UKH

Has anyone been out in the Cairngorms this last weekend? Conditions looking very wintery up there this morning. Snow has been on the ground for three days now..

If I didn't have a stinking cold I'd go up for a look.

Think some of the usual rock lines in Lochain were getting done.

I had a dream last night that I was walking around the Corrie top expecting it to be white having seen pictures of people climbing yesterday. In the dream it had all melted, but I suspect this isn't a good measure of whether it's actually in or not

It's close though, winter always starts with people starting out scratching up rock with a modest ground frost, topping out in +10c! 

The late great Andy Nisbet was often a great benchmark of the start of the winter climbing season, putting up new routes he'd been scouting out in the summer, just waiting for winter to kick in. 

Not this time though, I'd say legit looking at the last two days.

Someone scratched their way up hoarmaster on Saturday by the looks of things on bookface.

Rather ironic route name given how black it looked in the photo's.

Saw photo of guy on Savage Slit at weekend. Looked in. 

I know there are all sorts of reason why Facebook is really crap and evil, but one thing that it is now the best for is UK winter climbing conditions reports. By Saturday evening there were the first pics of a claimed route (Hoarmaster if I remember), and of course the first "that's not in condition!" "Yes, it is!" ding dong of the season. 

True dat. question, is the Scottish Winter Climbing Conditions group still active as I tried to post and it has to be admin approved now? Did they just get spammed to death by guides or have people moved on? It was the only one I followed.

Just joined Scottish Climbing and Mountaineering which seems more active.

We climbed Fallout Corner on Sunday, which was lightly rimed from overnight wind and cloud. The bottom section had almost completely stripped out by the time we abseiled back to the base around midday however. Hoarmaster and Savage Slit were also climbed on Sunday, and much better looking than the Saturday ascent.

Given the forecast for the next few days, I wouldn't be counting on anything getting done again for a wee while.  

twas all gone this morning like it never happened.

😥