Super Scabbard Chimney.

What a pleasure to have a calm day with some blue skies and a little sunshine. Tommy, co-founder of Jottnar, and I went up to Coire nan Lochan. I thought doing some mixed/buttress climbing today would be a good idea since we had a lot of fresh snow over the weekend. There was deep soft snow with a few layers and a slight crust near the top on the slopes and in the gullies. Progress was hard work if you were out in front but we made it to Scabbard Chimney easily enough thanks to a trail going to Summit Buttress Ordinary Route.

The climb was covered in soft snow as well, most of which was not very helpful! However the climbing was excellent. Scabbard Chimney has just three pitches but it has a lot of climbing and each pitch is tricky. The third is possibly the hardest but they are quite similar and the climb is quite sustained. At the top there are abseil anchors in place to go down The Tempest to make an easy descent. This was a brilliant warm up to a week of climbing with Tommy.

Several teams climbed Dorsal Arete, and Summit Buttress Ordinary Route and Raeburn's Buttress were both climbed today. It looks like this week will be cold and relatively calm with just a little fresh snow. Should be a good week for climbing.