Information and photos of my mountaineering trips in Scotland,England and Wales:
Including hillwalking,scrambling and easy rock climbing.Also via ferrata, skiing and alpine trips in Europe.

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Sunday 20 January 2013

Mixed conditions on Striding Edge, 20th January 2013.



The forecast seemed to suggest deteriorating weather conditions in Glencoe, so we journeyed south to enjoy "slightly" better weather on our round of Striding Edge and Swirral Edge. The ridge wasn't completely covered so it was a choice of "crampons or no crampons". We chose the latter on the grounds we would end up on our backsides with them on.
A bitterly cold day, in fact too cold to sit for long at the summit shelter on Helvellyn. The descent of Swirral Edge was also a bit wild at times but soon eased off. Not as busy as a summers day, but still a few folk about , plus we saw a couple of teams(climbing) top out on Helvellyn. 

Quite a bleak looking day ahead of us but at least we could make out where we were going! 
Not quite enough snow on the ridge to warrant crampons, but extra care was needed in any case.
   

Wednesday 9 January 2013