Sunday 19th May 2013

David

Justyna

Ephraim

Richard

Ewan

So, the plan was to head off to The Buckle and climb a couple of mountain routes: Ephraim and Justyna were going to have a go at Agag’s Groove (vdiff) whilst Ewan, Richard and I would tick off Hiccup (VS) before heading over to follow them up Agag’s.

It was supposed to be claggy first thing but then clearing up, getting sunny and warm and hopefully drying the rock. Unfortunately the weather hadn’t read this forecast and just didn’t want to play ball. By the time we got to the bottom of the routes the mountain was still shrouded in cloud and the rock was all still wet. We knew there was no chance Hiccup would get done but went to see if we could locate it anyway for future reference. Then headed back to the Crowberry Basin to find Ephraim and Justyna.

With rock climbing only for the brave in this wetness it was time for a plan B, so we all decided to head up Curved Ridge, a scramble graded at Moderate. Even this proved tricky in the wet and we (along with every other party we saw) soon had the ropes out. The actual climbing was great but such a shame not get a view. For those familiar with the route: we could hardly even make out the Rannoch Wall, half a hundred metres to our right!

As we got to the top of the mountain we noticed it was definitely warmer and, as if to taunt us, the cloud started lifting on the way down. By the time we neared the bottom and could see the North face again, it was spectacularly cloud free and probably ideal for climbing. Ah well, serves us right I guess for getting up too early!