Lee and I had a cracking day climbing easy routes in Coire an t’Sneachda today. It absolutely tanked it down all the way up from Edinburgh, but was 2.5 C and snowing at the Caringorm car-park, and blue skies and a  wintry looking Corrie beckoned us in.

Despite this, many buttress lines were very bare, and little ice, so we climbed “Hidden Chimney” – touching grade III today with good turf and ice low down then an excellent mixed/rock pitch at the top which was good fun.

 We legged it around and down the goat track and Lee led Crotched gully which had good frozen turf.

 Some ice in the usual places, but the freezing levels soared above the crags during the day  and a major thaw has set in – the crags looked almost summer like on the way down and it was 7C in the car park on return.

It tanked it down all the way home again!

(L to r: Lee in hidden Chimney; Lee in Crotched Gully; Crag conditions mid-morning before the thaw set in)

Some folk have been asking for route information about Coire Creagach, so here are some topos.

The routes have most likely been climbed before, but I’ve named and graded them for easy comparision in the furture!

There’s been a few problems with the blog over the last few days, so I’ve upgraded it to use the most recent version of Wordpress.

Hopefully it’s all working now!

A late start due to a late night on Saturday meant we couldn’t get far north from Edinburgh on sunday, so we headed up to Coire Creagach in Drumochter. Certainly full conditions on the hill amd very wild with a lot more snow than we were expecting.

We climbed four short, but sweet routes between grade II and grade IV – some pictures included here – sorry about the quality as I forgot my camera and had to use my phone. That’s not the only thing we forgot as Lee left his harness in the car so we had to coble one together using an 2.5 metre length of sling Lee had in his rucksack. How can you remember to pack a huge piece of abseil tat, but forget your harness?

Coire Creagach is an excellent venue for winter skills and introductory winter climbing – interested? Drop me an email at info@mountainactive.co.uk