Lou picked me up again and I warned her about my tendon, though I was reasonably confident that it would loosen up as we set off.
The weather looked to be windier that yesterday, but otherwise pretty good. The avalanche forecast had decreased for the area so we were able to Buachaille Etive Mor as planned. This was another perfect suggestion of Lou's - I'd wanted to do Buachaille Etive Mor for ages but never got round to it and I particularly wanted to do Curved Ridge after I'd heard about it in the summer. This was going to be a more technical day though so I was really hoping that my leg wouldn't play up and that I wouldn't be too exhausted after my lack of sleep.
Once at the foot of the mountain it was a climb all the way pretty much to the summit. Probably around 600m.
The terrain was excellent again. It felt a bit more technical, but largely in a good way. But my tiredness was affecting my concentration, I could feel my risk assessment and level of control being slightly off and this in turn affected my confidence. Before long I was having to talk my self through sections and adopt a bit of "just keep moving" mentality. However, my stress levels returned to stable very quickly after they rose. And it was great to do some sections which were definitely the most technical that I'd done.
The top seemed to come pretty quickly, though by this time I'd settled on travelling home (to Debbie's), later that evening rather than walking and travelling the following day. Partly, but not completely because I wasn't sure if my leg would be up for another day's walking.
The sun was providing decent light, if not actually shining at the summit, but the wind was starting to pick up and as we descended via the gully it was blowing us off our feet. Fun, but hard work descending.
We got back to the car in reasonable time, I said goodby to Lou then chilled out at the hostel for a while before driving back to Debbie's.
Probably the best, if briefest winter mountaineering trip so far.
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