Douglas Boulder
Posted by Max Hunter on 26th February, 2014
Avalanche snowball, taller than me
CIC top L – Debris about 200m above it
Today was day 3 of the Winter Mountaineering Course at Jagged Globe. A few of the teams were out on Dorsal Arete, Boomerang Arete, and a team was at the Ice Factor. I was with Jennie and Jo and we headed for the Douglas Boulder for a grade II introduction to winter climbing – we used the grade II broken ground right of the East Gully from the base of the Boulder. From the top of the East Gully we looked down at a couple of teams swimming up the West Gully. We looked at stacked abseils and finished our day in Cotswolds buying new dry primaloft jackets and new socks. The team should be dry and warm tomorrow.
There were a few teams on the west side of the Boulder, and at the end of our day we saw a team retreating down from the snow field below the West Gully area – maybe it was too difficult to swim up the West Gully?
During my climb, there was only a little ice that was thick enough, to withstand this thaw and be useful for axe and crampon placements, besides that the snow and ice was cosmetic.
The avalanche debris is truly huge. One snow ball was taller than me, and the Observatory debris I paced to be only just over 200m from the CIC!
Jo tackling rock
Jennie and Jo in East Gully