Cairngorms: Ski Mountaineering & Winter Climbing

Saturday morning, after a relaxed drive up on the Friday afternoon I skinned into Coire an t'Sneachda along with Hannah, Joe, Jonny and Tom who were on foot. We split into two team with Hannah, Jonny and Tom heading to Fiaciall Couloir. Joe wanted to climb so steep ice so we went up to look at Mirror Direct IV 4 and I gave him some tips on tool and screw placements as well as foot work and then he did a superb job of leading the route which was his first proper ice route. At the moment its fairly banked out but still giving a good 6-8m just off vertical section. I followed and then we abseiled from the in-situ belay at the top.

Back at the rescue box we had a bite to eat and I stuck the skis back on and we headed over to Fiaciall Buttress, I managed to skin almost to the bottom only having to put my skis on my back for the final section, much to the pleasure of Joe who was wading through the snow behind me. We looked at Invernookie but decided the wind was a bit high but went for Fiaciall Couloir II/III. We roped together with about 30m of rope between us with myself leading and Joe following and climbed the route in about 20 minutes which was awesome. After topping out we headed round to 1141m where I left the other to walk down to the daylodge while I skied the Cas headwall and then blagged a few laps of the Corrie Cas T-bar.

Sunday we headed into the Corrie again and with the high winds and avalanche hazard decided to go for the sheltered option of Patey's Route IV 5. The first challenge of the day was constructing a harness for Hannah as she had failed to pack her's in the chaos of the morning. Joe led the pitch up to below the first bulge where I took over climbing this and then the crux pitch. The route was fairly thin in places, but still good, if a little tricky. Once at the top of the difficulties we soloed up Alladin's Mirror to the top.

Joe and Hannah filmed quite a bit of footage over the weekend and they've put it together in the video below: