Winter Climbing

Matt walking in to Coire an t-Sneachda

We decided to join the weekend masses today and brave the wind in Coire an t-Sneachda. The weather turned out to be okay, and visibility was generally very good. We decided to go to the hopefully sheltered corner of the coire - Fiacaill Buttress.

Mess of Pottage today

Aladdin's Buttress and Fluted Buttresses

Fiacaill Buttress

Matt on an opening pitch of Invernookie / The Seam

We went ot take a look at the Seam, and just at that point it seemed that 3 other teams converged on it, and 1 team abseiled in onto it! So it was time to forget that plan.

Looking over at Fluted Buttress

Some of the crouds on The Seam today. There were at least 4 teams on the route at the same point. One person dropped an axe - missed Matt by 5 metres and landed 10m from me - we managed to get the axe back to the team.

There were still teams queueing as we were walking out of the coire.

We made the obvious move away from the Seam on to Invernookie.

Looking over at the Seam and the constant action of the teams.

Matt enjoying Invernookie. Yesterday he was basking in sunshine in Oxford and walking around in a shirt..

Beaming smile on his face as we head for 0.5 gully.

Lots of snow. At points today when I went into a drift, the snow was up to my thigh.

So my day 1 of my winter is ticked and it was great. However I made the novice errors of not eating enough and allowing my hands to get cold at one point - definitely will correct that tomorrow.