Final day in Scotland

Our final day in Scotland we had decided to take it easy with a simple route in t-scneadha. We chose Fiacall Buttress (grade II,3). The walk in to the coire was harder than normal, probably because of day before (Creag Meagaidh) and we got paced by what seemed like a million people. Had we realised how many people would be in the coire today, I guess we'd have probably walked to Lochain instead but a whiteout prevailed and we arrived at Fiacall Buttress just in time to start queing for a route.

queuing!!!

We'd chosen to do Fiacall Buttress mainly because it was easy but everyone we'd spoken too agreed that it was a pretty good route. After queing for a while we manged to get going and I took the first pitch. It wasn't too bad but harder than I was expecting for grade II. I ended up stuck behind the party infront waiting for a belay until I snuck in a little hex. The guy watching me was impressed whe I hammered the thing home cutting through all the verglas along the inside of the crack. Least now I could start belaying Andy up.

I was also getting cold. It wasn't like I was wildly exposed or anything but it was the coldest day I'd been out for and I'd neglected to wear a helly or thermal trousers (favouring a faster, lighter and less sweaty walk-in). I should have hunkered down in my belay jacket much sooner than I did but I thought we'd move quicker. I was wrong.

Andy arrived, we swapped gear, got overtaken by another party, who apolgised profusley (they'd bailed off thier objective and onto our route) and he set off, slowed by the guy seconding in front of him. I finally put my belay jacket on but I was too cold. I bet I was a right sight hanging from my belay, doing leg raises and leg lifts to generate heat! Eventually a few tugs came at my waist and the call of safe floated down. I could get moving.

Of course we were still stuck behind the party infront. I arrived shivering. Andy started to say "why don't you put on your belay ja...." only to realised I already had it on. "I've nothing left in my pack" I said and shivered dutifully. Instead we cracked out the flasks as we where held up anyway. It gave us a chance to watch the party infront deal with the crux and talk to his belayer. I got moving eventually and dealt with said crux. It was a slight overhang you turned on the left and it rocked. It was hard enough to make you think but easy enough be enjoyable. 

The rest of the route was easy and I bumbled on to the top to belay above the cloud. With Andy joined me and we sat around drinking tea and chilling out before heaing down to do another route. This wasn't going to be because the crowds were not heaving. Instead content with our achievments we nipped back to the MRT box, donned our walking poles and set off plodding out. A fine day to end on.

Andy sporting one of the many hats his mother had made on the final walk out