After the disappointment of bad weather for the club's winter weekend at the beginning of March, Maria and I made the most of the following two weekends with some climbing and hillwalking in great weather.
13th - 15th March
Leaving York at 3am (didn't get back from London until 8pm the night before so a civilised drive up in the evening wasn't possible), we got to Glen Coe around 8am and headed up to Stob Coire nan Lochain.
Dorsal Arete is a classic grade II route that is worth trying to climb on a weekday, as it gets very popular on good weather weekends. I soloed it about 5 years ago, but avoided the very exposed crux 'fin', so it was nice to return with a partner and a rope to do the route properly.
First pitch
Second pitch
Second pitch
Second pitch
Heading towards the crux
About to step up onto the crux fin
Great views from the summit
Saturday was another good weather day, but warmer so not ideal for climbing. We did a very nice ridge walk over the two Munros on Beinn a' Bheithir, enjoying the lightweight footwear and not having to carry rope, rack, etc.
Heading up towards the col between the two Munros
On the summit of Sgorr Dhearg
Looking across to Sgorr Dhonuill
On Sgorr Dhonuill
Looking back to Sgorr Dhearg
On the ridge continuing West, before descending into Glenn a Ghaolais
On the way home on Sunday we went to investigate a bit of Ferguson family history in the Southern Uplands. My Grandad grew up in a remote spot a couple of miles from the village of Durisdeer, and I remember tales of him fishing for his dinner by hand in the mountain streams near the house, and sometimes finding it difficult to get home from school in winter due to the large amount of snow on the hills. We thought it would be interesting to see the house he grew up in, so parked up in Durisdeer and walked up the glen to find the house. It turns out there were actually two houses, one where he spent most of his childhood (house marked on the map at Blackhill Moss), and another about 500m closer to Durisdeer, where the family moved when he was a teenager. The 'old house' is still standing, and, comparing it to pictures my parents took about 12 years ago, appears to have been smartened up a bit by the local landowner (whose ancestor I think was my Great Grandfather's employer). The 'new house' was clearly not built quite so well - it was in a tumbledown state 12 years ago, and has since been knocked down. There is another smaller building at the site, which is now an MBA bothy (called Kettleton Byre).
The 'old house' at Blackhill Moss
The view from Blackhill Moss
Kettleton Byre bothy
21st - 22nd March
Another 3am start (again, work got in the way of driving up the evening before) and we were heading to Stob Coire nan Lochain again, this time to climb the classic S.C. Gully. The buttresses on SCNL are stripped of snow & ice now, but conditions in the gullies are still good, with hard snow-ice making for great axe & crampon placements.
First pitch
Second pitch, getting some gear in before stepping up & right (crux move)
On the crux
Top of pitch 2
Me being silly, waving axes around while climbing over the cornice
Great views north to the Ben
Looking across to Bidean nam Bian & Stob Coire nam Beith
The weather in the west highlands was not great on Sunday, but the forecast suggested it would be better further east, and we found the summits generally clear of cloud on the Tarmachan ridge. I think Mr Eccles would call this 'correct hill theory'...
It's certainly feeling warmer and more spring-like now, but there are still good climbing conditions high up. As long as there isn't a massive thaw in the next few weeks, I expect there will be good climbing in the gullies on Ben Nevis and in the higher Cairngorm coires into April.
