Cioch Nose Applecross

I spent the weekend with friends and Jane and Sandy in Applecross. On Saturday Jacqui, Nick, Brian and I waited for the early morning showers to die down a little before driving up to the Bealach na Ba to head for the Cioch Nose- the Classic Rock VDiff (or Severe- depending on the guide you read). We dropped down the steep but easy path from the Antenna and traversed round to the start of the route- spotting a team a pitch ahead of us. We made brisk progress up the route in 4 pitches- we had to move quickly just to stay warm! Atop the Cioch you have the choice of a descent via a loose gully or a continuation involving 100m of scrambling and a 50m pitch of VDiff (the rain saved itself and really kicked in as I started leading this pitch- didn't change to snow until I topped out though :-). Then its a nice long scrambly ridge with a couple of short steep steps down. This is about the 5th time I've done the route and it never fails to impress.... stepping out on the third pitch with hundreds of feet of space plucking at your heels but straightforward climbing ahead is great!