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with pretty poor weather forcast, hrh the lmc president ( richard ) propossed a walk into a coire he new that may hold some sort of climbing. richard, david and myself set off from glasgow and met karin in crainlarich, we headed up to achallader and parked at the tower. richard informed us the coire in question was on the north east side of beinn achaldair. we set of east along the path having to leap the burn as the river was a bit high at the ford. we left the path southward just before the ruin at barravourich following the argocat track to the wooden bridge across the railway line. here we made a rising traverse toward the base of achaldairs north east ridge. the going was slow as the ground was saturated and the snow really soft. it was with relief we turned into the coire and the going eased and the veiw of the coire opened up.
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- the first views of beinn achaldairs north east cliffs
we walked deeper into the coire to choose a route, with little ice and soft snow, richard fowarded a "sausage" shaped ridge beneath the summit of beinn achaldair. we headed up to the base of the ridge keeping to what turf we could see as the soft snow was hard going.
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- keeping to the turf
we got to within about 600 metres of the ridge were we decided to get on our helmets, crampons, harnessess and ice axes out. the wind was really whipping up and one big gust blew karins helmet and hardshell up into the coire, she managed to retrieve her helmet but her jacket dissapeared 700 metres up into the coire
. once we all had our gear on david and karin headed up into the coire to try retrieve the jacket while me and richard headed to the base of the ridge to set up for the climb. 10 minutes later david an karin arrived at the base with the jacket
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the ridge itself didnt look to taxing and we set off without the ropes.
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- nearing the ridge
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- richard, david and karin on the ridge
the first 30 metres was easy going, there was a few places were it steepened and you had to get a good axe placement and be careful but there was always an easy option and we didnt need the ropes. the ridge became more defined toward the top and snow more firmer 9 ( neve ) and all too soon we were at the top of the ridge.
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- karin and david as the ridge gets more defined
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we were probably 100 metres away from the 1036 eastern top of achaldair, we sat here and had some food and discussed our descent. hrh richard new of a route down the bealach an aoghlain. we set of down to the bealach and steeply north down a snow gully for about 100 metres. this doesnt look like it richard says, i think we came a bit to far east. we turned and re ascended traversing west towards the next gully. on the last bit of traverse karin took a slide on a steep slope, it was with relief i watched as she managed to get one of her axes into the snow to stop her slide, no mean feat when you are walking with 2 technical axes, well done karin. once in the correct gully we descended into the base of the coire. i mainly practised my ice axe arrest an glassading all the way down.
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- me in coire at the end, please excuse the facial hair
packed away helmets axes etc and made our way back to the car before a nice cuppa (beer for me) beside the fire at the bridge of orchy hotel. hrh richard thinks it could be a first winter ascent and if it is he will name it "the sausage", so i could go down in history as a member of the 1st ascent of " the sausage"
