UKC

Hi Folks, time for an update.

I was out on the skis today for a good look around. Pretty much all of the snow has firmed up really well after the brief thaw on Tuesday. All the north facing crags are looking pretty snowy, with a fair bit of clearing still needed on rocky routes and good crampon technique needed to approach all the routes!

Over in the Loch avon basin it is another story, most of the rock has been cleared dry by the sun over the last two days, but there is a load of ice about. Hell's Lum is holding a lot of snow ice, teams in Deep cut chimney today, probably a good choice. The Chancer is formed but looking fairly delicate, same for Cascade. The Sticil face and the Citadel both looked compete with ice. Carn Etchachan was surprisingly dry, a team were on Route Major.

I didn't go round to Lurchers, but I would guess the trend for a fair bit of ice would make it worth the walk.

Quite a windy weekend in store (again!) with a some new snow on southerly, then westerly winds. Will change the picture regarding avalanche forecasts, but will not do much to the climbing conditions.

Keep an eye on the forecast
http://www.sais.gov.uk/northern-cairngorms/

Photos from today are on the Facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/stewartmountainskills

More info on my route today on the blog here:
http://stewartmountainskills.blogspot.co.uk/

In reply to ian stewart:
We did North Gully on Lurchers today (Thursday) along with two other teams. Approach from the Sugerbowl car park and Chalamain Gap is fine, no avalanche risk at all and no crampons needed until the base of the gully.

The gully is complete until above the final ice pitch but the ice was lean and melting. Some crud and a bit soft in places but also lots of decent placements and ice screw placements.

We did the left hand finish which was mainly ok but had a bit of crud in places. With my limited experience I'd say it was hard grade III. The other two teams went right and said the pitch went at grade IV.

The shorter gullies to the left of North Gully all held ice and looked pretty good. There were a couple of teams over there but I've no idea of their actual state.

Thanks to Ian for his updates and hope this helps.

In reply to ian stewart:


Two teams, actually. Conditions were excellent, and it's one of the best routes I've ever done in Scotland, with a real mixture of everything, even an iced up chimney, which I wasn't expecting.

I thought Sticil Face looked very thin.

In reply to jpicksley:

Thanks for the Lurchers update. Did you by any chance see what the ice was like at the start of the Window Gully/K9 area (to the right of North Gully)? Thanks in advance

Dave

In reply to MrRiley:

I'm afraid not. Sorry. First time we've been there and we just wanted to make sure we got in the correct gully!

In reply to jpicksley:

No worries! Thanks anyway!

In reply to MrRiley:

Dave, I think it's unlikely to be much good at Window Gully but I do think Central Gully will be good and Grade IV.

In reply to MrRiley:

Were going to climb Window Gully on Wednesday, but it didn't look like the ice fall had touched down so headed up Central Gully instead.

Cheers

Andy

In reply to Andy and Andy:

Many thanks both, it seems a good choice currently and from what I remember the top pitch on Central can very nice!

In reply to ian stewart:

Some pictures from Route Major (IV 5) on Thursday.

https://goo.gl/photos/HR2kXvVqvkyMEgRA9