Sunday dawned another fine day and i found myself high in Corie an t Sneachda again though this time with my good mate John Forrester. We had our sights set on the seam. a classic iv,5 and according to Mr. Duthie the best of it's grade in the Corie. unfortunately it looked like most people on the Fiacaill buttress wanted to climb this also! so the decision was made to climb the neighbouring Invernookie iii,4.
The bottom two pitches were straight forward and the difficulties far from consistent. On pitch three i encountered some good climbing up a steep step that perhaps would be easier with more build up. The second step in this pitch proved to be the crux and an interesting one for the grade. Good moves on good gear brought me up to a large ledge were i belayed john up. John, a rock climber at heart, reveled in his first taste of mixed climbing.
John was keen to lead the last pitch and i was happy to let him have it, giving me the chance to snap away. Leading in good style with endless positive hooks in no time he'd climbed the corner and found his way in to the groove
and thus the ridge proper. It started snowing lightly as i seconded the last pitch some people say this is the crux but i doubted it, not in these conditions anyway. I joined John at the top and could tell that this wouldn't be the last time we climbed together.
No comments:
Post a Comment