My First Winter Munro

Our morning briefing was all about the avalanche forecast after a very good avalanche awareness talk last night. We looked at the weather forecast and tried to get some clues about what that meant for avalanche risk before we compared our interpretation with the actual avalanche forecast. It looked pretty grim and was very much a no-go.
But our instructor had come up with a possible route where we could asses the risk while going up to a col. Drove to Glencoe again to walk into Lairig Eilde. Funny enough with the thaw going on it looked like last year in June with the cold weather going on. Hahaha.

Walking into Lairig Eilde

It was wet as we walked up a stony path to the col between Stob Coire Raineach and another minor peak on Buachaille Etive Beag. At least some snow was on the col and a wee bit on our objective: Stob Coire Raineach. At least no avalanche hazard really.
We donned crampons and ice axes and made our way up, looking for the snowy patches and practising scrambling on the rocky bits. Very awkward with crampons.
Made it to the top before we knew it. My first munro in Glencoe (finally!!!) and my first one in winter as well. Yeah!!!

Not going up there. No, no. 

First winter munro!!!

Winds blew as heavy as expected to we didn't linger long and went down again. Unfortunately, it was another cramp time for me. So far I've had exactly one cramp in my left foot every day. Loosening the boot laces a bit and waiting for a few minutes had always solved the issue for good. Same this time. Weird, huh?

Anyway. Learned how to build a snow shelter back on the col and then made our way back down.

We certainly made the best of the grim weather today. The heavy wind and rain was manageable and we learned quite a few new things and got more used to the winter tools. Result!