Sunny ice bouldering after climbing on Fiacaill Ridge..

Today it was just Rob and myself as Vish had aggravated an old running injury and needed to give his knee a much needed rest.
As Rob was booked on some Alpine courses in Chamonix, I suggested we take a rope for a more sporting ascent onto the Cairngorm, Ben MacDui plateau.
We had a fun day taking the Fiacaill Ridge Direct crest onto the plateau before descending back to Coire an t-Sneachda via Windy Col, for some sunny ice bouldering!
Looking at the weather forecast we were expecting low cloud for most of the day, but visibility was much better than expected as we headed into Coire an t-Sneachda.
So it was round the back of Fiacaill Ridge and up some broken ground to the col to avoid the strong gusty NW winds and pockets of windslab.
Once on the main ridge it was surprisingly calm as we climbed up the crest taking in the most interesting line at Grade 1/2 and using alpine rope techniques.
Once on the plateau the winds again made there appearance, so we skirted round the back to get as much shelter as possible before reaching and descending from Windy Col on rock hard neve.
Once we descended out the wind it was very pleasant and we ended up ice bouldering on the massive old block of cornice debris in the sun..!
Lots more photos on the Talisman Facebook photo album here.