UKC

Lurchers 4th March

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 peebles boy 04 Mar 2014

Quick hit on Lurchers from Sugar Bowl this morning.
Quite a bit of fresh snow overnight.
Walk in was on firm ground and firm wind blown snow.
Weather turned out to be a bit more exciting than advertised, massive amounts of spindrift blowing up the Grue and through the Gap.
Routes at south end seemed to be in constant spindrift maelstrom so headed towards Right Hand Icefall. Goggles on at this point...
Knocked over twice whilst trying to put crampons and harness on, wind was blowing fairly hard with frequent big gusts.
Bottom of both Left hand and Right Hand running with water so went for a fairly exciting and direct line up the ridge in between the two at about II/III.
North Gully had lots of spindrift sluffs coming down, and many of the more defined gullys seemed to be suffering from cross loading.
Other parties arrived as I climbed, not sure where they ended up.
Bottom pitches of all ice routes pretty crappy. Lots of deep drifts on the way up to the crag., hiding some meaty holes as I discovered...
Summit was testing conditions, knock down gusts with near zero vis and outrageous spindrift and snow transport going on.
Path on way out was slush and mud., freezing level has jumped. Currently sitting in Aviemore in the sunshine!
 Andy Nisbet 04 Mar 2014
In reply to peebles boy:

Yes I thought the weather was much worse today than forecast. Same as you, I backed off something.
 AlH 04 Mar 2014
In reply to peebles boy:

Several teams backed off after trying to abseil in down South Gully today and we had a breezy day on Fiacaill Ridge http://alanhalewood.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/a-wee-bitty-breezey-on-fiacaill-...
DoverPiker 04 Mar 2014
In reply to peebles boy:

Hi Peebles,

We met in November on Sron na lairig (spelling!!) and you took photos of me and me climbing bud, thanks! We too were at Lurchers today, had to wait for the gates to open and were within 15 mins of leaving! Glad we didn't had an awesome day, apart from being sand blasted near the gap, we took the track over the top but spindrift was unbelievable still. Think we saw you soloing and probably followed your prints in from the car park. The other team that we shared central gully with had parked else where. Really good day though, ice bit cruddy on first pitch but top two were awesome especially with the bright blue skies, fairly sheltered higher up the gully as well thankfully, great views from the top!

Will
OP peebles boy 04 Mar 2014
In reply to AlH:

Loving the ice beard!!
Yeah, I can imagine trying to get in via descent would have been an interesting time of it between the spindrift and the updraught. It did seem like the South end of the crag was getting it worse as well, guess the waves had the whole of the Lairig Grhu to build up!!

Cheers,
Gordon
OP peebles boy 04 Mar 2014
In reply to DoverPiker:

Will,

Small world!! I did see quite a few teams coming in as I was climbing, wondered where folk ended up. Yeah, was first in today as I stayed in the van at the Sugarbowl car park last night, so did a fair bit of trail breaking!

Glad you had a good day, was slightly envious I started so early as things really looked like they cleared up once I was back at van, but I guess the pay off was getting things a bit more frozen; I was surprised how much snow went during the day and how slushy the path was on the way back.

Enjoy the rest of your trip, hope you get the weather you managed back in November (but somehow doubt you'll be so lucky again!!)

Cheers,
Gordon
OP peebles boy 05 Mar 2014
In reply to peebles boy:

Belated photos here, I've been having SD card trouble!!!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152212199295865.1073741867.7386...
 euanw 05 Mar 2014
In reply to peebles boy:

I have been out today on Lurcher's Crag. We climbed Quinn on good snow and ice. However, the ledges outwith the gully require care due to loose rock. There is more details and some photos on the climbnow.co.uk blog.

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