SC Gully

SC Gully is the steep, deep gully in the cliff slightly right of centre. You can see a climber climbing up towards it. They got there before us (they walked in with headtorches)

Looking up pitch 1 on SC Gully from the first belay. The pitch takes the ice fall left of centre


Lena arriving at the belay after the first ice fall. Another team climbs in below to start the gully


Lena belaying as I start the thrid pitch


Looking down pitch 3. Lena pulls over the pitch 3 ice fall.


Looking down from the final run to the top

Today was forecast to have stunning weather. I woke early to see the clear sky and a full set of stars. I hoped the sky would stay clear to give a cloudless day. The clouds that developed stayed high over Glencoe and the visibility was stunning.

We parked and saw a team with headtorches high above us on the path (but no car in the car park?). We walked quickly and by the time we arrived in the basin the team had set up below SC Gully. But they were 40 mins ahead of us - so we continued on our plan to climb the gully. The route was in awesome condition. The ice was a bit chopped out by so many previous ascents, but still deep enough for screws.

The cornice at the top had a gap well developed, so the exit was easy. A terrific climb and well worth it's 3 stars.

We had a couple of hours left before Lena had to get to work, not enough time to do Twisting Gully, but time for something quick...