So, as I’m in the throes of frantically finishing writing a thesis, we took a long weekend in Cairngorm.

Accommodation was in the very nice Badaguish lodges, where the best part is the lively company of ex and current British Exploring Leaders. Some three vans turned up; although we didn’t have ours this time, it was clear where the inspiration for our van came from.

Saturday had a good forecast, so we headed into Coire an t-Sneachda with Richard. Richard has a 12 week old girl and was on a rare day off so we had volunteered to take him on his first real winter climb. We haven’t climbed much recently, so thought that Spiral Gully would provide a long and easy acclimatisation for everyone. After some confusion about what other people were doing, we ended up with 4 other teams in the gully. Luckily, where other climbers saw the easy right hand variation, I saw the more interesting left hand variation. Unfortunately, part way through this interesting section the ropes decided to become unbelievably tangled. This put a stop to our overtaking manoeuvres, but did remind us of the tight rope work needed in winter to keep everything moving smoothly. By the time we escaped the knot, we threaded our way back through other teams on the route to find the direct finish was already occupied, so we were forced to take the easy way home. A couple of windy tacks east across the plateau and we escaped down the goat track for a late lunch.

Sunday started with quite a bit of lethargy. Luckily Tom was keen to do something harder, and I foolishly said I would help. Leaving everyone else to a lazy breakfast we headed into the corrie again. This time looking for either Broken Gully or Aladdin’s Mirror Direct. Deciding that short and steep would be preferred over the longer Broken Gully, we headed to the base of Aladdin’s Mirror Direct. A fun time ensued as I learnt to lead ice. Luckily Rob had provided some vital info about number of ice screws needed. He had also told us the crux was in the first section, but I found the second section more imposing, which didn’t help morale. Unfortunately, once we’d all learnt to climb ice, the pitch was over and only steep snow / spindrift was left. Amazingly, despite the forecast, we topped out into the sun – my favourite moment of any mountaineering day.

Having re-learnt how to climb and bettered our grade in the first two days, we tried to squeeze another climb in on the Monday before driving home. Unfortunately, Red Gully was already taken by another pair, and despite our attempts to overtake, we couldn’t find a belay point quick enough. A quick discussion followed where we decided that it would be better to leave it rather than follow behind a slow party, and there wasn’t too much else in the corrie that was tempting. We played in the broken ground near the goat track then headed back over the top and drove home, getting back at a sensible time for once. It was nice not to mess with ropes yet still play around with two axes, having fun in the mountains, knowing the next day we would be back chained to a desk in the middle of nowhere. The sun was also out, but not quite enough to give Jo her first few of the plateau (still waiting after six years of visits).

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