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Southern Highlands Ice



On Sunday, with the temperatures plummeting after a small thaw, we took the chance to head up to the Beinn Dorain area on the hunt for some conditions for a short day. Noticing that Fahrenheit 451 was half formed up on Coire an Dothaidh, we risked a quick hopeful walk-in to Beinn Udlaidh. 

We had the corrie to ourselves but for obvious reasons...most of the ice routes were only half formed. There's been a lot of snow down feeding the ice falls with overnight freezes and daytime thaws: Sunshine Gully was banked out with snow and a dirty avalanche fan. Some cornices had collapsed leaving large icy boulder-debris and the other gullies were a bit lean, so we opted for a quick scoot up the grooves of Quartzvein Scoop (or Ice Crew more likely), which are quite reliable. The ice was good enough for an ascent though the cornice snow-bank was sugary. With the cold snowy weather over the coming week, this corrie should thicken up its ice-tongues into perfect nick...




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