15 March 2015
An early rise saw Gerry and Mark meet Murray for a day on the Ben...
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waving at the tree, stopping to look at the Buachaille has become a part of
what we all do, so pulling into Jacksonville it was clear that Crowberry Gully would be in good nick. Plan changed - we walked the walk we have all
done 1000 times.
The neve was in great nick so we front pointed
from just above the water slab to pitch 3 ? of Crowberry Gully. The 2
ice pitches were in good fat condition and easy for the grade with first
time placements all the way. The route is very atmospheric and an
amazing situation to be in.
We topped out in brilliant, sunny Alpine like conditions and made our way to a deserted summit to drink in the views.
The pics say it all... and a wee movie from Murray here
8 March 2015
Mark teamed up with Murray and headed to the Coe. The mild temperatures have wreaked havoc with black rock everywhere.
They headed up curved ridge on damp slippy rock till we hit the snow line.
There is lots of snow in all the gully lines but a good freeze is needed
ASAP.
The hill was quiet today with just Chris English and co. from Dublin-Wicklow MRT plus one other party and us braving the wind.
Murray had never been down the West ridge Coire na Tulloch (dad's ridge) so they headed
down that instead as the headwall looked very steep indeed with monster horizontal cracks.
Impressive crevasses at the foot of the Coire.
More here from Murray
Following on from the
soaking he got last week Kevin was persuaded to head to the hills once
more. This time I promised, blue skies and snow. I didn’t tell him it
would be cold but he should have guessed with the layering and fatter
gloves!
Ben Donich is a great hill for your first winter hill
walk, it feels like a proper mountain journey with lots of ups and downs
and interesting rock features. There was lots of wind blown snow but we
were able to pick our way round all of it making for a more interesting
but circuitous route.
Kevin did really well for his first time in crampons with good balance and weight distribution…
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