Thursday, 6 March 2014

Moist snow and big avalanches

The mild weather had triggered wet snow avalanches round most of the N facing aspects in Coire and t Sneachda today. Those near the Mess of Pottage looked to have been set off by cornice collapse from the sight of the huge blocks in the base of the Coire- still plenty more to come down though!
We headed in to the Coire to let the guys put some rope work into practise on some nice steady ground with a seemingly endless supply of thread belays and runners. It began to snow lightly in the afternoon as we topped out and had a play on some of the small steeper buttresses on the crest of the Fiacaill of Sneachda. 
 Glide cracks getting big enough to drive cars into
 Big slides from Aladdin's Couloir round to Windy Col
 Andy kitting up
 Lots of debris
 'Van sized' chunks of cornice
 Ptarmigan ignoring climbers
 Simon on the sharp end
 Direct belay over a wee step
 Andy out front
 Another belay
 The team nearing the top
 Slogging through wet porridge
Last belay

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