Sunday's weather was marginally better, at least it was not raining. We got an early start from the hotel and headed up through the pass to the foot of the Three Sisters and decided upon Broad Gully (Scottish Winter grade I/II) and the summit of Bidean nam Bian as our objectives. Slipping and stumbling our way up the foothills we managed to bring a small sweat upon our brow, even though the temperature was a paltry 4 degrees C.
Once we hit the snow line at 800m we pulled on extra gear & insulated gloves to protect ourselves against the frigid temperatures in the snow gully. The conditions were far from ideal and we struggled in wet, mushy snow up the gully for the short 200m climb to top of the ridge which takes one to the summit of Bidean nam Bien (1130m)
An hour later we decided to call it a day and descended over the cornice down a grade II snow/ice slope - going, at first was good, but as we climbed lower down the slope we started sinking thigh deep in to the mushy snow, often ending up flat on our backs as we lost our balance.
Descending through the Cwm was tough going as the rocks were covered in moss and were also extremely slippery. After a few minor knocks and a couple of hours we arrived safely back at the car and the pleasure of sitting down on a warm comfortable seat was very welcome.
See below for a few photos of the climb!
