My alarm went off again at 4:30 which was a start of another day climbing on Liathach. The walk in was significantly easier than yesterday due to the snow being frozen so we made quick time and were in the corrie in just over 2hrs. On the walk in the weather was quite nice, however it deteriorated throughout the day.
Our objective for the day was George and I was climbing with some university friends, we soloed up to the new steep step which has been generated by a rockfall. It is a very short section but was pretty steep for a grade III and certainly warrants tech 4 . After this step I ran it out up to into the cave which involved lots of digging to get into, and lots of digging to get out of. Due to rope drag and being out the wind we belayed from the cave which was a tad cramped with 3 people!
The move out of the cave at the start of pitch 2 was amazing, having to back out of the cave blindly feet first onto a steep section of ice. The second pitch had another steep section near the top which was good fun. As I climbed the second pitch the weather quickly deteriorated and by the time we headed up to the summit we were properly in the white room.
The climb was fantastic with ice in great condition, varied climbing and an interesting cave. It was harder than I was expecting considering I was taking someone fairly new to winter climbing out, but it was great for me!
When we got to the summit the weather had really deteriorated and the descent down the ridge to the col and it was impossible to see anything as there was no definition between the snow and the cloud, even the compass froze up! Once we got to the col we quickly descended down fantastic snow.
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