Yesterday Anne Petty and I took a slight chance on an indifferent forecast to traverse the Aonach Eagach, which she’s been looking forward to doing for some time. And it was alternately cloudy and clear, showery and dry, but thankfully never thundery! While damp rock always makes things more awkward (not least when the holds are as polished as those on this ridge), we went over just about everything (as I usually do, even when some of the smallest ‘pinnacles’ are avoidable), Anne appeared to be quite comfortable and the rope stayed in the bag.
With several other parties on the ridge including a family with a dog (well camouflaged against the rock in that cloudy first photo), we hope everyone had a good day and the dog managed all the more technical sections OK!
Sadly, despite hoping that everyone had a good day, someone was killed descending from the ridge that evening. It was the second fatality in five weeks on the Clachaig Gully descent, and could even have been one of the figures we saw back on Am Bodach as we completed the ridge.
http://www.grough.co.uk/magazine/2009/07/19/second-ridge-walkers-death-prompts-safety-calls
Comment by admin — 21 July 2009 @ 2:21 pm