Start to the Scottish Winter season...

As hinted at in a previous post, the Scottish Winter season has started.  Many of the early season 'usual suspects' saw ascents on the 20th October.

James Edwards sent this via email today: "Well the reports of winter climbing were true.  I went to have a look with my neighbour Ross Jones as a happy coincidence meant that we were both free on the same day.

We drove to the Ski Car park in the dark and were very pleasantly surprised with how wintery it was; although on the walk-in I fell into a stream hidden by a snow drift up to my thighs which wasn't a pleasant surprise.

 

We started up 'Savage Slit' V,6 (pictured) on No 4 Buttress intending to do 'Fall Out Corner VI,7 in the afternoon but as we abbed back down just after midday the wind had changed and the crags were dripping.  We went for coffee! It all went in the next couple of days, but i had to scrape the car windows this morning at sea level and it looks like winter may come back in a week or so... watch this space!"

It's all very mild at the moment and the medium term forecasts suggest it will be generally mild for a while yet http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/avnpanel1.html   Fingers crossed for a drop in temperature again shortly.

In the mean time check out Simon Richardson's excellent blog http://www.scottishwinter.com/?p=2061 and http://www.scottishwinter.com/?p=2048 and get those tools out just in case...