Glen Coe gives a wealth of winter climbing opportunities of all grades and styles, something indeed for everyone. The cliffs are also, in the main, easily accessible which means they can become very popular. This area also includes the winter climbs on the mountains south of Glen Coe in Glen Etive, and on hills more southerly still but north of the A85 Oban road (notably Ben Cruachan). Also included are the hills of Appin and Ballachuilish, the dry tooling of Ballachuilish bridge, and the winter climbs in Ardgour (notably Garbh Bheinn).
The initial plan was to climb dorsal arete, but 2 things happened. Full on white out after kitting up in the coire led to me not actually dinding the bottom of broad gully but forked instead. Upon this happening we decided that as my 2 companions had never actually even done a gully we would just play up there given that we had it to ourselves. we soloed as the guys were both happy, with the three of us all next to each other so i could see both and teach them crampon and axe technique. all in the party were happy. the gully was very steep on this occasion very deep sbow at the botton and hard ice and frozen turf further up. nearing the fork we decided to downclimb the gully for several reasons, the right fork exit we couldnt see and didnt want to risk getting into difficulty, the left was so lean it was almost grass and rock, which combined with speed of the clouds flying above wouldnt have made for a very nice exit. The downclimb however was a good idea as both guys had also not done that before.
