Pygmy Ridge, 25th April 2011

Another dry, bright day in the Northern Corries today as myself, Lorna and Mark made the very quiet walk in to Coire an t-Sneachda. Our plan was to do Pygmy Ridge, 100m of Moderate rock climbing on the central pillar of rock you can see in the photo. There are a few ways to get up to it, but we chose to climb the snow apron below the Trident Gullies and take the lower section of Central gully.  

We were hoping not to have to use crampons, just to save the faff factor, and it turned out the snow was just soft enough to kick decent steps and get a good axe placement.

Branching off left up into Central Gully, which is now broken at the narrows where we were two weeks ago. From here it was just a case of choosing a point to step off left onto the band of slabby rocks that lead up to Pygmy Ridge. However we choose to keep going higher to end up level with the foot of the ridge to our left (probably 10 - 15 metres too high), leaving us a slightly awkward travers across loose, broken and greasy rock to the well worn base of the ridge.

The route consists of three sections: firstly, two 35 metre pitches of nice scrambly climbing on grippy rock, although some holds lower down on the first pitch seem to slope away from you! However, it is all quite straightforward, following a loose line up the arete to a recess for the first belay ,and shelter from the now very cold wind! The second pitch from the recess is actually easier and again leads to a similar niche just below where the ridge levels slightly and before the final blocky tower. By now photos were out of the question as it was freezing! At the crest we opted to move together to save time and keep warm, and Lorna lead over the tower and onto the plateau. The above photo really foreshortens the height above the corrie floor as if we're 10 metres off the ground!      

Mark scrambling over the final tower with me trying to keep warm in the sun below. 

Once established on the crest of the tower from the end of the ridge below, it becomes straightforward all the way to the top and gives great views over the top of the Trident Gullies area and across the Fingers Ridge area.  

One final view of Coire an t-Sneachda  and the Fiacaill Ridge before heading down over 1141 to the car. We only saw four other people in the corrie today; two lads heading for the Fiacaill Buttress area (we saw then start a climb bur don't know which) and two ski tourers going up the Goat Track.