Late start and a dark finish.

Juan joined me this morning for a walk in to Coire an-t Sneachda. The weather was forecast to be good, so we opted for a slightly later start. Feeling not quite so easy about walking in at 9am we headed straight for Fiacaill Buttress.
Our route for the day was a little known IV5 which takes the left edge of Fiacaill Couloir. After sharing the opening pitch with the gully the route breaks off left through some broken ground to gain the buttress properly.
Juan was feeling a little uneasy on the more technical ground and was happy to give me the lead on the last 3 pitches.
The climbing on the route is very good, thought provoking and well protected. The last chimney pitch is hard, and I felt quite committing to make the last few moves for the capping chockstone. This must have taken me over 30minutes to lead and its only 10mts!. Still once over this the route is over and we made our way back down to the Coirre floor just before the light failed for the dark walk out. A lesson learnt about early starts I think.