The Cobbler

With snow conditions further north a lot more stormy with higher avalanche risk, Martin and I took the chance of going up The Cobbler. As we left Dumbarton the snow was lying on the road and we doubted we would even get up the A82 as far as Arrochar but we managed. Luckily as the A82 up past Loch Lomond was pretty dry and clear of snow completely due to the warming effect of the loch and the high winds.

As we left the car and walked up towards The Cobbler the conditions started to deteriorate as we passed through the snow line. We made our way up to the North Peak to look at Maclay's Crack (III) but as we were at the foot of the climb the wind speed was really strong and gusting even stronger. We decided that this route would not have been the best choice as the wind was cutting directly across the crack so we had a look at some of the easier gullies but the same wind had stripped most of the snow out the gullies and they were incomplete.

Taxus, Beinn an Dothaidh

Brendan and I drove up to Bridge of Orchy with the intention of climbing Cirrus (IV), but it looked very thin so we opted for the other classic in the coire, Taxus (III). The temperature was about -15c on the climb so no photos unfortunately as the only attempt to work my camera numbed my hand for an hour.