All Blog Posts (410)

This weekend I have been working with a small group from George Watson's College on their annual winter trip.  Despite the wild weather yesterday, we managed a skills refresher, before conquering the summit of the mighty Cairngorm.  The 60mph wind and whiteout conditions was no match for this driven bunch.  Even the 80mph gusts didn't stop them as they powered to glory.  Surprisingly, there was no one else up there!…

After my week away catching up with Emma, I was up on the East Face of Aonach Mor today observing John as he worked with Richard. John has his MIC Assessment this year and I am acting as his mentor, so it was a great opportunity for us both. Despite the wind forecast, we opted for the easy walk down, rather than a big day on the Ben which the guys had done yesterday. We were the first to leave the summit, so abseiled down Left Twin III,4*** and climbed back out. No one else turned up, so we…

Just got back from a break with the family in the Lakes. The kids were recovering from colds and were not up to doing much, but we had a great day on Yewbarrow, scrambling up to Great Door, then traversing the summit to Dore Head. We tried to go down Stirrup Crag, but conditions were not ideal for them, so went back to the saddle and descended steep broken ground, then traversed the scree to Dore Head.

Cloud inversion and a brief Brocken Spectre (twice now in 3 visits).

The…

After a big day yesterday, checking the weather and the usual conversation about where to go and what to do, we settled on an easy day in the Northern Coires on a couple of the short, but tricky routes on the Fiacaill.  A leisurely start saw us leaving the car park at 8:45am for the short walk to Sneachda.  Our hearts sunk as we saw that the crags were a bit on the black side.  A quick chat and we were off up the Goat track to see how things looked over the back.



The Shelterstone…

Matt and I had never climbed in Lochnagar before, so the drive across last night was filled with anticipation.  A stunning clear night showing off all the hills and the hares dicing with death as they ran across the road in front of the van.  One was unfortunate to fall to natural selection, despite being the size of a small dog.  I'm sure it will feed a few members of the local wildlife though.  Having already packed packed the bags, we got our heads down ready for an early start. Whilst…

After the ming fest yesterday in Glencoe, it was a pleasant day on the Ben today. There had been quite a bit of snow put down into the ciste, so any easy routes would have been a wade if you could have gotten to them. We opted to head to the Gulch to have a workshop approach on the quality ice that was there at the moment. This turned out to be perfect, with good length pitches of grade II-V ice to work through. Everyone showed a real improvement through the day.

We finished…

Yesterday John and Ronnie climbed Sioux Wall VIII,8***, which resulted in a massive bout of FOMO for me.  I have wanted to climb Sioux Wall for ages, so managed to talk Jonny into heading up the Ben today.  This was a little above his leading limit, so it meant I had to lead the whole route.  I was secretly happy about this, as it is such a classic.…

I knew things were going to go well this weekend when we overtook someone on the walk in to the Ben, this was something that hadn't happened for many years and was clearly a sign that my strict training regime of using unsalted butter on the bacon butties at breakfast was working.

When we arrived at the CIC hut we could clearly see our objective, Route 1*** VI,6. A text to Adam the night before had confirmed it had seen a recent ascent and was in nick.

C…

After working the weekend Matt and I were keen to get a route in today.  We opted for Lochain as a lay in and short walk in were key to the day.  The wind was stronger than forecast and wind blown snow was evident on the path, so we were aware that getting to the route could be interesting.  After some weaving around we started climbing at a leisurely time (after 10am), and Matt was straight in.  Ventricle VII,8*** has no easy pitches.  Originally graded VII,9, it has short but fierce…

Both Guy and I were pretty tired today after yesterdays efforts, but wanted to take advantage of the good weather.  We decided to head up the Ben and do something short on the Douglas boulder.  Neither of us were too keen to wade up high through the dodgy snow after the avalanches yesterday on Aonach Mor and the Ben.  This did not stop some, as large teams kept on trucking into some very loaded areas.…

Trying to find a hook over the crux roof

Today John and I were keen to get a route in before the temperature shot up.  Despite the avalanche risk being High, we opted to go to Aonach Mor, hoping to climb Alien Abduction…

We went back into Corie an t Sneachda today to try and re enforce the skills covered yesterday by picking our way up 0.5 Gully.  The snow was bullet hard in most places, some the aim was to try and find natural anchors to keep things moving.  Inevitably, a few Bucket seats had to be dug.  I had said yesterday that by the end of the 3 days they would be good at it, and would also try and avoid getting into the situation where they would have to do it again.  They agreed today.  Once we had…

Today was the first day of a winter mountaineering course I am running on the East for WCMG.  The weather has been a bit full on today, and Ben and Chris have coped well with the wild conditions that are not really conducive to easy learning.  That said, we managed to cover a massive amount. After a refresher of some footwork skills in the morning, we got stuck into some snow anchors in the afternoon.…

It was back up into Lochain today with Guy and John to continue the mixed climbing bonanza. We had hoped to climb Central Grooves VII,7***, but there was already a team starting up it. We went for our second option of East Face Direct Direct VII,7***, which was outstanding.

 John linked the first 2 pitches to make a good sustained pitch. Guy then did a awesome job leading up through the bold roof , and then the steep turf to the steep corner of the final pitch. That meant I had the…

Finally today there was some mixed climbing to be had as the snow came and was blow nicely on to the crags in Corie nan Lochain. I had Unicorn VIII,8*** in mind, but would go with the consensus of John and Guy as well. They were happy to give it a go, as I was keen for the crux pitch.  

I led quite quickly, for me to the crux. This involved some awkward and physical chimneying up the steep and very thin flared groove. I was gutted to have an axe blow whilst placing a runner…

Yesterday I went up to the Ben with Matt and Ben to do a bit of mileage on some easy ice routes.  They are both preparing for the guides winter test, so we had hopes to get a couple of things done.



Ben started us off up Comb Gully Buttress IV,5** which was in good condition, and had some nice climbing.  We then nipped down No. 3 Gully and Matt shot up Winter Cascade IV,5**.  This is not often in condition, so was a nice tick to do.  It was then down No. 2 Gully and back up Comb Left…