Zig-Zags And Heavy Snow
Posted by Max Hunter on 07th December, 2014
Needles on the Aonach Eagach
The slabby path becomes slippery
Today was my last day with Sara and and Gustav. I wanted to show them somewhere new, and give them a scramble and a journey, and find somewhere where we would need the axe and crampons. Sara also wanted to practice using emergency rope ascending skills with a tibloc and a ropeman – so we headed off to Glencoe and the Zig-Zags on Gearr Aonach. In the valley there was initially hail and sleet, but up higher, this soon turned to graupel and snow – thick and fast. There was snow on the scrambling on the Zig-Zags, but we left our crampons off for most of it. We practiced ascending fixed lines on the best of the scrambling. Eventually we encountered enough snow to require crampons – which stayed on until we were quite low down on the descent path at the end of the day.
After sheltering from the wind after the scramble, for a civilised lunch, we moved on to complete the Gearr Aonach ridge. At this point we had the worst gusts of the day, and the wind was joined by some stinging graupel – and a dark sky.
The drifting snow was deep, over the boots at points – and it started to bring memories of post-holing back from last season. There was plenty of snow on the steep steps descending down to the car – if there’s a frost tonight they’ll be even more tricky tomorrow.
Hannah was out with a winter skills team in the Coire, and hopefully they had a great day as well.
I’ve had a great 4 days – thank you Sara and Gustav. Enjoy Skye.
Choosing to scramble and not use the path
Somewhere on the Zig-Zags
AMI #lookforthelogo
Let’s go that way
Enjoying the view after the Zig-Zags
Upper Glencoe
The final scramble
Looking up at Stob Coire nan Lochan