Jim's Blog (11)

With spring having arrived in the North West the only option is to head high, the obvious choice is Sgurr Mor.

 

Light winds for a change, reflected in Loch Droma.

 

The approach is easy when the burns are low and snow only starts above 800m or so - just a couple…

Continue

I'd not been on the hill for a while, so yesterday I fought the wind and rain to see the effects of the thaw.

 

 

Toll an Lochain on An Teallach has been stripped, I could only see one gully that was complete. I wandered up Lord's Gully to Lord Berkeley's Seat, a sinister dark mass in the mist, but didn't like the look of either branch to top out. The…

Continue

The thaw was massive and has stripped snow and ice from all levels. However refreezing has firmed up the remaining snow nicely - so easy gullies make fun days out at the moment. One of the most reliable routes on Beinn Eighe, down south in Torridon, has some interesting insitu gear and we also found some 'bomber' placements.…

Continue

A few photos from my last few trips out.

Reasonable snow falls on a non-existent base and cold temperatures have not yet produced good conditions for low grade snow and ice climbers like me, but it's beautiful none the less.…

Continue

Witz

May is a great time for cragging on the west coast, with low rainfall and no wee bastards yet. If you're in the area and are unlucky enough to see a rain cloud you can always pop by my house (first right after the Mellon Charles sign, green roof) to dry stuff or play in the bouldering barn.

I've been getting out as much as my elbows allow, to some of the best and local…

Continue

MWIS forecasts can usually be boiled down to a single key percentage - and this weekend it was 70% or higher for all three days. Time to hightail it back home and get out there.

Local sea cliffs were the objective on Friday, starting with a short bit of biking to the ruins at Slaggan.…

Continue

Arriving home in temperatures approaching double digits, with foaming water cascading off the hills and baby goats adding to the spring atmosphere, it was clearly not a winter climbing weekend (although I say that with hindsight since on sat I wandered up Beinn Dearg and got drizzled on for a couple of hours before giving up).

So, a bit of climbing to…

Continue

After a lazy Christmas, and with the hills still blootered in soft snow, had the cold nights produced any decent ice?

In all I managed three days of easy grade icefalls and one day of walking up and down a hill to try and find something in this which unfortunately has completely bollocks directions and is nowhere near where they say.…



Continue

After the blizzards of Saturday, and with attempts at climbing rock quickly abandoned, it was time to see if anything had come into condition.







The roads were still quite exciting so it was to be a quick trip into one of An Teallach's corries, with the hill out of Mungasdale only just overcome with plenty of slipping wheels and drift. The car was put as far as… Continue

Rain lashed the cottage on saturday, causing guidebooks to be flicked through in front of the fire. The bbc provided an optimistic forecast by cleverly not showing wind speeds. Various options were suggested as we tried to guess where the snow had fallen, but most were dismissed due to rivers in spate, leaving a wander up the local munro, An Teallach.

Snow started at around 750m, every step higher strengthening the bitter northerly… Continue

Clear skies arrived on saturday, although it took a while to get going after the long commute from York. We headed down the track to the ruins at Slaggan and on to sunny Atlantic Avenue. I had fun soloing a selection of the easier routes before putting on a rope and running out of strength, failing on a couple of steep routes.



Other members of the team had been… Continue