With a high avalanche risk today we opted for the classic Curved Ridge on the Buachaille. We had the mountain to ourselves and were almost totally sheltered from the strong north westerlies. The route was in pretty good nick with the pitch of ice below Crowberry Basin still climbable with care at grade III. We took the interesting gully to the right of the ridge proper to half height before heading up on to the rock. The snow was wet but we were getting good placements where it mattered. The crux corner was pretty bare but the turf was still frozen. Kirsten's twisted ankle was slowing her down but she battled through and we topped out just as the cloud cleared for a couple of minutes giving some great views across Rannoch Mor. A quick slide down Coire na Tulaich and we were back at the van just before dark. Today I was working for Adventure Peaks.
The freezing level was just below the summit but we didn't get anything like the amount of snow forecasted. We could hear the wind whistling over Crowberry Tower but we were very sheltered on the route. There was a some new snow on the summit snow slopes but overall the snow pack was well bonded but very wet. From the summit the slopes to the south east looked like they had a reasonable amount of new windslab lying on them but Coire na Tulaich didn't pose any problems.
