COIRE AN LOCHAIN, COLDER AGAIN

Hard snow after yesterdays thaw! Mirjam & Thomas happy bunnies

Mirjam getting a good running belay off an icicle or two

Bucket seat & axe belay

We had some nice blue skies today

Team on Savage Slit

Coire an Lochain still well rimed

After a very brief mild  and rainy spell of 24 hours yesterday, it was back to lower temperatures today. The winds had died down and it was a pleasant day on the hill with just a few light snow showers down to 600m. We even had a few bright spells and the tops were all clear. Today Mirjam & Thomas were out with me for some steep ground skills and a brush up on some rope work, managing belays and stances whilst climbing. This is for their forthcoming two day winter climbing over in Lochaber early next year. Today we decided to avoid all the crowds heading into Coire an t-sneachda and instead we headed over to Coire an Lochain. Here we had peace and quiet with only 3 other folk seen all day, one guy soloing  The Couloir and a couple of guys on Savage Slit. We covered rock belays, snow belays and some avalanche awareness as we headed up on the eastern side of the corrie. The snow was excellent, nice and firm with ice around lower down and above about 1100m the crags were still well rimed up. Another wild and cold day tomorrow with some fresh snowfall too.