Kicking-off My Fifth Decade with a Mountain Adventure. Lockdown Mission No.13

On the first slide of my fifth decade the weather was much better than had been forecast. No need for snowshoes today as there was plenty of solid ground running up the mountain.

The sun shone brightly in the sky and I stopped to appreciate the amazing view of the surrounding country. I sat and ate lunch on reaching the top.

Main basin was lovely. Spring snow and about 20 turns to the haggis trap. I returned to the summit, picking my way across boulders. Then along the summit ridge to the top of the Spring Run. I could see the traffic on Rannoch moor had backed up due to roadworks and a motorcycle accident.

My turns down the spring run were not my best. I wasn’t looking far enough ahead. I had to rock up across the top of the bottom buttress when I reach the bottom I could see the traffic had not moved an inch. So instead of heading down I decided to practice with crampons and Ice axe. I did discover that ice axe arrests don’t work well in corn snow!

I finished with an easy ride down on the access Chairlift. A perfect day to celebrate the start of my fifth decade.