Another snowy weekend

Today I visited the Black Ladders with Chris Forrest, the Chief Instructor from the Joint Services adventure centre ("Indefatigable"). We met quite a few folk from the Bangor Unifversity outdoor Education department, including Tim Jepson and his wife Dodie, all headed to the same venue, and all just as nonplussed by the surprisingly deep build up of new snow on top of a thick graupel layer. A significant avalanche hazard in open bowls, and also hard work for any technical climbing. Eventually we settled on a mid-grade line that neither of us had done, called Passchendale Direct. The online guide had disappeared last night so we only had a rather poor topo, resulting in a bit of a tussle with an unclimbed groove before we settled on an easier line to the left. We just followed our noses for the rest of the route, though in retrospect the pitch descriptions seemed to work ok. A nice antidote to yesterday, half of which was spent writing a report to submit to the next MLT Board meeting on March 6th.