The best day so far this winter? Shelf Route, Buachaille Etive Mor

Blue skies, sunshine, plenty of snow, firm snow, useful ice, route and summit to ourselves, I'm not sure that it gets much better! After an ascent of Gutless on the Douglas Boulder yesterday, Derek and I climbed Shelf Route on Buachaille Etive Mor today, which was nothing short of brilliant and well worthy of its 3 stars. Whilst North Buttress saw plenty of action today, Shelf Route was empty. Conditions on the route were generally very good and despite quite a bit of soft snow in places, there was plenty of useful neve and ice. The turf was completely frozen.

The climbing takes in a number of short but steep steps, created by chockstones, before a fairly direct finish onto Crowberry Ridge can be made at about V,5/6.

We then continued up Crowberry Tower, before making our way to the summit of Stob Dearg, from where we had some of the finest views Scotland has to offer!

All change tomorrow, but the good news is that it's going to remain cold for the foreseeable future, it's finally shaping up to be a pretty reasonable winter!