Thursday 18 October 2007

Chilly on the Buachaille






Mike, Neil and John and I went out yeaterday. the original plan was Tower Ridge on the Ben but after sitting in a queue of traffic on the A82 north of Corran Ferry for half an hour (the road was blocked for several hours after another accident on this terrible section) we cut our losses and went to the Buachaille.

The guys are all competent scramblers and lead single pitch VS so we decided to use an ascent of D Gully Butress to practise a range of mountaineering skills. We looked at different types of direct and semi-indirect belays and moving together as ropes of 2 and 3 and carried on up Curved Ridge from the top of the route. After a quick ascent and abseil from the top of Crowberry Tower we passed over the summit in a snow flurry. The weather had been pretty kind to us - the sun being quite low in the sky to the south painted the Buachaille's shadow clearly on the moor below and we had the evidence of rainbows in the distance to show the many showers that were missing us! The guys had all bought matching jackets for the occasion- very fetching lads :-)

No comments: