South Post Direct

Today was the first day for Matt and Alex's 3 day climbing course, I was working for Abacus Mountaineering. With a wet and mild forecast on the west coast we decided to head a little further east to Creag Megaidh to avoid the dampness. It paid off, we were in the cloud all day but it never rained on us. Our plan was to head up Staghorn Gully (III). On the approach we passed some avalanche debris from the base of the gully however once we got into the gully the snow was wet but stable. It was nice and soft all the way up so we were able to move up most of the way un-roped. On arrival to South Post Direct (IV,4) we could see that the ice looked continuous and good enough to climb on! The guys were well psyched! They were happy to put the Cold Climbs classic off for another time and climb something a little steeper. The route was brilliant, a really cool cave half way up too! Mike was on the Pumpkin (V,4) which sounded very brilliant fun.