The New Millennium

The winter season in the Lake District started & finished on New Years Eve for me and many others. However, Scotland received it's greatest snowfall for five years.

In early January, before the snow arrived the usual crew were in the Craigellachie bunkhouse, Newtonmore. Activity on Saturday was, as you would expect, focused on the Cairngorms. This is not a definitive report & being biased the report will capture my activity in some detail.

The rest of you can write your own reports or make do with the following - Geoff went skiing but couldn't find any snow. Paul & Dave went to Corrie an Lochain where Dave fell and was rushed to hospital. Ed, Jim & Co. did some routes in Corrie nt Schnecta. For me & Keith the Saturday morning started at 04-30 - the objective being to walk into An Garbh Corrie on Braeriach. It would be our second attempt to get an ice/snow route done on this most inaccessible of mountains.

The previous attempt started from the Sugar Bowl carpark & took us through the Chalamain gap in deep snow into the Lairig Ghru. Twice we down graded our objectives that day still to be defeated by a cornice too big & soft to penetrate.

We retreated vowing to return but did manage to bag an easy route on Lurchers Crag.

On this occasion we would tackle the mountain from Loch Morlich via Rothiemurchus Lodge & the Lairig Ghru A round trip in excess of 18 miles, longer but hopefully easier The first 2.5 miles up the track to the lodge was done in an hour where we donned waterproofs to keep the snow out. Still in darkness, locating & following the footpath from the lodge proved difficult but once into the Lairig Ghru route finding became easier & with the dawn we were able to see the mountains in their full winter garb.

Ice axes were required to traverse the steep ground above the Pools of Dee into An Garbh Corrie. The only shelter for miles was the bothy so we summoned all our navigation skills (quit laughing) but still found it very difficult to find. Even in good visibility, we were within a few hundred yards before we realized we were actually looking at it. We dug out the door & once inside took our first rest & food for almost six hours. Taking stock of the situation we decided that White Nile (V-5), at the back of the Corrie, was out of the question due to lack of time & less than good snow conditions. In deteriorating visibility we decided to go up into the side Corrie to look for something more suitable. We fought our way up into the quarry peering into the grey when suddenly the falls of Dee loomed out of the murk & to the right there appeared to be a gully which was eventually identified as Twilight Gully. Much debate was held before we finally decided to climb the gully rather than the falls. The usual Thompson/Bell strategy was applied; we climbed as far as we could with one axe then got out the second, continuing again until progress without crampons was impossible, further up again we finally hacked out a stance and teetered on crumbling snow to put on harnesses, ropes and the jangly bits and pieces. A waste of time really because throughout the route we didn't get one single belay that could be trusted. Climbing on steep snow, that had the consistency of the stuff you scrape out of the fridge when defrosting, we made progress by kicking deep steps into the underlying consolidated layer until one more pitch would see us on top of the mountain.

This terminated in a large, soft, overhanging cornice leaving two options. Either cut a deep slot, time consuming and strenuous, or traverse out to the right in the hope it would get easier. We took the latter and above a very steep slope that disappeared into the cloud we found the cornice eased back to vertical allowing delicate but strenuous moves onto the summit plateau of Braeriach.

Four o'clock in the afternoon and all that was left was to walk over the top of Braeriach, to the col and ascend Sron na Lairige before traversing it's 2 mile long ridge above the Lairig Ghru. We descended into the Lairig Ghru through thigh deep snow, as darkness fell, where we took our second stop of the day. A final push got us back to the car, fourteen hours it.

More next month when March' activities and new winter routes will be disclosed.

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The New Millennium

Dave Thompson