Thought the East Ridge of Beinn a’ Chaorainn (a ‘fine 300m Grade II scramble’) looked like a good choice for today with fresh snow loading things up and any gullies that might have attracted me for a solo mountaineering day likely avalanche traps, but really can’t remember when I last found so much deep snow on a ridge! So, OK, it was rarely over knee-deep except in drifts, but so consistently soft at that (the photos just don’t do it justice) that much excavation was needed on the steeper steps to work out what (if anything) I was trying to stand on. Which varied between flat rock (good), steep rock (not so good when you can’t see it properly), some harder snow (OK), turfy steps (good) and short cuts to Australia (no, just made that one up to stress the ‘lucky dip’ character of it all!), but contributed no end to a hard-working ‘short’ day at good value for a ‘scramble’. Nice little snow apexes up much of the ridge too, honed to a sharp angle but not actually corniced on either side. And a near-whiteout on top for some navigation practice to get off again. So maybe a perfect day given current needs?
Yikes. Way too scary for me.
Comment by Debs M-C — 7 January 2011 @ 9:11 pm