Well 5 of us were in the Cairngorms last week and the snow was virtually non existent. The only day we managed any winter climbing at all was on Monday after a few hours of snow on the Saturday made everything white. We had a bash at Jacobs Ladder and the Slant both of which weren’t in prime condition. The Slant was coming away in chunks that suggested the ground was warm and ice axe placements basically didn’t leaving us slithering around on soft snowy banks. Jacobs’s ladder was significantly thin, apparently it was climbing to grade 3 ish rather than the one it usually is.
All the snow was gone by Tuesday/Wednesday other than the deep drifted stuff where the ML lot snowhole.
I’ll certainly be looking at the Alps for next year’s winter climbing trip. The flight costs from the south are roughly the same to Geneva as they are to Inverness.
Posted: 17/02/2004 at 12:15
