I thought it'd be colder towards the east in the Cairngorms today, but discovered the car covered in frost so we headed west to Glencoe. There was a line of 9 headtorches up the vally ahead of us at 7am. We passed Aonach Dubh as it got light (the Screen looks good) and walked on up to Stob Coire Nam Beith.
North West Gully looks in good condition but we moved left to join the parties on the 450 metre Deep-Cut Chimney, a IV.4 **** yes a 4-star route! And very long - don't arrive late!
Conditions are ok, a bit thin and we placed mainly rock gear and a peg.
Above the obvious difficulties is some old abseil tat. We continued on up and went right at the big buttress and kept right for 2 pitches.
Another party who went left seemed to have a more straight forward time. It's a long journey above the difficulties to the summit and we met another party at the summit just before it got dark. The decent was good, but we did see lights at the summit an hour later and think it was one of the other 2 parties who started way behind us. Great route, but get there very early!
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