After a few days of bad weather we set off into Coire an t-Sneachda with an open mind, but really aiming to climb fingers ridge. As we approached the coire there was hill fog shrouding the crags, but the walk in was pretty quick and easy due to there being a small layer of soft snow on top of good neve.
As we approached the crag the hill fog started to lift and soon we had good visibility of the entire crag. An hour later all that was left above us was blue sky and sun shining down into the coire which was fantastic. There was another team of three ahead of us on the route, which was a trainee guide on his assessment. Due to this we made the assumption that the team would be quick up the route so decided to follow them up.
Unfortunately it turned out that they were not quick and took a very long time on the first pitch, but by this time we felt like we had committed to the route as we had been waiting for a while, and my psyche had built up. Eventually we were able to start the route and it was just brilliant as there was an excellent combination of just the right amount of cracks free of ice for gear, good neve for axes and good turf for picks.
The second pitch was the first proper pitch, it had enjoyable climbing which was a good warm up for the pitches to come. The third pitch was just outstanding, it involved interesting climbing up a groove which lead to the start of an exposed arete. It was almost a full 60m pitch of extremely enjoyable climbing that was never very hard. The fingers themselves were very straightforward, but enjoyable exposed. They lead to the final headwall which is the technical crux of the route which is given 4/5 in the guidebook. This felt fine today with the good conditions as the hooks were bombproof which gave plenty of time to look for the small ledges for feet.
We topped out to brilliant views and a brisk southerly wind, so quickly packed up and headed back down to the ski centre. The views in every direction were just beautiful and with the good snowpack we made a quick descent back down to the ski centre.
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