Tuesday 4 March 2014

Golden Oldie - Aonach Mor (Mon 3 Mar)

Fresh overnight snow meant another mountaineering day, this time on the west face of Aonach Mor, thinking it would be free of the worst powder and having been done only 2 days previous there would be a trail. We were wrong on a both counts. Fortunately a team of 3 broke trail to just before Gendarme Ridge, leaving us only the last few hundred metres of hard work.
Aidan on the initial approach slopes
We soloed the initial buttress with a few moves that felt tenuous, as every axe and foot placement had to be tested for fear of axes pulling through 4inches of powder, or standing on rock slabs and sliding.
Aidan on a move that felt closer to 3
I ran out of bottle when the first narrow section coincided with a snow shower, cross winds and spindrift, so we got the rope out as I inched my way forward, ending up 'a cheval' not for the first time in the day.
Aidan approaching the first 'a cheval' section
I ran out a couple of rope lengths with a couple of blocks for gear, regained my composure and we took coils to speed things up again. We then encountered the sting in the tail - the final arete was a knifeedge of loose snow, with a vertical drop on the left and steep snow on the right, more akin to the Kuffner arete on Mont Maudit, not a grade II in Scotland! We move together across this cautiously, as there wasn't any gear without an awful lot of digging.
Aidan on final snow arete

















Thankfully that was the end of the difficulties and we crawled up the final snow slopes. Despite being knackered, we found the motivation to make it from the summit to the Gondola in 50mins, making it with 20mins to spare. Complete soft snow cover all the way helped.
Matt and Aidan happy (thankful) on the summit
A hard day, but worthwhile and enjoyable, and definitely felt like an adventure. Well worth its 3 stars.

Another Classic - Liathach Traverse (Sat 1 Mar)

My best mate Aidan was up from Yorkshire for a long weekend, climbing conditions were poor, so we went for a(nother) classic mountaineering day out that neither Aidan nor Vic had done.
The initial step on to the arete

Aidan on the ridge

Aidan and Matt

The Pinnacles

Aidan and Matt on the ridge
Mixed weather, a good Scottish winter day. Soft snow on the southern approach slopes to the east end of the ridge, spindrift, low cloud. Firm neve on westerly aspects, a few inches of powder on east aspects, a good track to follow, good company. 8.5hrs road to road.