A Very Busy Creagan Cha-no
Posted by Max Hunter on 18th February, 2014
Abseiling on the left, Anvil Gully on the R
Abseil to avoid Anvil Gully
Day 2 of the Intro to Winter Climbing course, at Glenmore Lodge with Jeremy and Marc. We decided to check out Creagan Cha-no. The visibility was poor for the entire day, so we had to nav carefully to the crag, but arrived after 1hr 10min form the Ciste Car park – what did we find? …. we weren’t first! There were about 4 teams ahead of us and 2 teams behind us – but with everybody working around each other, after the abseils it worked really well. We did a grade II option with steps of III, to the R of Anvil Buttress. Other climbs that were good were Anvil Gully and Chimney Rib. Chimney Rib however topped out onto a very dubious looking cornice, so we helped the team out and threw them a top rope, in case their end of the cornice on Recovery Gully went, which we thought might set off the entire top of Recovery Gully. However there were no moving cornices whilst we were at the crag, but there was a lot of dripping from the crags, and lots of snow was detaching and falling off, unnervingly, all around. The turf under the surface was frozen in most places, and the snow under the initial surface was firm enough to pull on. The cornices are large but can be outflanked in several places.
Marc approaching the belay
Some grade II ground
Huge cornice at the top of Recovery Gully
Jeremy finding hooks