Bears on Tour

Oh yes, full of the mirth after a very, very long walk in! How we laughed. The views weren't to be sniffed at (it was far too cold for sniffing anyway, my nostrils were sticking) and kept me pretty content all the way up.

Church Door Buttress with her winter layers on. The Arch is the prominant feature, left of centre, and provides an impressive, if gappy, belay ledge atop pitch 3. The route starts about 40 metres right from the toe of the buttress. Two climbers (Jim & Rob?) can be spotted at the toe, heading for our route!

Looking down at Natalie before turning the corner on the first pitch. Lovely opening pitch with a nifty move out onto the 'Damacolean' chockstone. Found out later what that meant, but happily, not by experience!










Below: Nataliecompleting the first pitch. The neve was five star for the whole route - such a joy to climb; could've done with exporting a bit of it to Observatory the other day!

This is on the brilliant 3rd pitch, which passes several more chockstones & boulders and then takes an unlikely line across the top of the Arch. The first ascentionists must've felt pretty pleased with this discovery.

 Looking back to Natalie after the crux section on pitch 4. The gear is good and the hooks are superb, with a delicious chunk of neve to sink a pick into at the top. There's a peg offering a veneer of protection across the initial traverse too (I do wonder what it'd be like without the snow we had). It was 3pm when I left this anchor and the light was breath taking.

I took a rediculous number of pictures over Aonach Eagach, and I think I was remarkably restrained to only post these!

After a particularly parky stay at Laggangarbh Natalie Feather and I took the long walk up to Bidean nam Bian's Church Door Buttress. Luckily, Natalie had fed us with incredible amounts of classy food the night before, including the best chowder I've ever had. I've been wanting to do West Gully for awhile (maybe it was the name that attracted me to it) and've never done a winter route in the coire before. 

The route was cracking - it takes a brilliant line, the pitches are really varied & exciting, every belay is wonderfully situated, and the views out across Stob Coire nan lochain, Aonach Eagach, the Ben & over to Skye kept me gawping all the way. I was relieved to find the climbing quite straight forward and well protected when I wanted it. 

It was Natalie's first route of the season, and first route of that grade, and she battled an annoyingly high rucsack and a lingering cold valiently! Thanks NBs. I will certainly be back to explore the other routes up there soon.

For more pictures from the day, visit the Chicks Unleashed Facebook page.