BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP. How was it that time already?! I shuffled out of bed trying to not wake Kati. It was dark and cold. Of course it was, I was going winter climbing after all! Coffee on. I tried to stuff some porridge down my throat, it’s never easy at this early in the day. I felt sick, unsure whether the porridge was to blame, or maybe it was just my nerves about the day ahead. We were going to climb Central Buttress on Beinn Eighe, a 270m long 4 star VI, 7.

I jumped into Ollie’s van and lots of the nervous anticipation left my body, at least for a little while. There was a fluffy dusting of snow on the road, which got increasingly deeper as we approached the car park. No further would we go, as the van wheel spun on the slick road into the car park. With no luck, the side of the road would have to do for us. Meanwhile I saw bright lights winding down the glen, followed by Doug flying by in his VW and cruising into the dark car park.

Ankle deep, knee deep and even waist deep in the cold drifts. The walk-in was not going to be easy, but there was three of us so at least the burden of wading would be shared. It started to drizzle an hour into the walk. We halted, me and Ollie pulled out our waterproof jackets to provide a little protection. Doug emptied his bag looking confused, with his face soon turning to despair “I’ve forgotten my waterproof”. Shit. After a brief chat he decided to run back to the van to grab it, as otherwise the forecasted ming-fest of the late afternoon could easily turn into a suffer-fest.

Me and Ollie continued, doubting wether Doug will make it back in time. This was the hardest walk into Coire Mhic Fhearchair I had done. Finally, after three and a half hours of hard wading we reached the edge of the Coire. We drunk some tea and relished the view of the triple buttresses during sunrise in all their winter glory! Doug ended up catching us, a brilliant effort. It was on!

Arriving at the base of the route, the usual winter climbing ritual began We drunk, ate, changed layers and geared up whilst looking at the huge wall above. Me and Doug would alternate leading the route. The climbing on the triple buttresses is pretty unique with the wall being split into two types of rock. The first 2/3 pitches, one climbs on Torridonian sandstone, suddenly followed by sharp Quartzite for the rest of the route. I started up a ploddy snow pitch, great for getting blood to the extremities again. A couple of steeper pulls on average gear also warmed the head up before leading to the belay of the first big section of climbing. This 60+ metre pitch leads along a fun diagonal ramp with balancy climbing on the insecure, sloping sandstone. Following, one has to surmount a steep chimney, which eventually leads to the first major ledge, the Broad Terrace (around V,5) . A great vantage point to fully take in your position in the stunning winter sceneries of the most beautiful corrie in Scotland?!

The next pitch is hard to locate. The steep quartzite wall above has a lot of very similar looking features, which are hard to distinguish from one another from our angle. After some careful studying of the guidebook, we found the right line (we thought anyway, but who knows for sure?). Doug set up the pitch, looking very at home on the steep terrain. The quartzite here is definitely my favourite rock to climb on during winter (and summer to be fair!) and this pitch provided all of the goods! Steep climbing on positive hooks and bomber gear (around V,6/7).

Some easier climbing weaved its way to below the daunting crux headwall. I pressed on up the first pitch , which provided some technical climbing (around V,6). Conditions were starting to get a bit more difficult by this point, the rock was starting to become very rimed. Rime makes everything harder, you end up spending more time digging for gear & finding trust-worthy axe placements than you spend actually climbing. I set up a belay below the steep (evil!) chimney. Much shorter than I imagined it to be, albeit way more technical than expected. I thought I’d go for the lead and started wedging my body into the crack, yet the section above seemed too intimidating. Doug took over and wrestled up this ungradable chimney. It was about five metres high and with no provided protection, resulting in it feeling rather out there! He belayed directly above and hauled all three of our sacks up first, as even seconding would have been desperate if we kept them on.

Darkness had now fallen on us. My small head-torch beam lit up a steep, intimidating and very white wall towering above. All the nervous anticipation creeped back into my body. The guidebook describes climbing flakes to the right of the obvious cracked groove. Maybe obvious when the wall isn’t coated in a thick coat of rime! I set off, discovering features to place my crampons on as I kicked and dug away. Arriving at the massive flake overlooking the groove, I took a wired hex of my harness and placed it into the crack. “Ding ding ding”, my axe welded it into place. Another hex was placed for my peace of mind. I looked down at Doug and Ollie, they were huddled together like penguins with their heads down to protect them from the avalanches of rime I sent down the wall. I stepped down to the left, feeling like I was fully hanging on my axes. This groove felt like it was overhanging! I’m sure by this point I was just feeling the exhaustion. One steep pull placed me on easier ground and lead to the welcomed belay where I could finally rest. The guys started to climb whilst I turned my headtorch off and embraced the somber darkness. The rope suddenly went tight when Ollie’s axe blew from a placement, clearly I wasn’t the only one who found that pitch difficult (around VI, 6/7)

I briefly called Kati to let her know we were okay, though very wet and cold by now. She rose my spirits with the promise of cheesy baked nachos for dinner, what a babe! I could see the lights of Gairloch in the distance, what a different world. One last short wall blocked the easier ground. I volunteered to continue as I had the rack and was now eager again to keep pressing on. More digging and a couple of pulls lead me to a gully and finally, the top of the route (around IV, 5). Time to quickly belay the other guys up and celebrate this challenging and rewarding day. We exchanged handshakes and hugs in exhilaration. However, we knew it wasn’t over yet, with the the long way back down still ahead.

The bags were packed, through the efficient technique of stuffing everything in as fast as possible. Visibility was limited to five metres and it was brutally windy & snowy. Ollie pulled out his map and I pulled out my phone to find our way. Together we navigated to the top of the scree descent. A discussion was had about the snow conditions on the descent slope. We all decided it was safe enough to go, never an easy decision to make at that time of day. A mixture of bum sliding and steep walking led us down to the burn and back onto the normal path. Time to finally relax, we had made it. A sleepy drive home to Gairloch later, I was back home at our house. I could feel the warmth of the log burner as I looked through the window. Nachos, beer and settled next to the fire to mend my aching, frozen body. There is no better feeling!