It seems that all of my recent mountain days around Glen Coe and the Nevis range have been in extremely taxing conditions. It’s all part and parcel of mountain walking in Scotland, particularly in winter, but it certainly makes you appreciate it when you can take time to really enjoy your suroundings. Today was one of those days. It might not have been perfect, but sometimes you just have to be thankful for what you get!

Uncertain of how much snow would be around after some recent thawing, I opted to head into Coire nan Lochan. This is one of the classic, and very popular, winter climbing venues with a relatively short and steep walk in. I figured that, if anywhere was going to have held it’s snow, this north facing corie would be the place. The snow line was fairly high (about 700m), but there was plenty of snow once you were up there.

I took some time to practice a few bits and pieces, such as setting up belays and looking at the snow pack stability through snow pits, and shear and Rutschblock tests. I managed to get the Rutschblock to fail, where a layer of firm snow sheared away from some unfrozen snow below, but it took a heavy jump to make it go, so didn’t cause too much concern.

I’ve been up Stob Coire nan Lochan before, but wanted to try a new route by taking the north east ridge. It had been well scoured by the wind, leaving exposed rock and ice making crampons a must. In general, it was a simple enough route picking your way through the rocks, but there were a couple of short sections of more demanding scrambling which certainly wouldn’t have been good for novices. However, the top was reached slowly and carefully before descending to the north. I hadn’t planned on getting into any gullies today but, as I passed the top of Broad Gully and saw that it all looked stable, I couldn’t resist.

Once back into the corie, with snow falling quite heavily, I spent a bit more time studying the snowpack before heading down. As I dropped below about 400m, the snow started to turn to rain. Oh well – you can’t have it all!