 |
| A climbing team of 3 backing off from Aladdin's Buttress |
Today I was again with the group of 6 from Edinburgh Uni Hill Walking Club (Alex, Briony, Tonje, Stuart, Douglas, Justin), working on the
MC of S Winter Skills weekend at
Glenmore Lodge. We headed into Coire an t-Sneachda in very blowy conditions - and about the coldest windchill I've had this winter. We met about 5 climbing teams heading out of the Coire. One team retreated from the snow slopes below the Mess of Pottage - wise! We saw another team trying to climb on Aladdin's Buttress, but eventually retreated. We heard climbing calls from somewhere on Aladdin's Buttress too, perhaps Aladdin's Mirror Direct - we saw climbers at that belay.
 |
| Aladdin's Buttress, Fluted Buttress and the Goat Track - the snow slopes all loaded with slab |
We made our way to the flat ice (which was in excellent frozen exposed condition) for some crampon training. After a bit of coaching and new confidence the team started the journey up the neve towards the Fiacaill Ridge notch.
 |
| Douglas with Fiacaill Buttress behind |
On the Fiacaill Buttress climbers were climbing the Couloir, and Invernookie - several teams on each.
 |
| Hard neve below Fiacaill Buttress |
 |
| Climbers on Fiacaill Couloir and Invernookie |
 |
| Dave Haygarth with his 2 climbing clients at the notch on the Fiacaill Ridge |
 |
| Dave about to head off down into Coire an t-Sneachda |
 |
| A final bumslide towards the end of the day |
At the end of a great journey, we looked at ice axe arresting to complete all the objectives that the team wanted to look at this weekend. Great company - thanks for a great weekend.
 |
| The lower section of Fiacaill Ridge in the background |
We found lots of patches of unconsolidated slab on our journey today, with unstable layers and easy shearing. There was a small patch of slab about 10cm thick that we couldn't avoid on the neve up towards the notch on the ridge, but a determined front point easily penetrated through to the neve below. Even the lower section of the ridge had patches of unconsolidated slab, which we were able to work around.
