Sublime to the rediculous, 21st Jan
After Charlie & Tom’s idylic introduction to ice on Monday the Scottish weather showed them its real teeth today. After a reasonable start to the day an impressive blizzard kicked in at lunch and tested many things over the next couple of hours.
A good 6″ or more of fresh snow fell on us as we climbed the 2 pitch grade IV Mike The Bhasteird. There was good ice there somewhere but even sweeping feet of snow off sometimes left nothing positive for the axes. Luckily the feet behaved and good axe placements arrived just in the right places above the steepenings.
Despite hotaches & consistent powder neck syndrome we avoided the temptation to run away after pitch 1 but adding another pitch above was deemed uneccesary.
The visibility was so poor I had to use a crag photo to navigate down despite it being a 30m wide terrace!
Plenty of snow now for a good while to come; excellent.
