
Climbed with Mark Stevenson after driving across the previous night for the international meet party! Avalanche forecast looked spicy so opted to walk up to 1141m, over the tope of Sneachda and then abseil down Savage Slit to access the route. As it turned out the avalanche conditions weren`t too bad at all, lot`s of teams coming straight up to the crag and finding scoured slopes.
Mark led the initial first pitch. Lot`s of people falling off in Lochain today on neighbouring Savage Slit and The Hoarmaster. I led the main crux pitch, after the peg and awkward exit move into the corner proper felt comfortable and steady throughout. Route could do with a couple of the fixed nuts being stripped as they`re damaged! Job for next time. Brilliant climbing and first VI 7 clean onsight!
Mark then took us to the top of the crag and descent via 1141m once more.
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.