Mixed bag in SCNL - and first suicide deer!

Mark and I had our first real alpine start this morning and made SCNL car park in the dark. The usual slog up there left us exhausted - it is a hard walk but today the snow was mushy and breaking under foot up to the thigh at times...it did not bode for great conditions when some young lad walked out saying it was not in.

Undeterred, we slogged on and made the lochans in good time. It was too warm tho and the conditions were not good - snow just pulled through, no ice and no frozen turf.

Without hooking, it was a bit sketchy at times and the work to get to the base of Boomerang Arete damn near killed us old guys :) - in my defence, my back was agony after a recent muscle strain.

However, we got on route and made the best of a bad deal - not great and took a safer variation nearer the top to avoid some dicey conditions.

We moved together a bit and finished off to the summit in a flurry of horrible spindrift - there was loads of it thro the day, blowing soft snow and graupel all around the mountain. There was quite a lot of new snow about, so a good freeze thaw will likely make the routes bomber, as there is enough snow, but continued warm days will rise the avalanche threat probably...I wouldn't be rushing back in the next few days unless we got a great freeze.

All in, a 50-50 day; great to get out, glad we made the effort but pity about the conditions. Plenty teams on Dorsal, one swimming up Central Buttress Ordinary Route and maybe one rope went for SC Gully, but not sure. The walk out just reminded me why SCNL is always a long, hard day (need to get fitter) - guide book out for more on the Bookle! On the drive down the road, we nearly came to an inglorious end when a deer walked out, rather nonchalantly to be sure, in front of the car blissfully unaware of his near impending death...Mark's keen eye to protect his 'hairdresser's car' saved the day and the deer. Suicide deer should wear fluorescent jackets!!!