Wednesday 30th October 2008
Wilf and Pamela headed up in to Stob Coire nan Lochan and climbed Dorsal Arete and descended Broad Gully.
Dorsal arete had frozen turf (with the odd less solid patch where the snow had provided insulation), a covering of dry, unconsolidated snow and rime on the rocky sections. From tracks it looked like the route had been done the day before and we met a guy on the way in who’d solo’ed it that morning.
Broad Gully had a complete line of soft, dry, uncosolidated snow except for the top few metres where the scouring was letting the scree show through. The snow didn’t have great depth (generally between 6 inches and 2 feet) with the majority being small crystal size (wind blown) sitting on a lower layer of graupel and ice against the scree. Again from tracks it looked like it had seen descents the day before and one other person descended it during the day.
The weather was fine all day with some cloud and a northerly breeze. Temperature was below freezing all day in the coire with the snow not developing any water content. As we drove away at 5pm a light rain/sleet was falling in the glen (presumably falling as snow higher up). A superb day out and all the better for just sneaking it in to October.