Today fellow instructors Max, Lena and myself made our way over to the Cairngorms, before the road closes, and we climbed the good early season route, Pygmy ridge high in Coire an t-sneachda.
The walk in was one of the hardest bits of the day with verglas over the rocks and gravel from the carpark, we had to be careful not to slip on the ice.
Once in the back of the corrie in the near pea soup covered in moisture, we assessed our options having only just reached the freezing level and decided to go for the high up option of Pygmy ridge.
We made our way up a few easy long pitches to gain the base of the ridge. From there it was steeper climbing on rimed up rock with good gear and mostly good axe placements, with not much digging required.
After 3 good pitches on the ridge we topped out in strong wind and made our way down the goat track back to the coire.
A good route to get done before Christmas, who knows how long it will be before we can drive up the ski road.
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