I know the blog’s been a little quiet over the last couple of days, I have been getting out though but a lack of WiFi and a dead camera battery has made uploading good blog posts a little tricky. I’m writing this on my phone so excuse the spelling..
I’ve ended up climbing in Coire an-t Sneachda for a couple of days, which isn’t my favorite crag but it is very convenient and a good option when climbing partners are fatigued or the weather’s bad.
On Monday Lou, Tomas and I walked in and headed up to Pot of Gold which is a good 4 pitch mixed route at V, 6. It was in good icy condition and was a really enjoyable day, especially the banter on the belay which is a definite plus side to climbing as a three.
It was nice to give Lou her first grade 5 as well.
I woke up on Tuesday to some strong winds and plenty of snow sat on top of the van so it wasn’t a hard decision to have an admin day in aviemore.
Today dawned a lot clearer so Lou and I were up early and heading back up to the cairngorm car park, but we were delayed yet again by ice on the ski road, so we had to wait about an hour and a half before being let up the road. Luckily there were a few friends who were waiting so it was quite social in the end!
It was a proper Scottish day by the time we got into the coire, loads of wind and spindrift getting blown up the crag in a patagonian style. We went and climbed the “messenger” V,6 which was great but challenging in the wind.
We topped out onto the plateau right into the wind and it almost made us crawl back into the coire to get our sacks, probably gusting 80mph on the tops.
That was enough for us, especially as Lou looked like she was going down with the lurgy so it was goggles on and back to the van.
The forecast looks good for a couple of days, and apart from some dodgy slopes around there should be some more climbing to be had…
