Beinn a' Chaorainn, East Ridge

East Ridge of Beinn a' Chaorainn

Half way up the ridge

Nearing the top


Terrific scenery from the summit. Can you spot Ben Nevis?

Lena navigating off from the southern summit

Today the avalanche hazard was category 3 on all aspects in Glencoe and Lochaber high in the hills. Wanting to avoid all prone slopes and work within a 9-4pm door to door window, I decided that the perfect venue for Lena's day 2 would be the East Ridge of Beinn a' Chaorainn. The route takes a ridge up and later a ridge down, in theory a good way to avoid loosely bonded windslab on avalanche prone slopes. At the summits we had great visibility and were able to see over to Ben Nevis. With the visibility we could see the large cornices that have built up on the Eastern aspects. On our ridge down we found pockets of poorly bonded slab, which was releasing easily. Tomorrow will be another day to choose venues wisely to keep safe..