ROUTE: Central Gully starting from the Ski Car Park, descent via Point 1141 and Fiacall a' Coire Cas
MEMBERS OF PARTY: With my wife Marion
CONDITIONS: High Pressure weather with blanket of cloud up to plateau level and above - no inversion! Freezing level around 800m. Hard neve in the gully, quite lean build-up with several icy steps of about Technical Grade 2, requiring running belays in the granite cracks, and and an ice screw and threaded icicle on one occasion!
DURATION: Over 9 hours car to car. Very slow progress on the climb, queued at the base of the approach slopes, and behind several parties in the gully.
SKILLS PRACTISED: Pitched Winter Climbing. Constructing belays on rock and ice.
MOUNTAIN ENVIRONMENT: This felt more like a "cragging" experience than a true mountain day. I was aware that the Northern Corries are becoming an ever more popular winter venue, but the sheer numbers on a weekday not part of a half-term holiday were astonishing.
KEY LEARNING POINTS/CONTRIBUTION TO EXPERIENCE: I felt like I consolidated my winter climbing skills at Grade II level today, given the need for frequent belays and runners. We probably should have looked for another route, but in the very lean conditions I wasn't too confident of leading Marion safely on anything more technical. In any case the other Trident Gullies were also occupied!
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.
