Traverse of the Black Mount - Stob Ghabhar to Meall a' Bhuiridh via Aonach Mor, Clach Leathad and Creise

Broken cloud with prolonged sunny spells. Generally the weather improved as the day progressed, and it was probably too hot for comfortable skinning. I had dripping sweat despite being in a t-shirt. Should have used suncream too...

Varied. Disappointing cover on the S face of Stob Ghabhar. The first 'walk in' for me this winter, just to the top of the woods north of the Clashgour hut. We had to remove skis for a couple of short sections lower down on the initial climb, and just for 100m in the bottom of the bealach between Aonach Mor and Clach Leathad.

A variety of snow, some nice, some nasty. A bit of windblown fresh, solid windslab, lovely (NOT) breakable crust, deep unconsolidated drifts clinging to exactly where we needed to walk.

Snow was softened by the sun on aspects exposed to the sun, and was wet enough to wet skins at times.

Creise is quite corniced on the E face. My first turn set off a small surface slide that concerned the others enough to down climb a short section on the climber's route.

Troutwrestler, Monkey Boy and G-Raff