Stob Coire nan Lochan
Broad Gully

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This route is more often used as a quick descent in summer or winter, and has only a rudimentary entry to that effect in the area guide.  However, conditions can make what should be an easy day out into an epic, and in a small way this happened to us.

This was the first and (so far) only time I've visited this corrie.  I've seen it many times from both Gearr Aonach (the middle of the Three Sisters), and also the Aonach Eagach.  However on the day we were there the views were totally absent.  The path up the corrie was easier than I have always thought it looked from the road, and as we crossed the lip of the corrie there was a local acceleration of the wind.  By this time it was also well below zero and everything was white!  We crossed the floor of the corrie and found a nice large boulder to hide behind whilst we took a short break and got the gear out.

After our break we headed into the gully and took it in turns to lead, with the guide dancing attendance.  Waiting at a belay was a kind of torture - it was bitterly cold with a strong wind creating a massive wind chill effect.  I was glad I had so many layers on (and tightly fastened), and found lying on my side the least cold option.  At one point when I was the last on a belay a chap rushing down the gully came over to me and asked it I had seen anyone falling - I hadn't, but then I could only see a few yards into a whiteout.  I also hadn't felt anything on the rope from me to the rest of the party.  Finally it was my turn to climb, and I would have 'lead' the next pitch.  However, when I reached my companions the guide decided enough was enough - and there was no dissent from us.

He wanted to make a swift descent and decided to lower us, using his axe in the snow to help him control the rope.  I was tied on and instructed to put my weight onto the rope.  Maybe I did so too enthusiastically, but as I leant back his axe popped out of the snow and there I was - sliding downhill on my back head first.  I simultaneously engaged brain, gave thanks for the earlier ice axe braking practise and stopped myself.  The rest of the party was out of sight in the mist, but the guides axe was nearby in the snow.  Once we were reunited we roped up and I lead off down the hill, with the guide at the rear calling the directions to head in.  He knew the area well and quite soon we were back at the boulder.  We carried on and one indication of the deteriorating conditions was being almost blown of my feet at the lip of the corrie.  We found the man I had seen who had found his girlfriend (who had fallen) and she was having problems with here ankle.  At this point the guide got out his radio to call the MRT, went down the hill as fast as he could to a pint where he could get radio contact, and then went back up to the couple.

We carried on back down, and one of the chaps who was wearing glasses started having terrible problems with them icing up as we got near the freezing level.  Also the snow turned into horrid cold penetrating rain.  As we reached the mouth of the corrie we met the MRT heading in the other direction.  I found the speed with which they had arrived stunning, and it was a weekday.  Back at the car park we changed into dry cloths and I put the day down as one it was good to experience - once!

I later found that the woman was not badly hurt and had been picked up by helicopter - a miraculous bit of flying considering the conditions.

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