John Adams : Dorsal Arete

Stob Coire nan Lochan popping up in the middle

Saturday say me, once again, meet up with Steve Holmes of Vertical Fever and the decision was made to head into Glencoe and have a look at Stob Coire nan Lochan. As we set off from Fort William the weather looked promising although the expectation was that we would get hit with wind and snow - this never really came about except for a few snow showers. From the car park, the route looked great.

It was a bit busy!

We made steady progress up the normal path heading for the corrie. Initially, the snow was pretty easy going but as we gained altitude it got deeper although not too demanding. Once we got into the corrie proper Steve gave me some much needed experience at deciphering guide books. The crags looked to be in great condition although it was clear that some of the route would be topping out into massive cornices. We made the decision to go for Dorsal Arete (II). This was a good choice as it allowed me to practice building belays and anchors as we moved along, but getting to the start of the route was tough wading through pretty deep snow. Along the way Steve reminded me of the critical avalanche angles. The route was in good condition and it was a bit busy with at least three teams ahead of us. As we progressed along our route we became aware of a developing situation on Twisting Gully and later learnt that a team had been caught in an avalanche and apart from knowing that there was at least one casualty we didn't know much else but did meet the Glencoe MRT on our way out.

Getting the message out there

The route was great and I learned loads about safe movement, building anchors and belays and rope management. Steve had me lead the very last pitch which took us straight over the top. We then headed up to the summit of the Munro where I took the opportunity of grabbing a picture of me holding the banner for Concussion RnR, which is in memory of Ben Robinson. Once we had the summit it was time for some ridge walking to get us back down to the col and then back down into the corrie where we got our gear off and grabbed some food and drink before we cracked on back to the car park.

The only downside to a brilliant day out was some sort of injury to my calf - not sure what's going on there but hopefully it's nothing to worry about. We made fairly quick time back down to the van and then back into Fort William for a well deserved bite to eat.