Page 40 - 2016 AMA Spring

Winter meet 2016
By Sean Mackey
February 2016 saw my second go at organising a Winter Meet for the association. After difficult conditions last year on the west coast we decided to relocate to the more stable weather of the east coast and stay in Rothiemurcus Lodge. We were not disap- pointed and we were extremely luckily with improving weather over the week- by Wednesday we had bright sunshine with little wind, which stayed over the final few days.
Every trip I have made to the highlands has always been done while closely monitoring the weather conditions and avalanche risk. Many trips had been thwarted by Mother Nature and the avalanche risk is an ever present danger. This year, however, while the avalanche risk did rule out some north facing slopes everyone made the most of the perfect weather while they could. Each day saw a mixture of activities and many different objectives with a very climbing focused group of members eager to get out and push themselves in the mountains. After several last minute cancela- tions and no shows we had 11 enthusiastic people ready to make the most of these Scottish conditions. The banter and craic in the bunkhouse was constant and there was anticipation in the air of what the week would bring.
The first day was mixed and we experienced the worst weather of the week. Everyone stayed pretty close to home and took advantage of being right at the northern entrance of the Larig Ghru.
Normally if you want to walk into this area it’s over a hour of soul destroying woods and paths before reaching the entrance to the huge valley. Staying in Rothirmurcus Lodge did have its benefits and reduced the time to a few minutes. Duncan Francis took Matt Chapman and Ian Campbell (in a questionable Royal Engineers knitted hat) on the technical and delicate Central Gully (III) on Lurchers Crag-a short hour walk in from Rothiemurcus Lodge. The remaining numbers went for a wander towards Breariach (1296m) before being turned back by winds gusting upto 60mph only a couple of hundred metres short of the summit. In the end the Mountain Café in Aviemore took an awful lot of money off the Brearaich group in tea and cake.
The following day saw an improvement in weather and more was subsequently achieved. Chris Dowd, Martin South and I walked into Coire an t-Sneachda and climbed Jacobs Edge (I/II). Con- servatively there were probably 15 groups all fighting for the same routes on the ‘honey pot’ that is the Mess of Pottage. Duncan Francis and his group wisely walked into Coire an Lochain and went up The Vent (III) which was full of fantastic fat ice. Vic Reeves also took the longer walk into Lochain with Liz Dallyn to climb The Milkyway (IV 4). Meanwhile Brendan Caris took a walking group up Bynack More (1090m) and clocked up quite an impressive 25+km distance!
Unfortunately Paul Cooper had his bags lost by the airline he flew to Scotland with and his first day on the mountain wasn’t until Tuesday, with Paul and I following Chris Dowd and Martin South up Hidden Chimney (II/III); A lovely route with an exciting final pitch. Vic Reeves took a group to Lurchers Crag and climbed Central Gully (III) that Duncan had done a few days before. Brendan with
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