At last a no wind and cloud MWIS Cairngorms weather forecast for the East coincided with no other commitments. Robbie and I decided to make this ticket count and decided on Beinn a Bhuird. This time we went without bikes and did not take a tent as there was no other car in the car park suggesting that we would be the only ones around. However, soon after setting off we noted the traces of mountain bike tyres in the snow and readied ourselves for a night under the skies. We reached the empty howff in sub two hours at 11 pm and spent a comfortable night in our winter sleeping bags.
A welcome change for Robbie who had shivered through previous nights in a bag that was made for summer nights on the Costa del Sol. We got up at 6 h, started walking at 7 h and after a red dawn ...
...whilst ascending the Northern flank of Coire nan Clach ...
...we dropped into Garbh Choire to have a look at our objectives. Objectives 1 and 2 were bare lower down but white higher up but to be honest objective 1 looked far more intimidating than in the guidebook and some very large cams would come in handy.
Thus we chose to climb back out and to walk over into Coire na Ciche...
... in spring-like light...
...
...for our original objective number 1 which was Jason’s chimney, a V,6**. It was first climbed on the 31st of March 1974 by M. Freeman and N.D. Keir. We saved time by a long and fast (but not lethally fast) bumslide into Coire nan Clach and reached Coire na Ciche at noon and started climbing at 12.30 h.
There was little snow on the rock but Jason’s chimney was, as the name suggests, a corner-chimney line which holds snow, ice and neve well and additionally has turf. It is the second chimney line to the right of hourglass buttress. I did the first pitch which was good tech 4 climbing and Robbie then the crux above which was a squeeze chimney.
The understated warning in the guidebook says a ‘traditional Cairngorms-style climb’ which translates into something that is comparable to wrestling with a wild boar covered in vaseline. At times I only saw Robbies right, cramponed foot scraping on the rounded granite but after a while he reappeared reborn above and soon reached a belay.
I initially tried to climb with rucksack but after getting stuck I sensibly tied the rucksack into the blue rope, squeezed through the chimney alone and then pulled the rucksack up. The third pitch was a short step onto a rib ...
...
...and then an easy traverse into the corner of Sickle ...
...and below a chockstone out onto the windless plateau.
...
We first walked the steep bit into the corrie and then bum-glissaded from half way up the corrie head wall...
...got our gear together and walked over frozen, heathery ground towards the burn where we saw a solitary walker with skis on his back, the first person all day. It was Adrian Crofton who had skinned and skied a Southern corrie three times. We walked to together to near the secret howff, collected our sleeping bags and with heavy rucksacks walked into the dusk ...
...to reach the cars at 18.30 h.
Beinn a Bhuird had delivered again. Jason’s chimney is a good climb well worth the walk in but only three pitches and in the Northern Corries there are many climbs of similar quality. However it is the wide spaces, wilderness, solitude and commitment that add an additional two stars to any climb in the corries of this great mountain.
HW
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