Raeburn's Ordinary Route

SCNL Today

Rhys and Karen on approach 

Today was the start of Karen and Rhys's week long climbing course. We opted to start a day earlier than planned, as today seemed like it could be the best of the week.  This is the 4th year I've worked with them, so we decided to make the most of the weather and start big.  Despite doing little climbing this year, they coped well with the route.  After making reasonably short work of the first crux pitch, they continued this for the rest of the route. The route was on the challenging side today.  There is very little in the way of consolidated snow, so all those transitions on to ledges made for good sport today.  The temperature remained pretty stable just above freezing, with the snowpack seemingly holding just below.  The turf was widely frozen at the start of the day, but there was the odd section low down that was on the turn.

A great start to the week, let's hope it continues  fruitfully with some clever route choices.

More pics when I get use of a computer.