-Sneachda which was pretty thin apart from on the path, stream and on a few  select sheltered NE aspects.
The Fiacaill Buttress area had the best cover in Coire an t-Sneachda with the other aspects blacker, more patchy and no doubt icy and verglassed.
The turf isn't properly frozen and there's very little decent snow bulidup in the gullies. AFAIC none of the gullies, icefalls or mixed routes graded less than 4 are really worth doing yet... It's to remain cold, snowy and stormy at times. By early next week the buildup and weather looks promising...!
See Mark C's blog report from Coire an Lochain today which has some good photos taken when climbing Central Crack route here
Again in Coire an lochain as expected with strong south westerlies the best cover of windslab was on the sheltered NE aspects where cornices were forming at the tops of climbs!

Trek & Mountain magazine winter mountaineering article!

A nice surprise - Fi's just received an email from Carron saying that our advanced Winter Mountaineering course get a mention in the latest issue 23 of Trek & Mountain magazine. 

A PDF of Scottish Winter Skills article can now be viewed  here (3.31 Mb).

We're running several of these courses throughout the winter season into Easter 2012 including this Christmas and New Year.

We still have a couple of places available on the 27th-31st December 2011 and on the 2nd-6th January 2012 as well as places on the five day intro Winter Skills courses.