Granite & Ice: Glen Clova without boots

Robbie, James, Andrew, Gunnar and myself met in Glen Clova for a short day. And then I realised that I had not packed my boots. No boots = no crampons = no Wild Cat Wall, V,6**, our first objective. I followed Andrew and Gunnar into corrie Fee. Their revised objective was to climb Look C gully IV,4***, the classic of the glen which had some ice on the crucial ice pitch but it was unclear whether it was enough.

I decided to climb a buttress to the left at maybe grade II. A few slightly steeper bits but the fell running shoes had sufficient grip to get up these bits. Here is the view over lovely Glen Clova from higher up.

I then continued to Driesh and some blue skies emerged.

From the trig point I went East and descended via bum glissade into winter corrie where I saw Robbie and James on the second pitch of Diagonal Gully, III***.

Here is a picture of James zoomed in showing the ice that had formed over the last, cold week.

I decided to climb an easier gully to the left and saw John Wilson and Jim (?) on Backdoor Gully II. Here is John climbing a small ice step, the trickiest bit of the route.

Sans crampons it was a good opportunity to practice step cutting, the technique before front pointing changed ice climbing. It all went well and soon I passed the Aberdeen team to meet a surprised Robbie and James in the basin. Here is Robbie ascending to reach the steeper upper section of Diagonal Gully.

Sans crampons & sans harness I decided to better follow backdoor gully which crosses Diagonal Gully in the basin and then follows a heathery/turfy line to the right which is much more suited to climbing without crampons than ice and hard neve. Here is Robbie climbing the steeper finish of Diagonal Gully...