A great day guiding in the Coirre Dubh amphitheatre today, April 2. We climbed the ice of Coirre Dubh -the first pitch is getting marginal and will not be long for this world once the sun pounds again. Having said that we had good frozen conditions and no rockfall. From the top of the ice we climbed the first 7 pitches of "Doors of Perception". Classic alpinism today -big boots, no crampons, and gloved hands -great fun. We did dry tool the "burly" start to the 7th pitch. From the top of that pitch we traversed 150 meters right to finish up the huge right facing corner, at a more moderate difficulty. This exit was originally shown to me by my fellow guide, Grant Meekins, thusly we climbed "Coirre Doors of Meekins". A fine outing.
Happy trails,
Barry Blanchard
Mountain Guide
www.barryblanchard.ca