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Stob Coire nan Lochan
Last winter didn’t really seem to happen, I don’t seem to recall many snowy outings and winter mountaineering was limited to say the least… A brief cold snap at the start of that winter perhaps gave me false hope and I waited and waited on some nice snowy conditions to get out and about – then spring came and I was all over!!
Perhaps this is reason I have been trying to take advantage of any cold snaps this time around!! The same pattern started at the turn of winter and withy what happened last year I was perhaps thinking that every cold snap maybe the last of the winter!! Hence I have had the luck to enjoy quite a few snowy outing this season already, in fact some of the winter walking has been absolutely superb already – Garbh Bheinn on Skye being a highlight. This is also as close to mountaineering as I have got but with a decent dump of snow this week and temperatures plummeting I was hoping some of the snow pack may consolidate! The week before we had trudged half way up Beinn Chabhair before turning back as the storm closed in. The snow was unconsolidated and relatively deep and wet – something a freeze may help!!! So a few days later I met Gerry at our usual rendezvous point and we headed up the A82 towards Glencoe.
The drive up was glorious, white mountains and a clear sky promising a grand day…. We had considered curved ridge but the busy car park and thoughts of queuing made our minds up to go and have a look further down the glen… Any thought of finding a quiet spot were (understandably) quashed! All the car parks were full and we just go a space in the upper car park as we headed for Stob Coire nan Lochan (SCNL). The pink of dawn was now replaced by blue skies and as we head up the sunlight lit up the top of SCNL and across the glen the Aonach Eagach ridge was slowly lighting up as the sun rippled across its serrated top and started to make progress towards the floor of the Glen
The path was busy and soon we were donning our crampons and getting the axe out for the final pull into the corrie. It was looking superb!!A line of teams were heading up Broad Gully and a few teams could be seen on the harder buttress routes. We had discussed an amble up NC gully so headed over to have a look at it….. The snow was deep and the trench we were following indicated that there was about a foot of snow either side. Assessing the situation we soon discovered the snow t be of poor quality for a steepening gully. Most of it seemed to have fallen at once and although it at first seemed fine when we were following footprints, as soon as we left them it became apparent its wasn’t yet consolidated enough… certainly not for an ascent of NC…. So we stopped had a bite to eat and saw some footprints heading up to the west of Pinnacle Buttress to a steepening scoop. This was going to be our route to the rim of the corrie. Usually we’d have diverted to broad gully but decided on this route as neither of us had come up this way before. Unnamed but felt like a nice Grade 1 and in the upper reaches it was a grand adventure. Topping out and the white topped peaks to the west came into view. Always great to top out to a cracking view…. The weather was great and time was on our side so we took a leisurely stroll to the summit of SCNL and had another bite to eat along with many others. The views were superb as always. Given the traffic on Broad Gully, we decided against descending the gully but took a nice walk back along the corrie rim and back down to the car. It was great to meet so many people up on the mountain today, having long chat with many… great to be able to do this without having to shout over the wind!!!
Another grand day out – much fun
Ben Nevis by
Scotland's Mountains, on Flickr
on drive in:
Moon over The Buachaille by
Scotland's Mountains, on Flickr
SCNL exiting by
Scotland's Mountains, on Flickr
snowy mountains by
Scotland's Mountains, on Flickr
