UKC

Flying visit to Beinn Udlaidh yesterday, strange old day on the hill....

Left car at 0730 (fifth car there) with temps at -1. Frozen solid walk in and up into the coire still feeling like it was below freezing.
Things warmed up quick though, and a fair bit of ice came down around the coire through the day, with water visibly running and dripping from the crag. (back to car at 1500 and it was saying 6degrees. Interested to see some of the creative parking from the 20 or so cars by this point!!).

Lots of teams out - think most routes that are "in" received ascents all the way from Zig Zag gully through to West Gully. Good conditions reported throughout, barring the odd bit of self-detaching ice and some drippy conditions in places. We headed for some kind of variation to Ice Crew, as did a couple other teams, and I think it's fair to say none of us actually could say for sure whether we did Ice Crew or not!! Also seems like there's some ice to the left (looking at crag) of Ice Crew/Zigzag waiting for some routes on it?

One of the guys on "Ice Crew" lost his GoPro, not sure if he's posted on here or not but I'm sure if you find it, the footage will be well worth watching - you'll get some climbing footage followed by several increasingly sweary shouts for slack and taking in before a chandalier falls and knocks the GoPro off, leading you to think the guy has just fell if you're watching the footage!!!

Lots of crag and climber photos on Facebook link below, if anyone wants an original file drop me a message through here.

Cheers,
Gordon

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152948155345865.1073741893.7386...

In reply to peebles boy:

Conditions excellent again today but watch out for falling ice. A block about the size of a rucksack detached whilst we were on the croc and heard a loud boom as we walked down from the crag.

In reply to peebles boy:

Some great photos Gordon. I'm in the vicinity on Thursday but the forecast suggests it'll be much reduced by then.

In reply to BnB:

Difficult one to call - MWIS seem to be suggesting the higher summits will be well above freezing, but lower down areas like Udlaidh will be in the colder cloud level, so might not be too badly stripped. mountain-forecast.com seem to be predicting colder weather moves back in later in the week, though MWIS are talking of a bigger thaw....too early to call I guess!

In reply to peebles boy:

With ten days at my disposal a turbo thaw is virtually guaranteed

In reply to BnB:

Ha, I know the feeling - time off has usually meant crap weather over the last few weeks, here's hoping this is the start of the Weather Gods being on my side again