Coire an t’sneachda (Sep 2013)

Sunday 29th September 2013

Markus, Janis – Fingers Ridge Direct (VS)

Ewan, Daniela – Salvation (VS)

David, Jennie – The Message (vdiff)

It’s Autumn, cold and blustery, so why did we decide to go mountain climbing in the Cairngorms? Standing around in the teeth of a gale in Cairngorm ski centre car park I was beginning to wonder if I’d made the right call. Still, DMC are a spirited bunch. We put our heads down and walked straight into the wind and into Coire an t’Sneachda. Here’s where the planning bit paid off. Although the wind was ferocious, the crags were sheltered from it and as we approached the ciff apron the wind subsided. Jen and I turned left to head up to the Mess of Pottage buttress whilst the other two teams carried on to the backwall of the coire.

The Message is more famous as a winter climb but gives a couple of excellent pitches of hard vdiff climbing when not snowed up. Jen and I got up with a few slips but no actual falls and were soon ready to face the storm on the summit plateau. It actually wasn’t bad at all: 5 minutes in the wind then we were dropping back down into the shelter of the valley. We met up with Daniela and Ewan, happy with their climb, and skipped back to the car park in the sunshine to catch up with Markus and Janis.

What a great day’s climbing.

View more photos at http://www.yogile.com/dmc-2013-09-29