After yesterday the guys are pretty tired (I'm not surprised) so opting for a shorter day we went to the nose of Gearr Aonach. Hanne had been before so we took a direct version of the Zig Zags, starting further round to the west to make things a little different.
The snow in Glencoe has been stripped back a great deal and is very wet and heavy, our crampons choking up despite anti-ball plates. There is still some ice left in the corner grooves but this is melting fast. Sounds of thawing ticked and skittered all around us and in places with bare heather and rock around it felt like a wet cold summer day. Despite this we had fun and got though our program of navigation and rope work including simple short pitches and retreat tactics (an essential mountaineering skill).
These conditions are in the long run really good news as with a subsequent freeze the snow pack will become much more stable. In the short term there is a risk of wet slab avalanches, cornice collapse and falling ice.
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