With unusually warm weather forecast for the days of the trip it looked unlikely that we would be able to get much climbing done, but in true BMSCMC style everyone managed to get at least one winter route ticked off.

The first day of the trip saw a siege of Aladdin’s Couloir in Coire an t’sneachda by the club, mainly as this was one of the few lines that had held onto the snow and ice.  The lean conditions made for an exciting route with a ten meter section of water ice, or at least water and ice. I led through planting two solid ice screws into the running ice, with Dan following up to enjoy his first experience of Scottish winter climbing and swinging axes.  Jim led Bill and Stu up in parallel, getting another couple of screws placed on the way through the technical crux. The rest of the route was steady grade one gully climbing and in surprisingly good condition. Dan and I enjoyed an airy lunch at the base of Aladdin’s Seat and watched Jim, Bill and Stu climb through in fine style and top out onto the Cairngorm plateau. After a brief catch up at the top in the strong winds, Jim and Bill decided to head off to point 1141m and down to the car park. Stu, Dan and I dropped back into Mess of pottage to do Jacob’s ladder.  In the thaw conditions the cornice had collapsed at the top of the gully, this provided a nice grade 3 ish finish. Whilst we’d been having fun in the Coire, Katrina and Merv had been out on the tops bagging some Monroes but deep snow had made getting further afield more challenging.

Day two’s weather forecast suggested the wind at the tops would have made topping out quite treacherous so we decided on staying low and doing some skills training. This gave us the opportunity to brush up on our snow anchors, T-axe belays and snow hole digging, all in the very pleasant +10°C temperatures. Katrina and Merv went south to successfully tick off some lower aspect Monroes that avoided the worst of the wind.

On the Third day Jim and Bill went into Cairn Lochan but due to difficult snow conditions on the avalanche prone entry slopes, gaining the start of the routes wasn’t safe, but this made for a good recce for future adventures.  Dan and I went back into t-Sneachda and returned to the scene of a previous club epic, The Runnel. The final crux pitch was lacking a little ice so made for some exciting mixed climbing and a steep powdery run out to exit the route but it was probably one of the few routes still climbable. We decided to call it a day and returned to the car park via the Fiaciall Ridge, which was more like a summer scramble in the warm conditions. Getting back to the car in good time meant a celebratory drink in the Skiing Do was in order, followed by a traditional end of trip meal in the Cairngorm hotel, including haggis and whiskey.

So, despite the milder conditions and less than promising forecast everyone managed to get something done and the routes were good value at their grade, offering exciting ice pitches and interesting mixed sections. However, maybe next winter we should go to Norway!