Went into this fine little coire with Gary, Peter and Liam. No-one else there, which was more I'm sure than could be said for Glen Coe. Gary and I did Echo Edge, a great exposed buttress/ridge with bomber turf and some good little steps. Not what I am used to but it was a good choice as it is North-West facing and was pretty clear of the deep soft snow covering everywhere else. After a go on another route and a play on some other turf and neve in the coire, Peter and Liam followed us up Echo Edge. Great place, good choice, decent weather ... It was a privilege to be there.
R

Crowberry Gully has long been on my to do list, ive ogled at the pictures and descriptions in the Cold Climbs book for nearly 30 years, yes since primary school. So on Saturday i rose at an ungainly 4.30am, pick peter up at 5.30, by 7.15 we were the second team to leave the car park. Very little snow till we reached the waterslab, the snow from here to the base of the gully was mush and i didn't really think we would get it done.

Gary the Drain, Jimmy the Hobbit and I got up Cirrus in the North-East Coire of Beinn a Dothaid on Saturday on what has to be one of my best days out ever. Great conditions, good crack and a sunset on the way down to die for. Hopefully one of the boys will be along to stick a picture of it up shortly. Well done to James especially, he has not done much before and it was fairly full-on. Hopefull this current thaw will leave some behind. Anyone else got stuff to report, stick it on here - it's been a great coupla weeks.

The weather put a dent on this meet in glen etive, with the snow and ice condition of the road, the 8 mile drive down the glen to the hut proved awkward for some. Richard went up early but couldn't gain access as the road was closed for filming, he didn't feel confident of driving in and out and opted to head home and got a climb done in beinn udlaidh on the Saturday, trip report for that climb to follow. I travelled up with Jules and Danny, in Danny's Panda which cut through the snow and ice with gusto. We soon had a roaring fire going and got talking of the following days plan.

Well first off if you can remember how to spell " oodly " in the true form from memory then whoop de doo . I myself canny so by all means fone the Gaelic Polis.

On to the trip..

Myself, Pete, Michael, Harry, Jim and Dan headed up the Cobbler on Sun for the hope of grabbing a route on the north peak whilst conditions allowed.
Myself and Pete headed up North Rib, Mick and Harry on Maclays,plus Jim and Dan on Soul Groove.
A fantastic day out, with cracking weather and company, topped off with everyone finishing their route of choice.
Looking forward to the Etive meet already.

With the bad forecast there was only 4 of us who attended this meet. Myself, Martin, Niall and old hut custodian Gary Wroe. Martin was first to arrive, and found that the hut was without electricity !! he had a healthy fire going when we pitched up about an hour later. Breakfast was cooked on the wood burning stove and a plan for the day agreed. the corbett of Carn an Fhreiceadain north of Kingussie was our target.There is a land rover track that basically takes you from the golf coarse right over the summit and back down in a nice horseshoe.

headed up late to dalwhinnie on boxing day with Lisa, short afternoon corbett walk up the fara from dalwhinnie train station. nice little walk up easy ground in soft snow, lovely views from the summit. bought some coal and walked into ryvoan bothy from glenmore lodge. a pleasant evening with Canadian peter in his oh so wild western long johns, Italian Michael ( very quiet ) and 100mph Matt from Manchester. roaring fire good chat and whisky. forecast was for a stormy morning brightening up in the afternoon. left the bothy around 10am and drove up to the car park at Cairngorm.

Last Saturday saw me pick Florian up at 5am in the Saltmarket. He was hoping to get a route done before he heading back to Berlin for a 6 month sabbatical. We were lucky to get a space in the Altnafeadh car park as ther was a jmc meet on in the Lagangarbh hut. we set off in darkness, the first team breaking the trail in soft snow, when we got to a point in the path to strike up towards the buttress we were joined by Oli and his mate from the jmc. We all took turns to break a trail up thigh deep snow to the base of the climb.