Where is Curved Ridge!? 29th Janaury 2012.

After a dark-o-clock start, myself, Gordon, Mark and Willy arrived at the Lagangarbh car park at about 0715. We kitted up in the dark and set off in search of Curved Ridge. As we walked in and it became light we started to get a little concerned about actually finding the start in the very low hill fog that was shrouding the Buchaille. Having done Curved Ridge several times in summer, we knew it can be a bit tricky at the best of times to spot it from below (it's easy from the road though!).   

A brief stop in the gloom by the Waterslide Slab. Even here visibility was still poor.  Our first mistake was to go a little too far past the slab before ascending and heading back right to end up above it. However giving the very poor visibility, I'm not sure we would've found the base of the route that easily anyhow. As it was it soon became clear (and so did visibility - briefly) that we were too far left with the possibility of ending up on D Gully Buttress. In the end, discretion became the better part of valour and we traversed and descended back to the Waterslide area of the mountain, still with no clear view of anything above us.
As it was, we had the ropes out and placed the odd runner here and there to keep things safe, plus a belay or two for some tricky "lowers", and eventually made our way back to the car.   

     

We decided to stop at the Kings House Hotel for a refreshment almost got a clear view of the Buchaille in the company of a Deer Stag in the hotel car park!
As they say, you win some, you lose some and in the end we did the right thing by not blindly continuing up onto to possibly more dangerous ground. 

Deer Stag keeping a close eye on us whilst he poses for the camera!