(My) Winter has started ...

And what a great way to start !  On Monday evening one of my partners in crime, Ian got in touch to say he could take a couple of days off to take advantage of the cold spell and likely weather window in Scotland we have both been watching, so there and then we made a plan to go up on Tuesday night, do the Aonach Eagach ridge on Wednesday and then decide on where to go Wednesday after that, with the am of trying to get on skis for a day.

So after the usual faffing by me and baby sitting duties by Ian we eventually set off at about 8.30pm Tuesday night and drove straight up to Glencoe, getting there a little after 2 am and kipping down in the camper van for a few hours before getting up at 7.30am and setting off up Am Bodach at about 8.30 am - phew !

Day 1:

Despite the lack of sleep it was impossible to feel tired on a beautiful crisp, but sunny morning and what looked like a a good covering of snow higher up.  We set off in the morning shadow but hit the sun just as we hot the snowline at about 600 m. The ascent is a fairly steep haul of around 800M, which we achieved quite quickly, catching a couple of pairs ahead of us just at the summit, one pair being an instructor/client combo. Apart from a lone walker at the far end, these were the only people we saw all day !

At this point we geared up with an acceptable amount of faff given it was the first outing of the season, I realised that I had forgotten to put a charged battery in my camera (hence no pics !) and the fun began immediately with the tricky descent of the chancellor. The weather conditions were superb, blue sky, sunshine and great air clarity, though a light northerly wind quickly drained warmth when stationary.
  
The conditions underfoot however, were quite tricky - a good covering of unconsolidated snow to hide holds, placements and protection options, any turf was semi frozen so unreliable.  All in all, this made the route quite tricky and delicate without ever being very technical.  After managing to overtake the instructor (who kindly let us though) we made good progress to Meall Dearg and on to the Pinnacles. This is definitely the trickiest part of the traverse, quite exposed and delicate in the conditions and our progress slowed, though we kept moving together for all put a couple of short sections - in fact we never placed any gear apart from slings on the whole route.  After what seemed like an age with one tricky down-climb after another, we cleared them and headed onto Stob Coire Leith. It was now past lunchtime and we were both starving, but we decided to get to Sgorr nam Fiannaidh before eating.  

On reaching the summit we found some shelter just below on the south side from the now fresher north wind and tucked into a well earned lunch at around 2.15 PM, relaxed now the main event was finished and pretty satisfied with our progress.  We chose the long descent via the col with the Pap of Glencoe and into Glencoe so that we could ensure we got a taxi back to the waiting van - this proved to be a bit tedious in the fading light and bracken particularly as we succumbed to our usual trick of trying to avoid using headtorches, before bowing to the inevitable in the end.  However, we made it down in one piece tired, but well pleased with the day. 

The taxi duly arrived and after being dropped back at the van, we retreated to the Clachaig for dinner with celebratory drinks and tried to stay awake until a respectable time to go to sleep !
Day 2:
During the previous evening we had managed to say awake long enough to determine our objective for the following day - a trip up Ben Lawers. Neither of us had been up it at all and were (rather hopefully) taking skis in the expectation of enough snow to practice some skinning and a bit of downhill action.  The day was again superb and this underestimated group of hills looked majestic with a good snow covering.  The car park at around 500m gave some relief from the uphill metres and in fact the ascent was quite gentle to the point where we could gear up with skis & skin up to the col at the head of coire Odhar.

We then undertake quite a tricky traverse round the north slopes of Beinn Ghlas, with quite a lot of unconsolidated windslab breaking off at points (evidence of the previous south westerly winds) to the col below Ben Lawers where I ditched my skis for the shortish but steep haul to the summit. Ian carried his skis to the summit hoping for a ski down at least part of it, which he got though it didn't look that great ( I was able to run/glissade down faster) and was clearly above my ability.  

We then had a really good, rapid skin up to the summit of Beinn Ghlas followed by some limited and sketchy skiing before I gave up and walked.  Ian being a superb off piste skier had quite a bit more success but is was never smooth or flowing for any length of time.  we complete the day with the remaining walk out, getting back to the van and a brew just after sunset. Despite the lack of real skiing on my part still a great day out and lots of skinning practice :-)  All that remained was the 6 hour drive home,trying not to get depressed that we weren't staying longer, but Ian had to be in work on Friday and I had a house to empty by the end of the week-end !