Conditions in the Cairngorms were looking all time, but with the ski road shut at Glenmore, it was going to require an unusually long walk to reach the corries. Craig and I had our eye on Fingers Ridge, having climbed it numerous times in summer, we wanted a go at it in winter.
We again used the bikes to cycle up the access road to the ski car park. There was a fair amount of snow on the road, and we were passed by the snow plough as it made its way up with the ski workers. It took about 45 minutes to cycle up the road which didn’t seem too bad.
We left the bikes in the car park and started the approach. In a “usual” winter we would expect to be in the Coire in little over an hour, as there is usually a fairly decent trail packed in, due to the number of climbers heading that way. At the minute however, there is no trail and we found snow ranging from ankle to hip deep. It took us 2 and half hours to reach the Mountain rescue crate at the base of the Coire, all the while walking into thicker and thicker cloud. The forecast had suggested blue bird, but we hadn’t seen any of the sun yet!
We rested at the base of the Coire and had a snack, hoping the clag would lift so that we could at least see where the start of the route was. We knew roughly where it started but it’s always helpful to make sure you are definitely on the right route before setting off. We geared up and made our way to where we thought the start was and made a belay. As I started up the first pitch the cloud cleared and we confirmed we were in the right place!
We had started left of the guidebook recommended route for Fingers Ridge, taking a slightly more direct line and joining the original route near the first belay. There was little gear as it was very snow covered but the climbing was at about IV.
Craig took pitch 2 over to nicely steep steps and onto the final arete. The weather had now cleared and we had fantastic views back over towards Loch Morlich. The wind was now picking up however and we still had the fingers to traverse and the crux of the route.
I led off from Craigs belay, and was immediately hit by the wind. Moving up to the fingers there were huge rime feathers which had to be cleared as they didn’t support weight but also stopped you getting past. The fingers themselves were fine, with more massive rime feathers and then onto the final crux wall. This was again covered in rime but it supported weight being delicate. I managed to find one piece of protection at the base of the wall but didn’t hang around on the rime to look for any more. I reached a belay, a massive boulder at the top of the ridge, and went about setting up a belay to bring Craig up. The wind was by now very strong, meaning even placing a sling over a boulder was hard. After much grunting and swearing I managed to get a belay in and bring Craig up. Although I couldn’t see him, it was easy to know when there was slack as the rope would sail off to the side.
We topped out of Fingers Ridge, and the winds abated slightly, sorting gear as the sun set we headed off down the goat track, on perfect neve. We had been hoping/praying that our track we broke earlier in the day hadn’t been filled in too much by the winds and were relieved that it was still there. It took 45 minutes to get back to the car park which was way better than we had hoped. The freezing temps had meant that the access road was now an ice rink, so we had an exciting cycle/ice skate back down to the cars. A physically draining day, but we didn’t see a soul all day and had a classic route all to ourselves.
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