28th December. The Couloir.

"It just makes a mockery of the whole route." comments the next guy in the queue on the ledge for the first pitch as some cheeky chappie comes waltzing down the frozen snow unroped, facing out, as the spindrift races across the sky above.

"How do you arrest the fall of the other person if we move up it together?" I pose the question to K, who in effect knows more than me about faffing about with tangled up rope and belays.

"I don't fancy dying" says K, "We'll just pitch the whole thing."

Eventually we get going.  Of course technically it's a doddle but a 150 metre plus cartwheel wouldn't look good on 'Reporting Scotland'.