Today I was out with Colin and Guy. After the heavy snowfall last night we opted for a rocky mountaineering route and went to Curved Ridge. The sun shone all day and a we joined a few friendly pairs on a well plastered ridge.
There was a very little ice around in drainage lines in the shade but we didnt hit the freezing level until about 900m when the powdery snow that had melted to water on my gear began to refreeze. Under this much soft powder we didnt even put crampons on until half way up and my axe spent most of the day tucked out of the way on my back as I used my hands to clear and climb the route.

It was much colder down in the continual shade of Coire na Tullaich but the ground wasnt really frozen off of the well compressed path although cars were well iced at the bottom.

Many thanks to the 2 teams who let us overtake them(it was just a cunning plan to let me break trail i'm sure ;-)

Had to put lots of pics up today - it just looked soooo good. Yey more pics at: http://guysteven.blogspot.com/