We thought we'd have time for one more route before flying home to Bristol that evening, but the approach to the Buchaille took much longer than expected on steep wet slabs coated in snow. So we turned back at the base of the route. A nice stretch in the mountains!
I'd never climbed on Anoach Mor before but I'd always wanted to go there, so Rob, Dave, Dave and myself hiked up to the summit plateau in perfect winter weather with glorious views of CMD arete to the west. We'd abb'd down Easy Gully on a snow bollard (also a first for me) and hiked around to the start of Morwind. The conditions weren't ideal with lots of soft snow and questionable turf, so I weaved across the crag onto Turf Walk. After four nervy, runout pitches we topped out to a crowd of mountain rescue members undergoing some training. Balls of steel.
A beautiful day across the West Highlands. With hindsight, our first route choice of Observatory Ridge was never going to be in condition, so we switched across to the Douglas Boulder. Al and I had a stunning day climbing a pair of opposing mixed routes: South-West Ridge and East Ridge. Both were full of hard, technical, mixed climbing which was right up our street.
Our late night drive from Glasgow airport was rewarded with a wonderful dance of the northern lights across the horizon behind Fort William. Conditions the following morning in Coire an t'Sneachda weren't the best and after a rather lengthy wait, Dave and I nipped up the Haston Line, traversing far left to avoid the slow parties and finish straight up the Messenger.
