Mountaineering Day 4

Today it was all about the snow anchors! As I left my house this morning to be hit by the refreshing Scottish rain and tropical temperatures I thought to myself two options - Ice Factor or lots of wet clothes. When I mentioned to options to Giles and Ivon, it was a no-brainer! So we headed into Glencoe and had a wander up into Coire na Tulaich on Buchaille Etive Mor. After spending the last two days placing wires in cracks and slings on spikes it was time to dig! With minimal hard wear on our harnesses we dug and dug and dug until we had looked at all the different snow anchors and also tested them out to see their limitations. All the anchors were working well as there was a good icy layer under all the soft snow. After pitching our way up one of the gullies we looked at how we could protect others and ourselves on a descent. We bumped into Matt and Dave (PYB) on the way down who had climbed Curved Ridge via mainly gullies. As expected they said there wasn't much snow on the ridge. It turned out to be a fantastic day and we were all very glad we didn't go to the Ice Factor to get stupidly pumped and get a caffeine high!