Original Route and Auricle

Yet another windy scottish winter day and we sneak out to see if we might get chance to tacle fingers ridge or atleast steal another route before christmas. We kept the options fairly open as the forecast was for increasingly stronger winds. In the end we opted for Original route in Coire an T-Sneachda, which was a brilliant choice with westerly winds, once up the first pitch you are sheltered all the way to the top by a corner and the rest of aladdins buttress to the right. We were excited to find some neve, the first of the season, so Josh got to swing his axes into something solid for the first time.

The clouds breaking to reveal a wintering looking coire.

Me on the first pitch, some nice neve up the corner

 

Josh following up the final tricky corner.

 

Auricle

30th of December, Straight back from a cozy visit to Devon for christmas and feeling the need to burn off some mince pies. I teamed up with Dave Sharpe to follow up Auricle in Coire an Lochan. This route was a little above my grade for leading, but a great oportunity to second. Quite a tough little number, i didnt manage many photos as I was attentively belaying. It rained all the way on the walk in until the bottom of the coire but the temperatures dropped and then it snow persistently all day, peas soup and a bit of careful navigation required on the walk off. The snow created trouble for other teams trying to top out through unstable cornices.

 

Dave on the crux pitch, steeper and harder than it looks from the bottom. Some thin moves on poor hooks or a very long reach.