The route is often prone to avalanche danger, but with the snow settled and perfectly hard, the first half of the route turned out to be a very pleasant snow romp. The only issue was that the depth of snow was covering any ice or cracks that we could use for protection. They were long leads with little gear, but the snow was perfect.
Soon enough, we were established deep inside the gully and seemingly out of the wind. The temperatures were very low though and I regretted not putting on my extra duvet.
Out in the distance, the sun shone, while we crept upwards in the cold.
Towards to top, the wind arrived - bringing with it showers of spindrift. One minute it would be pouring down the gully, the next, it would be returning back up the gully on an updraft! It went everywhere as we scrambled to get our goggles on while temporarily blinded.
The good news was that the final two main belays were in little cave recesses at the back of the gully and provided some good shelter! We could watch the snow and wind blow right past us, without feeling a thing. We didn't want to leave the last one!
Jamie led the final hard section on good ice, but while battling with the wind. I didn't envy him from the security and shelter of the belay cave!
Then joyously, we exited the gully and finished up the final sections of the ridge to the summit of the mountain, feeling like heroes!
The wind was whipping around us, but the views and elation of the summit (and wearing goggles) made it not matter.
On the summit, we stood a while watching the spindrift swirl and the views come and go. It was too cold to hang around for long though.
To descend, we traversed the ridge and climbed into the snow-filled Corrie an Tulloch. Again, this is usually very avalanche prone and I'm always very cautious here. However, the stable snowpack meant that we were able to sit down and slide downhill for several hundreds of metres to aid our descent! We followed the snow-filled river gully easily back down to the path. Brilliant.
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