Friday 31st December 2010: Coire an t-snechda: Fiacall Ridge (grade II)

After having a day off on the Thursday because of the thaw going on we got pretty restless and annoyed when we looked at the weather report it said thaw… again! It’s just our luck that with all the awesome winter weather that this country has been receiving it would choose to thaw when we are in Scotland.

Nevermind, instead we went for Fiacall Ridge and grade II route which was described as “a good option under powder” in the guidebook. We actually wanted the reverse (under thaw) but a ridge would provide the sport we were looking for. Another reasonably early start (0640) and a good breakfast before setting off to Coire Cas. I stopped on the way to try and get some good photo’s of the Cairngorms in the morning light which have come out ok. 

Back on the same walk in as before but turning off up the ridge that fiacall sits on top of. The ridge itself was pretty easy going and not the long hard slog that I’d assumed that it would be. Underfoot it was much colder than the weather report had suggested and we plodded on up hard neve with our crampons on most of the way. We actually got to sit and watch the sun rise from a little rest spot out of the wind.

Conditions wise the weather had been kind to us so far, with it being much colder than expected but the wind was now starting to pick up. We got to watch the wind blow all the mist out of Coire an Lochain and over fiacall ridge into the sunlight creating a golden glow that settled over t-snechda. It was something really amazing to watch. 

The ridge itself was pretty reasonable. We decided to rope up well before it got difficult and out of the wind and I led off. Armed with a small rock rack and a single axe we wound along the ridge looping spikes and slings as I saw fit. Occasionally after a difficult section I would belay, quickly with and Italian hitch (so bloody useful).  We had only three difficulty sections on the whole ridge and I’d be happy with its grade II status. In the end we got to top out in the late morning sunshine for a tea break.

After  we had tea we decided to try for another route and dropped down the goat track with a mind to try Goat Track Gully (also grade II). By now the conditions were not the alpine clear skies we’d been blessed with in the morning but fog and high wind. A party were on the gully we wanted and another party bailed off the first pitch of Red Gully (next to it) in fear as apparently its was defrosting rapidly and pretty unsafe. This confirmed our suspicions and we abandoned any thoughts of climbing a gully. Instead we went with our original plan of following the top of t-snechda round and walking down the ridge by the ski centre. This proved to be a good walk in winds strong enough to knock us around and visibility short enough to encourage me to actually equip myself with my map and compass! The walk must have taken us over an hour and half of me was damp by the time we dropped out of the clag and wind from the constant one sided buffeting. 

We actually helped a couple of people out walking who were slipping and sliding down the ride with no axes or crampons. Andy lent them his (they have leashes) and we each walked down with one till the conditions underfoot improved.

 

Having put my crampons on at about 0830 that morning I removed them at the end of a nice short day of winter mountaineering before I stepped off the snow and into civilisation. The temperature is supposed to drop to -5degrees by tomorrow and me and Andy are heading to Cread Meghi… Bring it on!

(Topping out off Fiacal Ridge)