The Guillotine

Psyched for a day over in Carn Etchachan, Yesterday Euan and I had an early start from Edinburgh hoping to get to the Cairngorm car park for 8am, but as we pulled up to the base of the mountain road we found that the snow gate was shut. An hour passed and still the man at the gate said it was going to be a while before they let us through. So it was back to Aviemore for coffee and food (the best way to start a day). We gave it another hour and headed back to the direction of the mountain, but still the gate was shut. Giving up on the idea of heading over to Carn Etchachan because of the time we sat in the car looking at the guide for what we would do in Sneachda and just have a short day. The gate finaly opened and we headed up the road. Leaving the car park at 10:25 we headed to Sneachda with the hoards of people looking to bag another tick in the Noires, but when we arrived at the base of the coire the weather was good and we where both psyched for a long day so we just kept walking and arived at our original intended route on Etchachan at 12:35. We climbed The Guillotine which was a spectacular and very memorable route with some weird and different climbing. Making our way up the route when it came to leading the last pitch (crux) it was dark, and we finnished off with the glow of our head torches lighting up the hidden holds from the shadows of the chimney. We walked off under a star-lit sky and we where so pleased we’d made the effort to walk over the back to the more remote crags.