Meet Report

11th to 13th February 2011 - Aite Cruinnichidh, Roybridge

A very late meet report, sorry, so it's hard to remember what anyone else got up to (reminders very welcome thanks).

On a fairly uninspinring Saturday Chris, Tim, Fiona M and Alan R headed for the north east ridge of Aonach Beag (via the gondolas and Aonach Mor rather than the Glen Nevis approach).  The first obstacle was the need to descend over an enormous cornice into a featureless whiteout to be able to reach to the start of the route several hundred metres below us; fortunately a gung-ho couple came along and revealed there to be solid reasonably graded ground just a few metres down, and we quickly followed (Chris finding the snow conditions perfect for demonstrating why anti-balling plates can be a good idea).  The route itself seemed straightforward enough apart from the crux, on which far too much time was spent attempting to climb hard rock before the lateness of the hour dictated it be turned and the two parties made desperate traverses over disgustingly soft snow before regaining the ridge crest and easy climbing.  Topping out near sunset the summit of Aonach Beag was bypassed in the name of expediency (depriving Tim of a needed Munro tick) and the long walk back to the car (last gondola was long gone) down the mountain bike tracks was completed by head torch.

Sunday was quite wet.  Chris and Tim bagged some stuff up Glen Roy way.