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.
Hiked in to climb Aladdins Mirror direct. When we got there we saw that the route was gone and the pickings were slim for anything else. Central gully had 3 teams already so looked at the CG left hand which only had a couple teams. WE took in coils before heading up, aiming to short rope the first part, set up a belay proper and move from there. Realised we were moving a lot faster than the other groups so asked the belayer if we could move up the left rib, avoiding their ropes. They agreed and we had a cracking time chatting to them as we went back and forth. The first belay it was a quick section and ancor was a large flake looped with rope before BFK'ing and belaying from there. Andy then led the second section, before I led the third which has some nice ice and some good mixed parts. 
