East Buttress (IV) (15.02.2010)

We started the day with an hour's drive from Lochcarron into Torridon, parking up at the foot of the valley between Beinn Eighe's western end and Liathach's eastern end. It was about 8am when we got out to begin the long walk in to the coire on the northern side of Coinneach Mor; in fact it was altogether dismal to start off with, rain being chucked down like you wouldn't believe. Nevertheless, after much dithering around we eventually set out in the soaking wet conditions anyway and about 3 hours later we were finally round and into the coire, looking in awe up at the Triple Buttresses. We were going to climb the grade IV route up the East Buttress, which was at that moment looking decidely thin and uninviting for me as someone who has a fear of mixed routes.

It turned out to be quite a long slog up to actually get to the foot of the route, so there was plenty of time to get psyched up for what was to come. Suzana was her usual cheerful self, despite the weather. The five pitches turned out to be something of an epic, taking much longer than I'd first anticipated. The first pitch seemed to be OK, but somehow the ropes got a little tangled while both me and Suzana were climbing, meaning some interesting down climbing to sort out the problem. Didn't really help that Rocio couldn't hear me shout 'slack, slack!' because of the wind.... nevertheless we somehow managed to get up it and there were no more major events until the fourth pitch; a delicate move few metres out of the belay and onto the top of that particular crag proved to be quite a challenge; unfortunately some time after I'd overcome it, Suzana was still somewhere below the crux move and managed to drop one of her ice axes. Then we had a bit of a dilemma and even though I was able to finish off the pitch and make it up to where Rocio was belaying us, it took a lot longer again and it was almost 5pm and dark by the time I got there. In the end I joined the climbing group who were a pitch ahead of us with Robin leading them, and Rocio continued to belay up Suzana who was still figuring out how to retrieve her ice axe and climb the pitch.

Anyway to cut a long story a bit shorter, by the time we'd gone up to the summit of Coinneach Mor and descended back down to the valley it was getting on for 9pm. A very long day indeed.