
ROUTE:
Climbed with my wife Marion as part of a longer day linked with Aladdin's Couloir and Y Gully. Start at Ski Car Park, normal walk in route to Coire an t-Sneachda, up Aladdin's, across plateau to descend Y Gully, traverse to Diagonal. Home via Point 1141 and Fiacall a' Coire Cas.
CONDITIONS: Alpine-like. Excellent visibility. Clear skies and sunshine, temperature rising to mid teens by afternoon. Strong southerly wind across plateau and on morning walk-in. Firm neve on Aladdin's, soft thawing snow in Y Gully, feeling very warm in winter clothing! Diagonal had firmer snow (in shade) but easy to kick large steps.
DURATION: 8:14 elapsed time from GPS Watch.
SKILLS PRACTISED: Winter skills including crampons and axes, short-rope lead climbing ( coils plus 2-3m taut rope to second).
MOUNTAIN ENVIRONMENT: No wildlife sighted! Traverse from bottom of Y Gully to Diagonal was snow-free on heather/empetrum-covered scree/boulder field - took off crampons to avoid damage to vegetation (and for comfort!).
Area :
Cairngorm: Northern Corries, Hell's Lum, Creagan Coire Cha-no, Lurcher's Crag and Outliers
This Area includes some of the most accessible (and some of the hardest) winter climbs in Scotland. Coire an t-Sneachda has an excellent variety of winter climbs, many in the lower to middle grades, while Coire an Lochain hosts classics of a range of grades and some extremely demanding test-pieces. This Area also includes the very accessible Creagan Coire Cha-no, Lurcher's Crag in the northern Lairig Ghru, and the training bluffs of the Chalamain Gap. Also included here are the cliffs of the northern side of the Loch A'an basin such as Hell's Lum, Stag Rocks and Stac an Fharaidh (as they are on the same general massif as Cairngorm), while cliffs on the southern side of Loch A'an are in the Ben Macdui, Carn Etchachan and Shelter Stone Crag Area of DLOG. The range's former name is Am Monadh Ruadh (the red hills), distinguishing them from Am Monadh Liath (the grey hills) to the west of the River Spey.