Tuesday 2 April 2013

Summer time in Scotland ...

No.6 Gully 1V*** of Aonach Dubh is another of the “Classic Climbs” that we wanted to do this winter.

We walked in with stellar conditions, -3, no wind and brilliant sunshine at 6.30am. Regardless of the time we were second team on the route, but the guys in front didn’t hang about.

The first pitch offered Craig some nice ice to gain confidence with his improvised harness. The next pitch of “easy ground” led me to a short ice corner, this was good sport and warmed me up for the crux, a full 50m of steep ice. This was great climbing and really enjoyable, the ice was soft in places but “dinner-plating” in others.

Craig joined me at the belay with a big grin and felt confident with his “rig” to lead the final right hand exit pitch to a sunny alpine ridge.

We walked off in the sunshine, skirting round the suspect hard slab.

A true Alpine day in Scotland on the eve of summertime !

More reading here on the Simply Epic blog with pics of Craig’s lightweight harness...

No.6 (the right hand ice fall)
Pitch 1
Pitch 4, 50m ice fall
Alpine
Craig on the decent slopes
Looking across to Stob Coire nam Beith