Wintery Stob Diamh and Ben Cruachan

I'm playing catch up again- sorry if people are hoping for up to date info on winter conditions, living in the van on and off is not conducive to updating the blog! Wally and I headed to Ben Cruachan on last sunday, with a plan to traverse the ridge from Stob Diamh to Cruachan. Its a fantastic ridge, and even though the visibility was poor for much of the day, the roller coaster ride of summits kept us entertained.  We were slowed down significantly by negotiating the steep slabs and icy terrain as we approached the final summit of Cruachan.  In the failing light at the end of the day, we took the decision not to descend the bealach beyond Cruachan to the dam as others had done previously, aware of a pillow of windslab nestling in the lowest  point, and so stuck to the ridge, for a final weary top in the dark- the safe but tiring option!

 Approaching the Cruachan Dam

Fresh winds and poor visibility once on the ridge.

 Navigation on the ridge is straightforward in the sense that its an easy feature to hand rail, but it is long and tortuous, with lots of small tops, so worth keeping an eye on progress.

 The wind had scoured a lot of the snow from the ridge.