Ben Udlaidh

Very cold on the drive down to Bridge of Orchy, the car registering -15c! A few other teams were already there, some having slept in their vehicles (chilly)!
We did Quartzvein Scoop IV, 4 which near the top of the first pitch had water pouring off the cascade. Still, good for axes.
Next up was South Gully of the Black Wall IV,4. Similar to the other routes all was cold and brittle for most of the first pitch followed by wet from there on. Al got a real soaking, but I'm sure it was worth it as the second half gave some fantastic steep ice.
The walk in is well tracked, the slopes not too loaded at this stage and route exits firm enough.

Pictures courtesy of Al H.

Ski touring Beinn a Chruiliste

Kat and I went touring in Glencoe for a quick easy half day. The hills looked well covered but proved to be fairly unconsolidated up to around 750m were there is a base of old snow. A strong south easterly was shifting snow around onto northerly aspects and as we expected there were pockets of shallow slab in sheltered areas.

Quickie on Green Gully

Al and I went for a blast on to the Ben today, hard snow into Coire na Ciste, old avalanche debris in evidence around many of the major gully exits.
We went for a quiet Green Gully IV,3 which had good ice and firm snow so we decided on a 1 runner per pitch policy and really went for it. What fun. Car to car in just over 4.5 hours

Ballachulish Horseshoe

Brian, Dave, Nigel and I started nice and late, left a frosty valley below and went for a round of Beinn a Bheithir. Temperatures were well below freezing in Ballachulish but rose markedly at around 500m, the inversion line of frost clearly visible on the ground below us.
The hills are well scoured of snow at the moment and that which remains is rock hard.
A very pleasant four hours saw us at Gleann a Chaolais just in time for Nigel and myself to get a rescue callout for Stob Coire nan Lochan. Luckily there was no real nasty business and all went well.

North Gully, Ben Nevis

Brian and I went for a look on the Ben and decided to go for North Gully, a nice straight forward grade II in Coire na Ciste.
The freezing level was pretty high, ice and snow dripping all the way to the top, so it was a dig fest rather than climbing, but good nonetheless.