We headed East today.

Elved, Tony and I headed east today, a long way east. to Far Eastern Buttress where we climbed Eastern Slant. I've climbed here a couple of times in summer and in winter amnd it's been great fun. However I had not climbed Eastern Slant despite it being a good route with deep snow and in a westerly gale. It's the last buttress on the right as you walk up towards Coire nan Lochan in Glen Coe and the best approach is to follow the path all the way to the stream crossing at the big boulder then a short traverse across easy slopes to the foot of the buttress.

The climbing on Eastern Slant (III,4) is delicate rather than difficult and the protection is not always great. Today the snow was wet and the turf very wet so we did a lot of pushing and weight shifts rather than pulling on our axes. This is great practice though and good for building effective climbing technique. Some fresh snow was falling as we walked down as the next weather front came in along with very strong winds, a thaw and lots of rain. However it was a good end to a week of climbing with Tony and Elved that gave us wild swings in the weather. Hopefully it will be a bit more settled and cold next week.