Plan A (Golden Oldy, West Face Aonach Mor) - abandoned due to outrageously time consuming and arduous surface crust snow.
Plan B (East Ridge Carn Dearg Meadhonach) - abandoned due to increasingly gusty winds.
Plan C (Carn Beag Dearg East ridge and up to Carn Dearg Mheadhonach) - mission accomplished!!
Frustrating day in Lochaber, with surface crust breaking through to knee deep snow until about the 800m mark where things firmed up nicely. Wind scoured slopes above this height pretty bullet proof, but also lots of snow swirling about in stiff SE winds. Nevis and Aonach Mor summits stayed in clouds the whole time I was up there, with only fleeting views of Carn Dearg area and West Face Aonoch Mor. Amazing raised footprints and sastrugi action going on, and a dropping freezing level on descent made for rapid bum sliding back to the bike, followed by a fast descent to Nevis Range via a bit of the World Champs track. Good multi activity day out!!
Blue skies for the drive back to Oban, and Glencoe looked amazing as I passed. Wrong decision again, my winter karma is crap this year!!!
Couple more chilly days like this would have been ideal to firm up the snow pack lower down, but looking unlikely given the stormy forecast.
Some photos here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152145582635865.1073741856.7386...
Cheers,
Gordon
Post edited at 18:18
