Glencoe snow

Dave was given a day out with a Mountain Instructor by Yvonne to celebrate his 50th. A lapsed climber but a fit 50 he wanted an interesting day with a little excitement. We decided to wander up into Coire nan Lochan in Glencoe. Conditions were quite mixed; the path and any wet rock were very icy, as were the surface of bogs and some wet seeps. Deeper down though the turf wasnt frozen at all. That didnt matter to us on Dorsal Arete as the ground was either heavily buried in soft unconsolidated snow (6 inches to a foot deep even on the crest of the ridge, more in hollows) or was rock which was sometimes clean but often icy enough that I was glad we had opted to put crampons on. From the foot of the fin upwards there was quite a bit of rime ice. The buttresses further right and things like Scabbard were bare and rocky though. Diamond and Church Door only looked rimed from half way up too. We enjoyed some sunshine and great colours in the morning and the weather only turned for the worse as we descended (wet snow at the car park at 4pm).