We Wanted To Go Up Bidean Nam Bian

Adventure Peaks

Today I was with Ian Oldham, Barry, Hanne and Peter. Day 4 of the Winter skills course. We wanted to go up Bidean really, but we had to consider the weather - which was forecasting strong (50mph) winds, heavy rain for most of the day and wet snow instabilities, with additional wet slab deposited overnight (cat 3). We decided to keep out of gullies and with tired legs we kept off Bidean and planned a Stob Coire nan Lochan circuit taking in the Zig Zags en route..

We all enjoyed the Zig Zags (a spot of wet rock climbing) and moved on to the ridge. The first photo shows Barry enjoying one of the first rocky climbing sections. In the later section of the ridge we moved into crampon action and kept to the hardest line on the rocky ridge. The secoond photo shows Peter enjoying exposure, with Hanne and Ian close behind (Barry had disappeared off ahead somewhere).

We looked at navigation at the top.

Ken you were missed today..

Well done guys today.

We saw lots of teams out. I saw Sam Leary leading Dorsal Arete topping out. Several teams led NC gully. Nobody went into SC gully. All the buttresses looked loose and about to fall apart.