The White Room
Posted: Thu May 10, 2012 12:59 pmMid week sneaky peak time. A nice wee plan suggested by Ron to tackle the two Aonachs then drop to the bealach between the Aonachs & Carn Mor Dearg. Summit CMD, then around the arête to Nevis, zig zag path down & branch off back to the start which was to be the Nevis range car park. If you use the gondola to get up this is a 20k walk with only 1500 meters of ascent.
The weather forecast was not great, but after a few texts on Monday we decided to go for it, with a back up of taking the ridge from CMD down if conditions were not right on the arête.
Picked up Mark, then meet up with Andy & George. Bacon butty stop in Tyndrum before pushing on to meet Ron at the car park. Coffee in the café whilst waiting for the gondola to open (currently 10am).
The gondola took us smoothly straight into the clag. Followed the good path towards the view point & then struck a line up avoiding the ski lifts. Patchy snow at 700 meters soon became a complete blanket sometimes knee deep. It was obvious that the arête would be no go, so instead of struggling across we settled on doing the two Aonachs & then heading back the way we came. Once on the plateau of Aonach Mor we had a bit of trouble locating the cairn, but found it! We then dropped down towards the bealach between the two & a cairn marking the route to CMD. The ridge to Aonach Beag narrows & we found a wee hollow in the snow to sit for lunch before heading up. The next section was steep & rocky with a couple of awkward moves for those of us with short legs. Steep enough for axes but the snow too soft for crampons.
It then levels out to the summit. Photo call & back down we go. Ascending Aonach Mor again. From the cairn we took a bearing straight to the top of the ski runs & from there we slid almost all the way to the café. Top fun. The last 100 meters of descent we had views & sods law meant that as we drove home we saw every summit from the Mamores to Ben Lomond clear.
A fun day if you do not mind seeing anything.
Thanks to Mark & Andy for some of the photos.
The weather forecast was not great, but after a few texts on Monday we decided to go for it, with a back up of taking the ridge from CMD down if conditions were not right on the arête.
Picked up Mark, then meet up with Andy & George. Bacon butty stop in Tyndrum before pushing on to meet Ron at the car park. Coffee in the café whilst waiting for the gondola to open (currently 10am).
The gondola took us smoothly straight into the clag. Followed the good path towards the view point & then struck a line up avoiding the ski lifts. Patchy snow at 700 meters soon became a complete blanket sometimes knee deep. It was obvious that the arête would be no go, so instead of struggling across we settled on doing the two Aonachs & then heading back the way we came. Once on the plateau of Aonach Mor we had a bit of trouble locating the cairn, but found it! We then dropped down towards the bealach between the two & a cairn marking the route to CMD. The ridge to Aonach Beag narrows & we found a wee hollow in the snow to sit for lunch before heading up. The next section was steep & rocky with a couple of awkward moves for those of us with short legs. Steep enough for axes but the snow too soft for crampons.
It then levels out to the summit. Photo call & back down we go. Ascending Aonach Mor again. From the cairn we took a bearing straight to the top of the ski runs & from there we slid almost all the way to the café. Top fun. The last 100 meters of descent we had views & sods law meant that as we drove home we saw every summit from the Mamores to Ben Lomond clear.
A fun day if you do not mind seeing anything.
Thanks to Mark & Andy for some of the photos.
- A brief view of the glen between the Aonachs & Carn Mor Dearg
- Patchy snow from 700 meters
- The white room!
- Aonach Mor
- Not that way
- Lunch Hollow
- Ascent of Aonach Beag
- Aonach Beag
- Heading back
- Sliding Time!!
