Central Left Hand - Cairngorm Conditions

We had grand plans today to go somewhere more interesting than Cories. However, lazyness won out in the end and we headed in to Snechda to do Central Left Hand (II). It was busy with climbers again, but most seemed content with the more popular gullies. I think The Runnel must have had something approaching 20 people in it at the same time. Conditions have improved as there is slightly more snow and icing than a couple of days ago.

Central Left hand was relatively quiet in comparison and was good fun with great hard snow.

Adding to the enjoyment there was a wee ice pitch near the top, which luckily was my lead. At least some screws had survived the unintentional gear-rationalisation i.e. we forgot it, which had left us with only two large hexes (along with some slings and ice-screws) for a rack. The ice was fantastic. With the brisk wind it was chilly on the top. A quick reminder of what winter is 'really' like up on the plateau. Just when I was getting used to all that Alpine weather.

Loch Morlich is still frozen by the way.

Chatting to some guys in Aviemore it seems as though there is some icing low down on Lurcher's but the top 100m or so is completely bare. So it was probably a good thing that we wussed out and opted for the safe option.