It had been a rather sparse winter in terms of winter conditions and there was one adventure I try and fit in every year. However this year I hadn’t managed to do this and it had been eating away at me for a few months! Some late snow fall and a brief cold snap saw us heading to Glencoe and hoping that the route I wanted had enough usable snow!
Our location was Glencoe and we decided to head to Broad Gully (the gully I hadn’t done) via the zig zags. At this time of the year this is a great day out with a little scrambling to get some height then an easy climb with the crampons and ice axe
The rain on the journey soon petered out and by the time we reached Glencoe blue skies were starting to appear which was perfect. Geared up and we headed on the path that eventually leads to The Lost Valley, and once we had walked a little while we branched off to find the start of the zig zags. The weather was good and in the shelter of Gear Aonach it was very spring like and I was soon starting to shed layers, I was really hoping the weather was a little colder higher up the mountain!
2013 was the last time I had been up the zig zags and it was fun getting back here – a few scrambly corners an we were soon striding along the top of Gear Aonach with SCNL now in view. It was looking good and from what we could see , broad gull looked intact. Soon we got the crampons on and ice axe out and were heading up broad gully with big smiles plastered across our faces The od snow was good and much fun was had. Topping out and the views never fail to impress… Bidean reveals itself and the views down towards Ballachuillish are spectacular
There wasn’t much snow around the corrie rim so with us still having all the gear on, we decided to head back down broad gully and enjoy the snow for as long as we could. Much fun. The sun was shining ad view immense – another fine day out in Glencoe
some snaps :
threesisters by Scotland's Mountains, on Flickr
storm approaching by Scotland's Mountains, on Flickr
hiker by Scotland's Mountains, on Flickr
Glencoe Loch by Scotland's Mountains, on Flickr
Stob Coire nan Lochan by Scotland's Mountains, on Flickr
A quality selection of photos, especially the first one and it's great to see a good video of the zig-zags of Gearr Aonach. I've had my eye on that for a while and this has whet the appetite even more.
. The zigzags is such a cool route. It looks impossible from the car when you drive up past it - such an intimidating sight, and I remember feeling a bit concerned when I did it. Since then I've been up Bidean Nam Bian by 3 other routes, including Broad Gully in winter. If I had to choose one mountain to take to a desert island it would probably be Bidean Nam Bian 
