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 Topic - Avalanched
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 by - andymoin  on - 05 Jan 2008 |
This is my account of an avalanche we got caught up in while climbing in nasty conditions in the Gorms on 04/01/2008.
Neil and Lewis had arrived the night before and we looked over routes weather and avalanche conditions while watching a bit of the edge. Up at 6 we made it to the ski car park with some dodgy driving; ice, blown snow and some drifting from Glenmore onwards. We walked into Coire an Lochain through fresh falling snow, spindrift, some gusty winds and waist high drifts. On arrival we geared up and ascended to about 100m below the cliffs, avoiding the Great Slab by staying on its left. After looking at a few buttress routes in the guide we decided they look plastered in powder and be hard to climb/protect. After a bit of indecision we then dug a pit under the Vent and assessed snow/avalanche conditions as cat 2 and quite stable with two possible shear layers; only the top 20mm going when jumped on. For some reason we then decided to head for the Vent. On the way we had a little slough come down but nothing that looked serious. I set up a belay tying on to one rope and Lewis to the other, Neil was going for the lead so he was on both.
I had put Neil on belay and he had just said ‘climbing’ when it hit. The belay held and Neil went about 10m down, our third, Lewis, who hadn’t yet anchored to the belay went an entire rope’s length. We were all fine; Neil was obviously ok and Lewis responded to my shouts after about 10 seconds. I belayed them both as they got out of the way of anything else coming down; Neil put in a dead man and belayed me down to safety.
The only damage was my pair of ripped trousers and the loss a bag/axes, which were recovered bar one.
We went on to have a good day traversing over safe ground to Fiacaill Ridge which we ascended the hard part of and then descended via the ridge to the Coire an t-Sneachda path. The walk out was quite hard in white-out conditions, with very strong winds and deep drifts.
So we got away with it, but it could have been much more serious. Here are a few of the mistake I felt we made:
We went out on a gnarly day, though for me this is unavoidable as I will not become a fair weather climber.
Don’t know what we were thinking of as the previous night and on the walk in we had all agreed to stay away from gullies as we knew they would be dangerous.
I went against my instinct and agreed to head to Coire an Lochain despite the weather and ominous feeling I had (don’t know if I only think I had this feeling after the event).
We dug the avalanche pit to assess conditions then wrongly applied them to the cornice above, even though I knew they bore no relation to each other.
I had been sloughed below The Couloir on a previous outing, but not in the actually gully and hadn’t accounted for the concentrated nature of it in a gully.
I thought I should write this all down to confirm in my own mind what mistakes we made and to let others know that avalanches do happen and that what, from the slopes below a gully, looks like a small slough, will be very concentrated if you’re stupid enough to be in it.
I’m just started my 4th season climbing in winter but have been up the Cairngorms in winter since I was wee. So I’m pretty ashamed that I let the above happen. I've read several books on the subject, watched DVDs and attended lectures. However, I guess theory is only that and now that I’ve had a close encounter I’ll not be repeating the same mistakes twice making me a safer mountaineer. I also hope that everyone who reads this and is heading out the winter can gain something from it.
Feel free to slag us off, recount your own near misses or give helpful comments.
Cheers Andy.
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