Dry on Curved Ridge.

For the last of our three days of training with Till, Hollie, J and Sam we went to Curved Ridge. A couple of these guys have been to the Alps and were interested in how to move together ona rope on long, Alpine scrambling ridges. Curved Ridge is an excellent venue for this and the guys moved up the whole ridge by themselves. It was another hard frost and very cold day with lots of sunshine and light winds. The views from the ridge were brilliant but the cloud just came down to the summit when we got there, the first sign of the wet and warm weather we expect over night and tomorrow.

Walking up through the screes to Curved Ridge and the first section of scrambling to Crowberry Basin is very awkward at the moment. Dribbles of ice cover many of the rocks and make progress difficult. Once on the ridge the rock was bone dry and a delight to climb. Lots of the loose rocks are well frozen in place too. There was some frost on the rocks on the rop and more dribbles of ice on the descent slowed us down here too. A could of old hard snow patches are found on the way around Crowberry Tower, before the very last step to the summit and at the top of Coire Tullach on the descent. An ice axe and crampons should be taken but we managed to skirt around the snow patches and cut steps across some of them so we didn't use the crampons.

​Wet and warmer for a few days over the weekend but MWIS says "Monday brings an abrupt drop in temperature, upland gales and heavy rain, but in Scotland, snow to increasingly low levels. By midweek onward, it will be changeable, as winds vary between west and north, but on the Scottish Munros, even in the westerly phases, temperatures will frequently be below freezing point, leading to an overall accumulation of snow."