Great End

Monday myself and Martin set off from Tarleton at 5:30am with high hopes after the weekend's local snowfall. We actually found theres significantly less snow and the further north you get, for example Lancaster only has 1-2inchs compared to the 8 we've got at home. After a pit-stop for gear and crumpets in Lancaster we were back on the M6 and debating where to go. I've got three ice routes on my ticklist for this winter in the Lakes - Black Crag Icefall, Inaccessible Gully and Raven Crag Gully. They're all predominately ice routes meaning they take a reasonable cold spell to form. We immediately crossed off Innacsessable Gully as even though it was -15C outside it hasn't been substantially long enough since the last thaw for this to form. Black Crag Icefall is also fairly low and not completely north facing so we decided this could potentially waste our day if it wasn't in. And finally once we got into Borrowdale and saw the lack of snow on Raven we decided to give that a miss as well, as without good snow in the Gully and good ice cover apparently it can get quite a bit harder. So by default we went to Great End where there is 'always' stuff in.

Icefall finish on Window Gully.

We walked in from Seathwaite, relatively late compared to recent days only leaving the car at 9:30am, by 11am we were at Sprinkling Tarn eying the guidebook. First we set off up Window Gully II/III** and did the Upper Icefall Finish III 3**. We soloed up the first part of the gully which is good solid neve with a few ice steps before doing one long pitch from where the gully narrows up to the bay below the upper finish. The main icefall finish looked not to be in as the bottom half of the pillar was not touching down, it might go though as there are a few different lines around there. The upper icefall is fairly fat but lower down is hollow underneath and the bottom section has been broken off which meant high tool placements and some campusing on our axes to get foot purchase. The rest went with ease and took screws where needed. Rather then follow the snow slope to the top, after the ice fall we climbed leftward slanting mixed groove on the small buttress above tog gain the top to spice things up a little, don't think its in the book, but loads of people must of done it before.

Downclimbing Custs Gully.

We had lunch on the summit in brilliant sunshine with some fantastic views of the Lake District and further before down climbing Custs Gully I* to get back to the bottom of the buttress. This was stepped out allowing us to walk down most of it, there is also no cornice at the top.

Moving together up Central Gully.

Once back at the bottom we roped up with 30m of rope between us and set off up Central Gully Right Branch 200m II** moving together. The 3 main ice-steps added a little interest and the snow in between was stepped out and bomber neve allowing us to move fairly fast, doing the route in 35mins. Again no cornice and it looks like the lefthand variations are also in and seeing traffic. There was a little bit of wind-slab around in places, particularity noticeable in the bay at the bottom of the gully but not really enough to warrant any major hazard in my opinion.

Martin at the summit of Great End, complete with alpenglow and the full moon.

We topped out just at the sun was ducking behind Scafell and de-geared before heading down to Esk Hause in the failing light. Its worth noting that there are quite a few large patches of neve around on the tops which you could very easily take a large slide. Theres was a full moon which was so bright it almost meant we didn't need headtorches as we were casting shadows by the light of the moon - at night! We got back to the car at 6pm - fantastic day.

Thanks to Martin for the photos, I forgot my camera unfortunately.

Tarleton Skiing

I arrived home on the train on Friday (17th) evening just as it was beginning to snow in Preston. Between then, and when I woke up on Saturday morning it didn't really stop, with places getting 6-12inchs.

Skinning on Hesketh Lane.

After getting in late (2am) from the Ormskirk Network Christmas Meal in Southport I decided that considering the conditions it would be foolish to pass up the chance for a quick ski-tour round Tarleton. I managed to ski down Sutton Lane, through Mark's Square - much to the amazement of those that were still in the Lilford. Then all the way up Hesketh Lane to the High School where I skied down to the canal before heading back up to the main road, down Kearsley Avenue and home. Never thought I'd get to do that in Tarleton!

Saturday, Jacob, Andy and myself took the car out to the moss for some more fun with both the skis and sledge. I found skiing the powder on the verges of the road to actually be really good fun - although perhaps a little more akin to waterskiing than actual skiing!



Later that night we took this to another level though when Martin, Bob and Tom joined us complete with Landrover so we could really get some speed up on the Moss. We all found it quite exciting skiing and sledging behind the landrover at speed with somebody hanging out the back with a lantern illuminating where you were going. Anyhow, lets hope this snow sicks around. I'm hoping going to try and get to the Lakes tomarrow for some climbing, so if I do I'll report conditions when I get back.

Tremadog & Ogwen

I was in North Wales this weekend for a friend's birthday, and had orginally intended to try and get some more winter routes done but due to thaw at the end of last week, and the temperatures on Friday evening being positively tropical (8C in Nant Peris at night) we decided to give it a miss. I heard stuff still got done on the Black Ladders, and there was still ice around in Idwal on the Sunday but whether or not any of the lines were complete I am skeptical about. A lot of the snow cover has also diminished as well.

Myself leading pitch 3 of Poor Man's Peutery.

Saturday, with it being overcast and damp in the Pass we headed south to Tremadog for some rock-climbing. We did Poor Man's Peutery S 75m which is one of the classic easier routes on Craig Pant Ifan. In the guidebook its given 4 pitches but I manged to run both 1+2 and 3+4 together without any issues. The route as a whole is generally good but the 3rd pitch is fantastic for the grade, with an excellent, exposed traverse out onto the nose, before following a steep crack line up the wall above for about 20m. Due to our intentions of winter routes both Stu and Stubbs were climbing in there big boots and I was rocking my trainers which made the whole thing a little more interesting!

Scrambling on Carnedd Dayfdd.

Sunday brought a delayed start, but eventually we got round to Ogwen by mid afternoon (2:30pm), we'd intended to go and do Ceniefion Arete which is one of my favourite routes in Wales but decided against it as we all wanted to be home a reasonable hour, and we still had a 2 hour drive ahead if us. Instead we struck straight out of Ogwen Cottage up towards Carnedd Dafydd, picking a line up the different rock buttress to give some quality scrambling in places. We also got some stunning views of Cwm Idwal as the sun set behind. I could just about make out the remnants of the Devil's Appendix, and I'm quite excited to go for a look at it when it's fully formed again.

Cautley Spout

Cautley Spout is allegedly England's highest waterfall according to Wikipedia, and is located in the Howgill Fells. Its a bit of a winter classic, forming after a good period of cold temperatures what is a pretty good ice route. I've been up to it a few times before when walking in the Howgills, most recently two weeks ago - at that point I definitely did not think I was going to be getting on it this early in the season!

With university commitments during the days all this week I was getting a little frustrated, so on Tuesday evening I suggested to Ben that perhaps we should go and get on it one night, which is what we did last night. I was a little skeptical about conditions, so earlier in the week, daringly started a thread on UKC to see if anybody had been up there, hoping it wouldn't spur on loads of overly keen people to go and get on before us and knock all the ice off! The route is in Brian Davison's Lake District Winter Climbs book in the outlying areas section. Its given III and 250m, and has a short approach of probably only 1.5km and a small amount of ascent.

Myself, almost feeling like I was on fat Canadian water-ice.

When we left the car at Cross Keys it was getting on towards 7pm, and was about -4C which boded well, another good sign was that the river that flows parallel to the road had a reasonable layer of ice on it. After about 25 minutes we were at the base of the ghyll. Its obviously been well visited over the last few days as there was a defined track that wove its way up the lower stages to the large enclosed amphitheater below the first proper and crux pitch - there are a few small ice steps before this so geared up, apart from ropes about halfway up.

Ben below the 2nd pitch we roped up for, with quite a cold plunge pool below him.

We'd seen some headtorches on the the walk in and met this pair just as they were backing off the first pitch, having taken a line on skier's left of the ghyll. We decided to go and have a look anyway. We set up an intermediate stance probably 25m off the deck and then I lead off up the crux. At first the ice was good, but the higher I got the more detached and hollow it became, mostly sugary spray ice as appose to water ice that my tools were just pulling through. It wouldn't take screws and a bit of dig for some rock gear below was fruitless so I decided to bail, only about 6m from the top of the 30m pitch, and started the careful downclimb. A few more days of cold weather, or perhaps even first thing int he morning and perhaps this pitch would be ok, I guess it would probably go at around WI3, Scottish tech 4 in good conditions. I got to the belay and lowered Ben to the ground before downclimbing again, we took a look at skier's right as well but that looked as it probably wouldn't go either, and we would of has to get seriously wet.

Ice-climbing by headtorch - awesome!

Undeterred we escaped the ghyll up a small turf/scree gully on skiers left just below the amphitheater and walked up and traverse in to just above the crux pitch that had just thwarted us. Here we soloed for a while up small ice steps following the ghyll before roping up where it steepens again for 4 pitches, the best certainly being the penultimate full 50m pitch of good ice, probably going at WI3-, so nowhere near hard but fantastic for UK Ice. All night we had fantastic weather, perfectly clear skies with bright stars, perhaps the only thing that could of made it better would of a full moon. Climbing winter routes at night is cool, go do it.

Lake District Ice - Blea Water

Sunday entailed another 'Griffiths-early-start' with me and Martin leaving Tarleton around 5:30am. The drive up was fairly slow as anything other than the motorway was covered in ice. We came off at Shap, noticing on the way that the Teabay road cutting icefalls seems to be coming into condition quickly, I don't know if they are quite climbable yet though so don't take my word. From Shap we followed some icier roads, eventually arriving at the head of Haweswater just as it was getting properly light.

I've never climbed on Blea Water Crag before, I was initially attracted to it in the guidebook by the short walk in and the promise of some of the fastest forming water ice in the Lakes, which considering its been cold for a while I reckoned on being quite fat by now. The walk in went quickly and we were soon at Blea Water where we chose the Lakeland classic of Blea Water Gill Direct III 4. This route starts at the base of the face, only about 15m above the water level and follows a steep gill, first through a series of narrow chimneys filled with ice before it opens up allowing several variations on what was superb water-ice. We did 5 reasonably full pitches before soloing the last section where it eases.If you take the easiest line and avoid the difficulties it probably deserves and straight III 3 however if you take them direct its at least tech 4. The route is easily escapable at most point, which also allows to come back down and do variations you missed.



After topping out onto High Street we dropped down the ridge heading back to Haweswater for a few hundred meters before coming off partway down to the south to check out some steeper looking ice lines that we'd seen from the Gill earlier. I lead a nice route of about 20-25m which started with vertical ice for about 6-8m before the angle eased a little as you go over a few bulges. I'd say it felt about WI3, which roughly equates to IV 4, although it was single pitch Ice cragging so probably just the tech 4 is more applicable.

So, conditions are great at the moment, and if its ice your after certainly go and take a look at Blea Water Crag in the next few days.

Multi-pitch Climbing Seminar

Saturday I was at West View Leisure Center with LUMC running a follow-up workshop to a skills seminary we had last week, specifically on multi-pitch climbing. We started with basic skills in the morning such as prussics, tying off a plate, abseiling among others before pulling all these together in the afternoon by looking at basic rescues, hoisting, escaping the system etc. I think it went well and everybody seemed to learn something which is good. We just need to wait for the spring now so we can get people outside to put some of the things they learnt into practice.

On a side note, it's probably getting on for 18-24 months since I've been to West View (its over a year since I've climbed indoor!) and it seems to of changed a lot, theres an excellent new tiered lead wall in the middle, and they've revamped the bouldering area. The other thing to note is, West View used to be my local wall and I used to find the grades fairly stiff, especially on the main lead wall which was (and still is) very polished. After we'd finished running the course I lead a few easy lines (5+ & 6a) in my trainers and found them very amenable, I don't remember 6a holds being jugs all the way anyway, or maybe I've just got better. So If you've not been for a while go and take a look.

Winter Climbing Clothing

With the winter season coming early this year I've already been out on a few routes, and I've been trying out the first of a few new clothing system ideas I've got for this winter, mostly made up of bits of kit I picked up while living across the pond last year. I'm a big fan of softshell clothing, I think its ace, infact in winter I hardly ever wear waterproofs - I find them constrictive and not breathable enough. The British climate however often doesn't lend itself well the whole softshell concept though, often being fairly warm, and as a consequence wet. Recent conditions have been almost alpine or continental like though, with low temperatures producing fairly dry snow.

For my baselayer I've been wearing a long sleeve 240 weight Icebreaker on my top and powerstretch tights on my legs. My midlayer is a Patagonia R1 Hoody which works really well on the walk in having sleeves that roll up and a big deep zip for venting. When I get to the base of the route I pull the sleeves down and stick the thumb loops on beneath my gloves to keep spindrift out, and I put up the hood under my helmet which acts almost like a balaclava. On my legs is a pair of Mountain Equipments G2 Ultimate Mountain Pants. They are made of Gore's Windstopper material which I have a bit of love/hate relationship with (See my blog on Summer Alpine Clothing) as while I like the fact that its weather resistance and waterproofness means I can forgo carrying waterproof pants, their breathability is really poor. The big thigh vents are open from leaving the car which alleviates some of this issue but their still not perfect. They also have internal gaiters which do a fairly good job of keeping the snow out of your boots, especially if you add a little piece of elastic that goes under your boot. My climbing jacket which goes on over the top is a Arcteryx Gamma MX Hoody, a softshell hooded jacket that I picked up a few months ago after wanting one for a long time, and it is perhaps one of the best jackets I've ever used - I'll review it fully after I've given it a bit more abuse. Two of the best things about it though is firstly is that its got a fully technical helmet compatible hood, and secondly the cut and stretch of the jacket is superb allowing complete freedom of movement.

Gamma MX Hoody & R1 Hoody winter climbing in the Lake District.

In the sack I carry a really lightweight waterproof shell, a Patagonia Specter Jacket. I carry this purely as a emergency jacket, if I can help it I won't be wearing it when I'm climbing at all as I would probably shed the really lightweight fabric, but for walking off in a storm it will do fine. If the forecast is particularity bad I'll take my Haglofs Spitz, which is still fairly light but much more burly. Always in the top of my bag is my belay jacket, which is really the workhorse of the system, coming in and out of the pack all the time, at belays, when gearing up and down etc. As its been fairly cold I've been taking my Rab Neutrino Endurance Jacket which has worked well, although it has all the well known disadvantages of being down, and of course the advantages. I have been thinking a heavyweight synthetic jacket may be a good investment to replace it though, with the Patagonia Das Parka and the Arcteryx Dually Belay Parka looking like very good contenders.

And thats it. I think its a fairly lightweight system, based around the softshell and belay jacket concept and so far its done well. I'm skeptical about how well it will do in more British (warmer and wetter) but we'll see.

Falcon Crag

Tuesday, myself, Joe and Lewis headed up to Falcon Crag at the head of Grisedale. We walked in from Patterdale, having driven up to Penrith and down the Ullswater road rather than risk the Kirkstone Pass. This was probably a good move as the pass was closed when we got down later that evening. The walk in was fairly long, although no arduous and even quite pleasant - I do think however that it is quicker to come up from Dunmail Raise on the other side but it is a steeper ascent.



We had planned to do Dollywagon Gully which Joe had done before, but I hadn't. We traversed in fairly high though and ended up in what we think may of been Dollywagon Chimney with the Right hand Finish IV but it could of quite easily been a different line, or Dollywagon Gully itself but Joe said he didn't recognize it. Anyhow, it looked good, and like it would go so we went for it. Conditions were good (one of the belays was a pure ice screw belay) and the turf is still fully frozen. The only thing that is letting it down slightly is that a few more inches of consolidated snow is needed on some of the lines. Most rock, on most aspects is hoared up as well. We topped out in deteriating weather, and headed down to the tarn and out the way we came, it was starting to snow heavily as we got to the car which bodes well from conditions later in the week. Beers and Imran's naturally followed.

Helvellyn - V-Corner Variation

Sunday (28th) myself and Tom got up at a un-earthly hour and headed north in search of some early season winter climbing. After a little sliding on Kirkstone Pass, and some snow chain related remediation we pulled into Glenridding before heading up the road to the youth hostel being the first people there. The walk in was a little tedious, with the ground being completely frozen from the start, but eventually we got to red tarn, finding several people encamped trying to get a early start.


We chose V-Corner III, and ended up doing a slightly harder variation of it, up a ice runnel and then mixed corner before the v-corner itself, to the right of the actual line of v-corner. Conditions were fantastic, with the turf being completely frozen for the most part, the rock was rimed up and there was quite a bit of water ice around. The snow that has been left over from the dump a few weeks ago is now bomber neve in the gullys however some of the mixed line could still do with a few more inches. We topped out in wall to wall blue skys and almost alpine conditions, had some lunch and then descended striding edge, excellent day.

Langdale - Night Navigation

Due to me having classes until 12, us spending copious amounts of money on KFC, and Struggles generally being incompetent myself and Lewis got out the car on Friday in Langdale a little later than expected, at nearly 4pm. The sun had already set.

We headed up stickle gill first, which was starting to freeze up quite nicely, some parts of the path were a little precarious with 1-2 inch ice covering portions. We did a lap of the Pikes, which were a little wintery before heading over to Stake Pass. The aim of the night was to practice some night navigation, which we did after walking round in circles for a while trying to the tarn, which was eventually we did. Once there we stopped for some tea (around d 8/9pm) and devoured our KFC provided hill food, but then got very cold very quickly, it was probably around -5C so moved on. Some more bearing work got us to across to Angle Tarn, where we headed up towards Allen Crags. The whole East side of the Scafell Massif was fairly white, and the sky was clear with a bright moon which made an awesome atmosphere. We then re-traced our steps and headed down Rossett Gill (which is also freezing in places), this was again pretty tedious with the paths covered in ice in places. We got back to the car around 1/2am I think.

We took quite a few videos during the day/night so when I get chance I'll edit them together and put them up here.

Howgill Fells

Monday, myself and Lewis headed up to the Howgills, a group of hills bordered by the Lake District to the west and Yorkshire Dales to the east, and that get comparatively little attention - which is a good thing as we saw nobody all day. While perhaps not as rocky as hills in the Lakes, these are still big hills, and the solace is a nice change from being in Langdale or Coniston, plus it only took us 30-40 minutes to get there from Lancaster.


We parked at Cross Keys (SD 698 969) which is one of the best access points and headed up via Cautley Spout, which I fancied a look at as during particualary hard winter it freezes making an awesome ice route. From their we headed up the tops, doing a circuit of Great Dummacks, Calders and the Calf. We looked at a few different navigation techniques along the way in preparation for Lewis' upcoming assessment, the clag was down which provided some good, realistic conditions. We had a late lunch by the trig point on the Calf and then headed down just as it was going dark.

Kendal Mountain Film Festival

Its the annual Kendal Mountain Film Festival this weekend. So far I've booked to see the world premiere of 'The Pinnacle' which documents Dave Macleod and Andy Turner repeating the Smith - Marshall famous week climbing on the Ben last winter, which should inspire me a bit for our CIC weekend in March! I've also got tickets to the Snowsports evening on the Friday, theres a few ski films being shown, and Glen Plake is there so that should be pretty cool as he is THE guy from Blizzard of Aaahhhs.

The trailer for the event as a whole is below:

The Fun Scale

A friend of mine that I used to climb with in Canada first introduced me to the Fun Scale, having read about it in the Canadian Alpine Journal. I've done a bit of googling and it seems that its an idea thats been mooted around mountaineering circles for sometime. What it's basic function is, is to divide 'fun' up into three discrete categories each of which can be applied to experiences in the mountains, and to some extent real life. I'll give a bit of a basic description below of what I perceive each type to be and include:

Type I
Things you actually enjoy when they are happening, and perhaps the purest form of fun.
Roadside iceclimbing. Good food. Sunny south facing rockclimbing. Beer. Lift accessed Chamonix-stlye alpinism (when everything goes to plan). Good sex. Powder skiing. Gear shopping. Scrambling.

Type I fun rarely leaves you with any real significant memories though, you may think back that you enjoyed the day, but you didn't really have to graft for anything. Ultimately I find it to not be quite as satisfying as it could be.

Type II
Fun in retrospect, can be anything from unpleasant to downright hateful in doing, but given a un-specified amount of time you look back on it as a good time.
All other alpine climbing. Scottish winter. Going rockclimbing in the UK in the bad weather 'to make the most of the day'. Pretty much any day I spend in the mountains with Carl Stubbs. Dropping one tool on a route. Going hillwalking.

Martin Freeman getting the fear on, and hence having some good old Type II on Viking Buttress IV 4.

Type II days are perhaps the best, usually being a lot for satisfying in the long run that type I. There good character building and you quite often come out of them having learnt things.


Carl Stubbs after a retreat from the Col de Fourche bivi hut in bad weather.

The video above shows Stubbsy after we'd descended the 200m couloir that leads up to the Col de Fourche above the Cirque Maudit in Mont Blanc Massif. We'd intended to do the Kuffner Ridge but got screwed over a little by Chamonix Meteo with warm temperatures and lots of new snow. If we'd of gone for the route we'd of taken a long time on it, and probably been committing to going over the Blanc in a storm as neither of us wanted to descend the Tacul normal route, so we bailed abseiling down the couloir which was wet and loose in 25/30m sections as we only had one rope. The last one left us a good 5m short of getting over the bergschrund - definite type II territory for both of us there. After a few tedious hours crossing the Valle Blanche to get back to the Midi in a white-out we were down in town, eating lunch in the Petit Kitchen thinking that actually it was all pretty good fun, and we'd probably go for another crack in a day or two.

Type III
Not really fun at all, things that were certainly a bad idea, and you'll probably never do again.
Near death experiences. Loose rock. Dropping both tools on a route. 9am Lectures. Getting avalanched.
This is probably my least favorite of the three types, and thankfully I've only experienced it once or twice. Type II events often have the potential to become Type III if things don't go your way.

Martin Freeman high on Via Alvera, V+, Averau.

Two summers ago Martin and I climbed a big rock route on the south face on Mt. Averau in the Italian Dolomites. The day didn't start well as two rocks came flying down while we were gearing up at the bottom. It progressively got worse, with each pitch and belay becoming less and less well protected and even looser. The in-situ belays that the guidebook referred to were often missing or very poor state. The climbing was never super hard, just super scary. We were both pretty relieved to get to the top, and made the decision that we'd probably never do this route again. Ever. I can look back on this now, and while there were limited sections that were perhaps Type II (the scary traverse) the Type III elements far outweighed these.

Thoughts?

Troutdale & Gillercombe

This weekend I was in the Lake District with the university mountaineering club (LUMC) for our first term fresher's weekend away. As usual the forecast was grim (although not as grim as 2 years ago when it coincided with 'Borrowdale storm' and OMM fiasco) but most of us got some stuff done.

Jade & Veronica on quite a moist belay on Troutdale Pinnacle.

Saturday a group of us headed up to Black Crag and set off up Troutdale Pinnacle S 4a. I've done the route before, its another classic rock number and its really good with some varied climbing and being moderately long. The guidebook gives it 105m in 6 pitches, we managed it in 4, running 1+2 and 3+4 together. You could try stringing 5+6 together but unless you were very minimalistic on gear placements, and hence leave you second un-protected on to a degree on the slab down-climb at the start of pitch 5 you'd end up with quite a bit of drag, plus you'd miss the wonderfully exposed belay on the saddle by the pinnacle. The hardest pitches in my opinion are the final two, with the crux probably being one of the last moves on the last pitch but the gear it good and once you've got the hold its all good.

Foolishly I was being optimistic and set off without waterproofs on, only to have the torrential rain start at the first belay, pretty moist by the top. I also climbed the first 2/4 pitches in my Guide Tennies which seemed to work ok on wet rock, they were however, as always deadly walking down the grass on the descent. I had Jade and Veronica with me and I think they both enjoyed it.

Sunday we headed over to Gillercombe Buttress with quite a large group. With the forecast looking better I'd hoped, perhaps naively, that the rock would be dry - it wasn't, not in the slightest. I set off up Gillercombe Buttress S 4a with Jade and Rebecca in tow and Dan, Luke & Becca following us while another two parties set off us Grey Knots Face, the Diff slightely to the right.

Pitch 2(?) on Gillercombe.

I did the route a few years ago on a lovely dry sunny day, but like everything it takes on a little bit of a different demeanor when its wet. The rising traverse on pitch 2/3 was interesting as was the crux slab on pitch 5 which was dripping, and which I almost slipped off completely - managing to grab a placed nut on my way down. The route is 195m and I think we did it in 5 pitches, we could of don it in 4 but I belayed before the traverse instead of after so ended up with a short 10m pitch over this, otherwise we just tried to run the rope out as there are belays a plenty. Jade and Rebecca did an awesome job of seconding in the poor conditions, climbing quickly and being spot on sorting stuff at the belays.

Rebecca, Jade & Myslef at the top of Gillercombe Buttress.

After we topped out, we hung around for a while, looked around for the other but saw no sign of them and then bimbled down after we started to get cold getting to the bus at about 4:30pm, where sat around eating chorizo, cheese and cracker sandwiches, drinking whiskey and taking photos. Unbeknown to us the other parties had ended up in various predicaments forcing them to retreat, which in turn caused some issues of ropes getting stuck etc. I was just putting my boots back on at 7pm when a trail of torch lights appeared much to my relief, everybody was fine despite a few learning experiences and they all did really well to get off safely in the dark, the only casualty being a few club slings and biners, which are certainly expendable.

Bit of a learning experience for some people I think, a few key points being:

• Don't underestimate a big mountain route in poor conditions.
• Climbing in a three can be slow, especially if your climbing in series and/or switching the leads.
• Its a pretty good idea to always have a headtorch, whistle, map an compass with you.
• A few meters of 6mm cord, or nylon tape in the bottom of your sack will avoid you having to leave slings behind.
• Everybody should really have at the minimum a single prussic with them for abseiling with.
  

And not to end on a serious note, the definite theme tune for the weekend is below:

Snowdonia

Friday, myself and Julie headed down to the Ogwen valley, Snowdonia to get in a day in for ourselves before the event we were helping on over the weekend. As the forecast was fairly grim we decided up a itinerary I've done a few times before, a link up of the Ordinary Route D on the slabs and then Cneifion Arete D/3s. Cneifion Arete is a superb route in its own right, and can be approached in several ways; Sub-Cneifion Arete, the direct approach approach to Senior's Ridge or, and what I think is the most aesthetic is to do a route on the Idwal slabs.

Base of the Idwal Slabs, in the rain.

We managed to do the Ordinary Route in two full 60m pitches and then a bit, the guidebook reckons it should take 4 - but its a straight line so if you've got long ropes just run them together. In the past I've moved up the route route together, climbing alpine style however with the wet weather today wasn't a day for that. From the top we stayed roped together and moved up the lower ledges of seniors ridge before dropping out into the Nameless Cwm.

Cneifion Arete is for my money, perhaps the best scramble in Wales, and its pretty full on as a scramble with the first pitch certainly warranting Diff. After this it eases off considerably as you follow the exposed razor edge to the top, which always come too early. We short pitched the first section and then moved together for the rest, the wind did pick up as we reached the crest though and we took quite a buffeting. The top of the Arete puts you somewhere along the Gribbin Ridge, as we were quite wet and it was late in the day, we bailed from here heading down the Gribbin and back into Cwm Idwal. In the past though I've continued up the Gribbin to the summit of Glyder Fach, or more interestingly dropped down to the main face of Glyder Fach and done the Dolmen Ridge which is another awesome scramble, right at that boundary between climbing and scrambling. I think these sorts of days are great training for alpine climbing, staying roped up all day and trying move nice and efficiently.

Dave J & Tracey on the Arete, a few years ago.

Saturday we had a group from Ormskirk Explorers and Network with us, as the weather was again bad we went walking. The Explorers and Network all walked independently which was great as they all had to pitch in and do their share of navigation in some fairly bad conditions. the started up the PYG track from Pen Y Pass, summited Snowdon before heading off down the Ranger path to the col before heading up Moel Cynghorion and dropping down to our hut where we were staying. One group missed the Ranger path, but realized their mistake and corrected themselves but not before I'd blitzed it down the Llanberis path looking for them, then having to climb back up to Bwlch Cwm Brwynog from the half way station. Anyhow, they all did really well and despite the conditions seemed to have fun.

Explorers & Network coming off Snowdon.

Sunday's forecast was much better, so we packed up and headed round to Ogwen for a mass trespass on Tryfan. We split into three groups, with Julie and Andy taking one each and myself the third. My team headed up Millstone Gully Aproach which is given grade 2 before doing Millstone Continuation Grade 3 which we short pitched. We then followed an interesting line up the North Ridge with the group taking the lead through some challenging sections. We all ended up on the summit at the same time which was great, before heading down to the Tryfan-Glyder Fach col and back to the car.

The ONMAS group on the summit of Tryfan.

I think the weekend was a great success, even if we did make a financial loss, we certainly be running it again, and we've gotten good feedback from all the participants so far. Particular thanks to Ken for doing the catering and sorting the buses out and Julie an Andy for coming along as tickets.

Stanage & Hen Cloud

Friday I met up with Stubbs in Leeds and drove south for a day on the Gritstone. The forecast wasn't looking too promising but we still managed to get a reasonable amount done, jumping from 3 star route to 3 star route.

Hargreaves' Original Route.

To warm up, as it had been a while since wither of us had climbed on grit I lead off up Hollybush Crack VD*** which has some lovely bridging up a corner with massive jugs, just what we needed to get the muscles working. Stubbs then did the classic Christmas day number of Christmas Crack HS 4b*** which again was another good route, if a little worn in places. Next up I did Central Trinity VS 4c*** which starts off up a steep crack before a delicate traverse left leads you to another crack which you can jam, or layback your way up. There is a unprotected direct start whcih goes straight up the wall to the second crack at 5a. The climbing on this again was great, with some lovely hand jam crack climbing on the second crack, to offset the delicate traverse before it. We then moved left and Stubbs lead off up Hargreaves' Original Route VS 4c*** a definite gritstone classic, which contrasted our previous route well consisting of delicate slab climbing up a low angle wall following sloping horizontal breaks, well protected throughout with cams. This one is also in Ken Wilson's Classic Rock. After this I was about to start up inverted-v but the weather broke so we bailed to car.

We spent lunch eating a English breakfasts in the Outside Cafe in Hathersage and perusing expensive gear while we waited for the rain to stop. I picked a guide to iceclimbing in Washington state cheap in their clearance section and a copy of Supertopo's Alaska Climbing book by Puryear which has so far been a good read and proven to be quite inspiring! Theres definitely a trip in the making there...

Hen Cloud, K2 takes a line on the far right of the buttress.

The damp weather didn't really show much sign of giving up, so we took the chance that it may be better further to the south and headed over to Hen Cloud which was on our way home. Unfortunately when we got there it was still pretty wet, and Hen Cloud looked very green from the road so we sacked off the original plan to do the 3 pitch classic VS Central Climb and lowered our sights to do K2 S 4a,4b**, another classic rock number. Stubbs took the first 4a pitch which neither of us were too enamered with, the only good climbing being the moves at the top of the pitch to reach the belay. I then did the second pitch which start off up a steep crack section (4b) which took a bit thinking being wet, the pitch then eases off, disappointingly so to follow the VD ridge to the top of the crag. In all honesty probably not a route I'll be going back to do soon, but a good day nether the less.

Photos taken from UKC Gallery.

Pillar Rock - Dave Ridout's Last Day On The Hill

As many of you may know about 2 months ago Dave Ridout, a very established figure is West Lancashire Scouting and the Mountaineering Group while also being a good friend and mentor to me personally passed away. He taught me a lot in the way of hillcraft and other skills and also encouraged me to take on more leadership roles and pass my skills on to those then me, as he'd been doing for so many years. I will always remember him assessing me on my scout mountain leader assessment, having me wonder around above Longseldale trying to find tiny ring contours in the fog!

Pillar Rock.

Dave was most certainly a peak bagger, having done all the 2,000ft summits in England and Wales (he was also a good way through his Munros) bar one, Pillar Rock. This naturally seemed a fitting place for us to scatter his Ashes.

A large group of friends assembled at Wasdale Head Inn the evening before for a few drinks in rememberance and more joined us in the morning, in total we were nearly 50 strong. We reached the grassy hillside by Pillar Rock around 2:30pm and held a short service where friends said a few words about Dave before members of the Mountaineering group took him to the summit.

Scattering Dave's Ashes on Pillar Rock, his last 2,000ft'er.

We did Slab an Notch, graded Mod it sits somewhere in between scrambling and climbing. I've done the route in descent from climbs on the face utilizing the abseil into the gap between High Man and Pisagh but never done the ascent in its entirety. I'd read somewhere that the Slab section at the beginning was the crux but I though this was fairly ameanable, as was the Notch section which large incut holds. The trickiest bit I thought was the wet gully that you finish up which is fairly polished, bot none of it is desperate. We soloed it, rigging a fixed line as we went for those following us but it could easily be protected conventionally with just a few slings and a short rope. After a short ceremony and scattering of Dave's ashes on the summit we abbed off, with myself and Stu reclaiming the fixed lines before heading over the summit of Pillar and back down to Wasdale. An excellent day, and one that I hope Dave would of been proud of.

Cosmiques Arete Solo

Friday saw the good weather we'd been heaving in Cham break and a bank of unsettled low pressure move it for the weekend. Ash an Clare decided to have a valley day at Gaillards the local crag but having done a lot of the route there that are within my grade when I was out in Chamonix last I decided to try and get one more day in up in the mountains before my flight and the definitive end to my sumer alpine season.

The Cosmiques Arete isn't hard, nor is it particularly serious, its very accessible and having done the route many times over the summer due to its proximity to the lift station and preferableness to trudging up the snow arete I now know it pretty dam well. As such it made quite a good objective for a alpine solo. I've never solo'ed anything in the alpine before, and when I say solo I don't mean just climbing un-roped, I'm referring climbing alone on the mountain.


The weather was poor, with visibility down to about 15 meters, persistent snow and a reasonably strong wind which made walking across the galcier the scariest bit of the whole trip, especially when I put my foot partially in a small crevasse just below the Eperon - probably not big enough for me to fall in but it did make me think. I took some shelter behind the Abri Simmond, having a quick bite to eat before setting off.

I left the base at 10:10am (having left the Midi at 9:45/9:50am) and climbed fairly quickly up the first slabbly sectyion. The rock was very snowy and sections were covered in rime. After about 15/20 minutes I was at the first abseil. I though about down-climbing this as I've done several times before but as I needed to get the rope out for the next one decided it was probably quicker an safer to just rappel both. Rigging the second abseil my hands got quite cold having got wet earlier from brushing snow off holds, here I had a bit of a moment as once you do this you are fairly committed to finishing the rest of the ridge, including the crux slab. I went for it and got to the bottom of the gully where I pulled the ropes, here I made a stupid mistake. As I took my sack off to stow the rope I forgot that my axe was behind my back and dropped it and had to downclimb a good 15m to where it was perched precariously between two rocks, this cost me a good 5-10 minutes as I took it quite slowly. After this I soon reached the crux slab where I changed into dry gloves and then went for, the last section on the north side of the ridge went very quickly and by 11am I was slumped infront of the telescope on the viewing platform, 50 minutes after I started.



The guidebook time is 3 hours, so 50 minutes isn't bad, I'm happy with it considering the conditions. I would of really liked to of beaten John's record of 40 minutes, and I think if I did in good conditions I maybe could - but that will have to wait to next year. I really enjoyed doing it and got a huge buzz from moving freely and swiftly on the mountain however I really did feel alone and quite vulnerable if anything did happen (there were no other parties on the ridge), I imagine I'll do some more soloing, but I'm not quite sure how much yet.

Thats the summer alpine season over for me, I've done 7 weeks out in the Alps and got loads done, and in general the summer has been one of the best I've had for climbing with the month I spent climbing Yosemite, Squamish and Nevada before the Alps. Apparently its time to knuckle down and finish my degree now...

Aiguille de L'M NNE Ridge & L'Index SE Ridge

Tuesday myself and Ash took a 9am lift up the Midi and jumped off at the Plan station before heading up towards the Nantillons glacier and then cutting across under the Petit Charmoz to the base of the Aiguille de L'M. The approach is given in most books as about 2 hours, either from the Plan station or the Montenvers train station on the to the other side. We opted for the Plan approach as while it undulates a fair bit as it crosses several lines of moraine its basically a traverse, a appose to the Montenvers approach which is shorter but ivolves a lot more ascent - we planned to use this as out descent route.

NNE Ridge, Aiguille de L'M.

I led the first pitch, which starts with a few steep moves before some delicate climbing up a shallow crack on a slab. Its given IV- which makes it allegedly one of the harder pitches of the route but despite it being freezing (the sun hadn't come round yet and I couldn't feel my hands!) I thought it was fairly amenable, I strung this together with the next pitch which has some easy III climbing leading to a nice terrace. Here Ash took over and led a fairly short pitch, but with a stiff move (about British 4b/4c) to start up to below the big diedre. This offwidth corner crack is certainly the crux of the route and takes a bit of though as the natural line is to follow and try to climb the offwidth but the way to do is to make a few delicate but easier moves out on the slab which lead to the belay above. This thwarted me the first time, but Ash dispatched with ease, leaving me to follow with both mine and his rucksack which proved quite a challenge! The line on the next pitch is a bit vague and has a few option, I followed a line that passed a few pegs, but Ash found another on second. From here a final pitch led up to the summit ridge and then the summit of the L'M itself. A bit of backtracking leads to a series of abseil anchors, we made three 30m abseils down to the snow gully and then a further one to the other side of the snow and bit of down-climbing to get get us back to the start. We managed to do the descent from here to the Montenvers in 50mins, getting to the station about 10 minutes before the last train.

Clare O'Sullivan arrived that evening so with both myself an Ash being a bit tired from 3 days on the run and Clare having come straight from sea level we took the Midi up and just did a quick lap on the Cosmiques making use of our lift passes, and being down in time for lunch in the Petit Kitchen.

L'Index, the SE Ridge is the left side of the prominent fin of rock.

The next day we walked down from Chris an Andrea's down to Flegere lift station to get up onto the Aiguille Rouge before the lifts shut at the end of the week and we'd have to start walking up... Alpinistes actually walking somewhere!? I've climbed l'Index twice before, but always done routes on the face rather than the classic but easier ridge-line known as the SE Ridge. We did the approach pitches first that sit below the terrace, these are 5c and then 4c and fully bolted. As I'd done these before Ash lead both of them with me an Clare following. At the terrace we had some lunch before we swapped over and I led up the ridge, which at it's hardest is 4c. Its got much less equipment than the other routes, but theres pegs here and there and a reasonable amount of in-situ nuts an cams. I think I probably only places about 3/4 of my own pieces. its 4/5 pitches in the guidebok but I manged to run bits together and did it in 3 fairly full 60m pitches right to the summit. The route is well travelled, and as a product it is quite polished in places but again there is a reason for this - the route is very good, and while it does detract from the quality it certainly isn'y a reason not to do the route.

Throughout the day we had great views over to the Chappelle route on La Gliere which is a route that I really do recommend to do up on the rouge, 14 pitches of excellent climbing at a moderate grade, the hardest bits being 6a.

Vallee Blanche Acclimatization

Myself and Ash headed up the Midi lift on Sunday morning after arriving in Chamonix the evening before. We carried up bivi gear and dropped this off at shack that's perched on the spur of rock below the Cosmiques hut. This hut isn't officially acknowledged in any guidebooks or on any maps as far as I know, probably because if it was more well known the actual Cosmiques may loose some business! It seems to have fallen into a little bit of dis-repair recently as the top section of the door is now missing and one of the blankets has been nailed up to cover the hole in a crude fashion, due to this there was quite a bit of snow that had blown inside that we needed to clear. Thankfully it wasn't a windy night so we were ok. Theres probably enough wood lying about under the platform in their for somebody with a bit of skill to fix the door up a bit.

Anyhow after dumping our kit we had a lap on the Cosmiques Arete as Ash had never done it before. I think this was my 5th time on the ridge this summer, and I could probably climb it with my eyes closed now but it is still a good route. It gets a lot of stick of sites like UKC from people that its too busy, not that good and too accessible but I disagree with most of this. Yes there are hundreds of finer routes in the massif but this is one of few that provide what I consider to be a good standard of climbing in such a accessible location. Simply looking at it, less than about 16 hours after getting off a plane in Geneva we were at 3800m climbing, there aren't many places you can do that in the world!

The route wasn't too busy, but a combination of us not moving too fast due to coming straight from sea level and one or two incompetent parties on it meant we took about 3.5 hours which is pretty slow but we took our time, and Ash was able get to grips with the area and back into the whole alpine thing. A quick jog back down the snow arete and across the glacier to the shack and we made are beds an prepared the evenings food.

Pointe Lachanel.

The next days plan was to climb the Contamine-Mazeaud (central route) on the Tacul Traingle however due to the combination of neither of us sleeping particularly well during the night and the alarm not going off in the morning and us getting up late we decided on shorter day so went to go and do the traverse of Pointe Lachanal. The Pointe Lachanel is most famous for its east face which is home to some classic, albeit fairly challenging rock climbing. The three summits can be traversed though, this is given the grade of AD 4a and involves some steep snow slopes, ridges and some mixed ground with a about 60m of rock climbing at the end to the final summit. This was covered in quite a bit of snow an ice when we were there due to it being the end of the season so was in mixed condition, still not hard though probably only going at about Scottish II. Ash led the first section of the ridge until the middle summit where I took over and led up through the mixed section to the final summit. Another steep snow slope led down to below the Tacul Traingle. I actually really enjoyed the route, I'd dismissed it in the past due it being dwarfed by the bigger mountains and harder routes that surround however it was actually quite good fun, not something I'd rush back to do again soon but something I'll keep in mind for a short day or when the weather isn't too favorable. I imagine a good acclimatization day would be to do this and then the Cosmiques in a day.

I'll add some more photos when I get chance to get them off my camera, and get hold of Ash's.

The Roaches

I was down in Cheshire last weekend at a Scout Network event. On Saturday we headed over to The Roaches, just the other side of the M6. We had a group of novices with us so we rigged some ropes on the right-hand section of the Upper Tier, although we perhaps overestimated the ability of some of our climbers so moved them rightwards in the afternoon.

Bottom-roping with a group at the Roaches.

I escaped for a while with Stu Spencer and Charles Conventry, both keen climbers form Ormskirk Network and we got too good routes done. First we did Pedestal Crack HVD 4a which is quite a nice line following a flake crake and than through a break in the overhang leading to the top. We took the direct (left) start which warrants the 4a/Severe grade, you can start further to the right though where it is easier. Some guides suggest doing this in two pitches but we managed to run it together just fine in one.

Secondly we did the classic Black an Tans, S 4a which gets 3 stars. Its got some varied climbing and probably deserves its stars but was perhaps a little short for my liking, because, as we did it in two pitches each one was probably only 10-15m long. Still nice climbing though. As we got down from this the rain came in so we made a tactical retreat to the pub.

Pedestal Crack.

On separate note Connected, the Network event that we were at was ace, a lot of respect for all that turned up in Burgundy! You did us all proud.

I'm off to Chamonix tomorrow to round of the summers Alpine climbing, apparently theres a fair bit of snow around so we'll see what we get done, I'll try to blog with conditions while I'm there.

Wallowbarrow, Pillar & Scafell

Just back from a weekend of climbing in the western Lake District. Friday night myself an Ash left soon after work managing to get to Wallowbarrow, a small crag in the Duddon Valley just above Seathwaite that neither of us had climbed at before. The crag is of a southern aspect so the rock was nice and warm from having the sun all day, the approach is also fairly tame being perhaps 10-15 minutes from the car park at the farm.

As a bit of a warm up for the weekend we jumped on Digitation, VS 4b**. The route first follows a large slab for 36m with some lovely climbing, at about 2/3rds height there is a slightely move bold which both he guidebook states and we inferred from the grade, its actually fine though. There then a small walk up a grassy terrace which leads to the final pitch; up a crack line on a steep wall, and then a series of ledges to the top of the crag. Some guides give the route MVS, while other give it VS. I don't think I've done enough MVSs (simply because the grade is fairly modern so not many exist) to know what one feels like however if it is VS, I'd say its certainly a soft touch at that.

Shamrock and Pillar Rock, Grooved Wall follows a line of weakness up the large smooth looking wall on the right.

Sunday we headed into Pillar Rock, on the backside of Pillar from Wasdale with primary objective of doing a reconnaissance of Slab an Notch route, the scramble/climbers descent that we'll be using when we take the late Dave Ridout's ashes up there in a few weeks time. After some careful placing of sacks at different points on the crag we headed round to the North East face of the massive rock bastion and set off up Grooved Wall, VS 5a***. Ash did the first pitch, which the guidebook does make apologies for and states is out of character with the rest of the route as its an awkwards series of moist grassy ledges which eventually lead up to the base of the groove, the only significant line of weakness of the fairly blank face. I took the second pitch which is the 5a crux, and wastes not time as after a few moves its time to pull through the overhang and into the groove proper. The move is superbly well protected, ideally by no9. hexcentric or a big cam (probably a friend 3.5 or BD 2) and actually feels pretty easy for 5a, although the bomber gear by your waist is a big comforting factor. 20m Of crack climbing with the odd bit of bridging then follow, of which most of it can be almost exclusively protected by slinging chock-stones in the crack before a belay is reached. Ash joined me after doing sterling job of pulling through the crux with our team sack, and then lead off up the final pitches, running the next 4b and final 4c pitch together in one. The final 4c pitch which follows the groove up its steep termination has some lovely climbing on it.

The evening was spent in the Wasdale Head Inn, which pleasantly had a beer festival on including an outside BBQ which was superb. Apparently this is an annual thing so the date has gone in the diary for next year.

Sunday, while Ash an Phil headed up to the Napes on Great Gable to do some classic rock ticking myself and Tom headed up Scafell. Neither of us had climbed on Scafell, and its somewhere I've really wanted to climb for a long time now. Its big for a start, high, being the highest crag in England or thereabout, clean, steep and imposing and a whole host of other things that make a good crag. Its fair slog up from Wasdale Head, taking us about 1.5hours to the base of the crag. It was fairly windy and the rock was pretty cold so we decided to start off up Moss Ghyll Grooves MVS 4c***. Tom led the first short pitch out of Moss Ghyll and up to the grooves where I took over for the 4c crux, which certainly feels 4c and I don't think would be out of place on any regular VS. This first follows a corner crack in the groove before a delicate traverse out onto the arete which is followed for a few meters until a steep move leads out of the groove and into the sentry box. Tom did the next pitch which had a lovely combination of crack an slab before the final pitch that led us to the top. A really good route.

Scafell Crag, Botteril's Slab is the obvious leftwards slanting line in the center.

After the descent down Broad Stand we went for Botteril's Slab VS 4c***, which I'd had my eye on since getting to the crag as its a very obvious and compelling line. Tom did the 4b pitch that approaches the slab and then I led off up the meat of the route, the 4c slab pitch. I found it a bit stuff for VS 4c I have to say, with the climbing being very delicate and yet sustained on small holds as you teeter up the steep slab (its probably 75-80 degrees) this could be because I was pretty tried bythis point, it was quite cold and some of the holds were a little damp. The gear is good on the route, however I though the there was some distance between some of the bomber placements. Tom finished up the final 4a pitch to the top. Anyhow the pitch is superb, and one of the best I've climbed in absolutely fantastic situation. Go and do it, its well worth it.

Black Diamond RPM 26 - Review

I've been using my Black Diamond RPM for most things over the last 6 weeks in Chamonix, from long rock routes to big norths faces, and its taken it all in its stride, and I'm super pleased with it. Here's BD's spiel on the pack:

'Designed for constant movement on big days, the lightweight RPM features a highly compressible, ergonomic design so it moves with you during climbs and scrambles.'

I've been thinking of buying a small lightweight pack for a while now, I toyed with purhasing with the Arcteryx Cierzo 18 or 35 for quite a time while climbing in the Rockies but was never convinced as the 18 seemed to small and featureless but the 37 was a bit too big. I saw the RPM in Snells and it looked liked it fitted somewhere in the middle, so went for it.

The RPM is essentially frameless, so don't expect to be carrying any loads in it. Its got a small waist strap effort which is effectively just their to keep it stable rather than transfer any load, this comes off really easily when you start climbing though. The back does have a thin layer of foam which gives some comfort and structure when packing. Enough of talk of carrying loads though, if your carrying big loads you don't want this rucksack! What this pack excels at is big days going fast and light in the mountains.

For lift accessed climbing, and staying in hut in the Alps this is perfect. I can quite happily fit water, food, a few layers and first aid kit plus whatever gear I need for the route. It compresses wonderfully as well, so you end up climbing with a snug small rucksack rather than something half empty and flapping around. The zip design is a little unusual, and a departure from my normal rucksack purchaing trend, I've always been of the school of thinking that zips can break and I'd always prefer a solid drawcord and buckles/lid. Zips are light though, this back weighs in at 600g, sure there probably not as durable as a standard system but I think I'm willing to sacrifice a shorter lifespan in this case. For such a small sack two ice axe loops on the front are also great.

Using the RPM alpine climbing in Chamonix.

The fabric seems to be relatively hard wearing, after 5 weeks of use in the alps theres only a few scuff marks and one small hole which was caused by hauling it up coarse Chamonix granite on the Rebuffet route. Its never going to last as long a old school alpine sack like my POD Black Ice or similar, but its a fraction of the price and the weight.

The downside is that I doubt I'll be pulling this pack out for much use in the UK, I could imagine the zip letting water through into the main body of the pack really easily and it probably the wrong kind of size for most mountaineering days, plus mines is white, which is certainly not the colour of choice for most moist, mossy or muddy british scrags. But if your looking to go lightweight in the Alpine regions this would be great, I could imagine this being a really good sack for long ice routes as well.

Theres a few other reviews floating around the web, one at Sierra Descents and one at the Colorado Mountain School.

Alpine Finale - Kuffner Ridge

I'm back in the UK, having spent Monday an Tuesday in Zurich flying back into Manchester yesterday afternoon. After a bout of bad weather over last weekend we set off, perhaps a little prematurely for a crack at the Kuffner/Frontier Ridge on Mont Maudit, a big classic mixed route at high altitude.

The Kuffner Ridge on Mont Maudit, D IV 850m.

We chose to do the ridge in whats probably its most classic form, to approach the Col de la Fourche bivi hut, which is perched very precariously on the arete which divides the Cirque Maudit and Brenva basin, then traverse the Tour Ronde-Maudit ridge to the base of the true Kuffner and then climb the 850m of height to the top from there. The alternative would be to leave from the Torino hut, pass under the Tour Ronde, the Col de la Fourche and head up a snow slope just as the ridge steepens.

We left the Midi in fair conditions, but these soon deteriorated. There had been a lot of fresh snow as well, so as soon as we left the tracks of the Vallee Blanche traverse path somewhere just below the Grand Capucin we were trail breaking all the way up Cirque Maudit. The approach climb to th bivi hut it about 200m, sitting somewhere around scottish I/II, so really easy but it was super hard work as there was a good 60cm of powder snow sitting on the route... 1 step forward two steps back kind of thing. We got to the hut just as the weather was beginning to worsen. We had a bit of dilemma as we knew that if we were to set off the next morning and struggle up the Kuffner, we'd basically be committing to Mont Blanc and down the Gouter route as the normal route down Tacul back to the Col du Midi would be an avalanche related death trap waiting to happen. We decided to bail, so set off back down the couloir the next morning, with only a 60m rope, 30m rappels interspersed with some down-climbing took a little time but we were at the bottom at a good time. The weather really came in on the walk back to the Midi with hight winds and wet snow making for near Scottish conditions.

Second pitch on the Voie Frison-Roche Route.

After our retreat on the Kuffner we decided to have an easier day so headed up to the Aiguille Rouge on the Brevent lift to do the classic Voie Frison-Roche, TD- 6a. The route was really good, and never that hard or desperate. Stubbsy had a bit of an issue on the 6a crux crack pitch an had to retreat but I soon got up it probably thanks to Yosemite crafted crack climbing skills. Its well equipped with good belays and fairly spaced bolts. We got the first lift but were at the top by 11am, 8 pitches I think. Petit Kitchen followed, naturally.

Myself on the classic snow-fin, just before l'Androsace.

So with two days left, the weather finally improved so we decided to go and redeem ourselves on the Kuffner. The approach was much easier, as we followed the trail we'd put in a few days before! We went to bed with clear skys and got up around 4am to fantastic frozen snow, clear skys but not baltic temperatures - perfect! The traverse along the first horizontal ridge takes a bit of time as there are two fairly sizable gendarmes to cross with several bit of down-climbing. After this you start the 850m of mixed ridge climbing which leads you to the top of Maudit, a series of snow gullies and ridges, mixed sections and the odd bit of rock climbing. The technical crux of the route is probably a short rock section of about 4c after the traverse under the point l'Androsance its easy though. The physiological crux is certainly the exposed corniced snow aretes in the top sections with are difficult if not impossible to protect. We hit the top at 10am, having taken 6 hours from the bivi hut, and 4.5 from the start of the route. Both under guidebook time so we were fairly happy. I was keen to push on for Mont Blanc as it really did seem so close but Stubbsy was suffering quite a bit so we quickly dropped down to the Col Maudit, over Tacul and then the slog back up to the midi station. By 2:30pn we were sat in the Petit Kitchen with bacon an sausage sandwiches. Absolutely fantastic route, one of the best I've done.

Stubbs on one of the final snow ridges.

Theres a lot more photos of the route in my facebook photo album.

So thats it for my summer alpine season this year, its been a good one and I've got lots done, but the Kuffner was certainly the high point and a perfect finale. Our tour de force of the Chere Couloir and North Face of the Tour Ronde in two days was pretty satisfying as well. I need to focus on my dissertation for a week or so now, but my had is still in climbing mode...

Sunny South-face Rockclimbing & Cold Icy North Faces

So another update on alpine happening out here in Chamonix, I'll start with a bit of an update of conditions.

With the end of the hot period a few weeks ago a lot of snow then fell around 1-2 weeks ago which put all the snow, ice an mixed routes into good, or at least better condition then they were, we took advantage of this in a few weather windows over the last few days. The weather has now taken a turn for the worse now, with the forecast being fairly unsettled for the next few days. It feels a bit as if we've been juxtaposing types of routes over the last few days, being on warm sunny south faces oen day, in t-shirts and rock shoes and then on cold, icy north face routes the next!

Stubbs arrived just over a week ago, so the day he got here we just headed up for a quick lap on the Cosmiques arete in the afternoon to get our heads in the game for climbing together. We did it in 1 hour 40 mins which wasen't as quick as me an Chris did it a few weeks before that but was still fairly rapid considering we had a bit more queuing to do. You can tell its the high season here as there was a line of about 20 people at the crux slab! Thankfully we maanged to bypass most of these.

Stubb's seconding one of the easier pitches on Indianna Jaune!

Last Saturday, we headed out with a local; Brian Birtle, to a big limestone sport cliff down towards Sallanches. I'm not really a sport, well not really an udnerstatement, I'm not a sport climber! But Brian had the day off an was looking for people to climb with so we thought we'd go along an have a go. We went and did 'Indianna Jaune' on Maladiere, its 300m in 9 pitches and goes at 6c+. Its fairly sustained with about 5 of the pitches being in the 6b range, and the rest not being much easier. Its also fairly commiting, not in a dangerous sense, just due to the fact to get to it you walk up to the top of the cliff and then embark on 5 abseils to get to the bottom, leaving your shoes an stuff at the top! The cliff is huge, and very very steep, as a lot of abseils leave you haning in space away from the wall. The route doesn't waste anytime either with the second pitch being the 6b+ crux, now I've led 6b sport before but this felt a lot harder than that - I have to confess I pulled on a lot of quickdraws and ropes to get through it. The exposure on the wall is fantastic, Indianna Jaune takes the easiest line on the face, the rest of the routes are a lot harder so your alwasy climbing in between very very steep, and very very blank rock. We averaged around 40 minutes a pitch and got to the top at around 7pm, before a hurried descent and drive to the kebab house in Cleuse. Big respect to Brian for dragging us up all the hard bits, and the the route in general! Absolutely superb.

At the bivi for the Rochefort Arete.

Early last week we headed up with a friend of Chris's, Remi whos been living in the UK for a while. We took an afternoon lift up the midi and traversed the Vallee Blanche in fiarly bad conditions to get to a bivy spot above the Torino hut for an attempt on the Rochefort arete the day after. We went fairly lighweight for the bivy, and were a little cold after the clouds dissapeared, and quite relieived to get moving at 4am. The route starts with a slog the glacier, over the bergschrund and then a small, but shallow mixed coulir lead to the col. Here we ditched crampons for the scramble up to the Salle e Manger below the Dent du Geant. The scramble cover around 300m of height and some fairly loose chossy ground, so it was nice to be on it when it was all fairly frozen together. We reached the start of the Rochefort Arete at around 8am. Remi wasen't feeling too good due to the altitude and to add to this Stubbsy had lost his glacier glasses on the ascent so was struggling to see as the sun began to break over the horizon. So a little frustrated we turned around, it was a shame, as I could see the whole arete stretching out in front and it looked ace, and so close! We were glad to be descending the chossy ground while it was still frozen though, there were a few parties on their way up as we were descending and they were starting to knock a lot of stuff down. Two short abseils and a bimble down the glacier and we were back at the bivi spot, before making out way back to the Midi.

Friday/Saturday we decided to take advantage of a good weather window and head off to try an do a route first on the Tacul Traingle, then cross the Vallee Blache, sleep at the Torino hut and knock out the North Face of the Tour Rone the next day before heading back. For some reason the first Midi lift was delayed and it was after 8am when we were leaving the station. There were 3 teams (of which 5 of the 6 people, ourselves included were sporting our new minimalist alpine rucksacks! - I'll be reviewing it soon on here as its ace) heading for the Chere Couloir, our chosen route. The routes given D, which is really soft for the standard of climbing but due to its accesibility of being an hour from the lift station is fair. Its about 250m of ice climbing, with the crux pitches being 85 degrees, so about WI4. We moved together up the first pitch and then did 5 fairly full pitches before abseiling back down. The route was in good condition, with good ice on the steeper bits and bomber neve on the more easy angles slopes. We chose to abseil back down the route in 5 abseils to below the bergschrund rather then continue up to Tacul and secend the normal route through the seracs which with all the new snow would of been pretty dodgy.

Myself leading one of the easier upper pitches on the Chere, lots of spindrift!

After we were down we roped up and began the crossing to the Torino hut, getting there a few hours before dinner, and then having a fairly early night.

The North Face of the Tour Ronde, our route took the lower and upper icefields linked by the snow gully in the middle.

We left the hut at 5:30am, which was probably a little late as depsite being a north face, the route on the tour ronde gets the sun fairly early. The North Face route is 350-400m, moving first up a icefield directly above the bergscrund and then through a snow gully which leads to the upper icefield and the summit. The climbing is much easier than the Chere, being at the steepest maybe 55/60 degrees - the crus pitches are in the gully. We moved together up the first icefield for around 100m with myself leading, and then pitched it through the gully and up the summit icefield getting to the top by about 2pm. We moved fairly slowly but this was due to the fact we were fairly tired from the previous day. The descent was tedious as we first followed the PD rock ridge before dropping off at the shoulder on the the Tour Ronde Normal Route, which is AD and follows a broad, and very loose couloirs. 3 Abseils got us to the bottom of this, and then a sprint back to the lift station.

We fancied a bit of warm rock climbing for change after our cold north face endeavours so headed up the Flegere lift and then the index chair to climb on the index, a huge fin of rock standing clean away from the mountain. The classic route takes the ridge up this, at about 4c but we opted for a link of two routes on the face, going at about 5c/6a over 7 pitches. The climbing was nice, and most of the pitches were pretty well equipped. We abseiled off the summit, back down tot he chair and were back in Chamonix for late afternoon.

Stubbs atop the Aiguillete de Argentierre.

Continuing the theme of sunny rock climbing, after a fiarly heavy night with Chris, John a Scott we got up late so drove up towards Argentierre and walked up to the Aiguillete de'Argentierre, a small pinnacle about an hour from the road road. This was pretty easy, if a little dissapointing with two pitches of maybe 4c getting us to the top. Nice views from the top of the pinncale though. After this we did a route on the cliff opposite, which was 4 pitches of 5c, excellent slabby climbing on warm Schist.

Yesterday we headed back up into the big mountains to have a look at the Rebuffet Route on the Eperon des Cosmiques. Me an Chris went and had a look at this a few weeks but decided the start was out of condition and dangerous due to the snowmelt. We'd heard about a direct start though, that missed this though so decided to go an have a look. The catch was that apparently it went at about E1. The crux of any alpine rock route was as always getting out of crampons and boots, getting these into your rucksack and then getting your rock shoes on! I led off up the first pitch we'd been informed about and immeidietely found it quite hard so left my sack on a runner for Stubbs to deal with later. The climbing was awkward but got easier and eventually I made the belay an then brought Stubbs up, who was complaing about having to come up it with two sacks. I'm not sure it was E1, maybe hard HVS, but still fairly hard on a mountain. I then led out the rest of the rightwards trending ledge system, belaying below overhang pitch. Stubbs came up and I set off up the overhang pitch, this starts with some lovely crack climbing with good gear before you reach a big roof which sticks out about 2m. You can free this, but it goes at about VI so I just pulled on the gear an got through it quickly. 3 More pitches on lovely orange granite cracks led us to the top of the buttress at about VS, and then we zoomed along the Cosmiques Arete, getting to the station for 2pm. Superb route.

Me, leading on the Cosmiques crux slab.

We've had a rest day today, as the weather is bad, its actually looking quite unsettled for the rest of the week so we'll what we get done. I'd like to do the Frendo or Kuffner, and Chris is talking about the Brenva but there all fairly serous routes, so we'll be needing a spell of settled weather to get on any of them.

In addition to the above we've also beein hitting the valley crags like les Gaillards quite a but in between things.