This morning we headed for Garbe Coire via the Charlamain Gap and up the Lairig Ghru. The weather was fantastic with easy walking over frozen trails until we hit the snow line at 700m, the névé provided solid going as the sun reflected off the valley floor. We reached the Gharbe Coire Bothy around lunch time which was in a sorry state. What was left of the door was hanging off and inside looked like a damp cave, but five minutes of stoves blaring and a cup of tea soon found us more than happy with our rustic surroundings.
In the afternoon we headed up into Garbh Coire Dhaidh to practice movement on snow and the session finished with a climb and descent of a Grade I gully.
We awoke to a snow covered bothy with a couple of inches of fresh all round. After porridge we headed up to Gharb Choire Dhaidh where we climbed Twilight Gully on perfect hard snow. There was no cornice at the top and as we topped out the sun came out and the sky cleared, a perfect end to the courses first named route. We hacked back thorugh the occasional snow cloud until it cleared on our descent back in to the Lairig affording us awesome views of Cairn Lochan and Rothiemurchus forest and Loch Morlich down in the valley.
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