Coire an t'Schneachda

I spent last weekend up in the Cairngorms with Martin and Bec. The forecast wasn't the best, and actually quite annoying with a few days of colder settled weather bounding a significantly worse weekend. After a drive up in good time we arrived in Aviemore and headed up to the Sugar Bowl car park on the ski road with temperatures of -6C and clear skies, a promising start, although making for a cold night in the tent.

Mess of Pottage.

Unfortunately the clear skies and gentle breeze changed guise over night to low cloud and gale force winds. We decided on a round of hot chocolates in the ski lodge to start the day as the forecast was better for the afternoon, we met some friend from Manchester University in there who'd already been in for a luck but come back out again. We decided that it was probably still worth a look so headed in to Schneachda.

Bec coming up onto the Slant.

It snowed heavily on the walk in, and by the time we got to the corrie base there was at least 6 inches of fresh powder down and the wind had picked up. This was Bec's first time climbing in winter so we decided to do something relatively easy knowing that the fresh snow would make things more difficult. We headed first up towards Jacobs ladder, discounting the Haston Line after seeing about 4 parties on it. We headed up the Slant II to the base of Hidden Chimney III which we pitched up to the final pitch. Here we hit a traffic jam of parties so I climbed a variation, out of the chimney on the right hand side with some tricky hooking and torquing before gaining a ledge overlooking at the chimney (probably around IV). Martin then led a rightwards line across the buttress towards the top of Jacob's Ladder to top out, beating all the teams queuing on the original route!

Bec at the top of her first winter route.

Bec, depsite being a little frosty and covered in snow enjoyed the route. We walked off via 1141m and then down through Coire Cas, looking at a few skills on the way down. Cafe Mambo followed naturally.

Myself leading the first pitch of Red Gully.

The next day we headed back into Coire an t'Schneachda in improved weather, the snow had also consolidated a little to improve climbing conditions. We wanted to do Finger Ridge but it was extremely busy so instead we opted for Red Gully II which I thought was actually quite sporting for the grade in though conditions. Once we topped out we descended Aladdin's Couloir I which has a nice little ice pitch in it at the moment, and must itself be going at around grade II. We then went back up Aladdin's Mirror I passing underneath a team struggling up a very thin Mirror Direct. 

Marting leading the icefall variation.

We travesed across and under Pygmy Ridge and climbed the icefalls at about III that form to the left of Central Left hand before topping out and heading down the Goat Track.

Coming down Aladdin's Mirror.

No hard climbing, but a good weekend out and a success for Bec's first winter climbing trip.

End of days at the ski car park.

Ben Nevis Ice

Saturday I was up in Lochaber and with a promising forecast from MWIS we decided on an early start and headed up to Ben Nevis from the Torlundy car park. For a while I've been wanting to knock off some of the grade V ice classics on Ben Nevis, having done most of the IVs but only one of the V's. Point Five seemed like a good option so once at the CIC hut we made a beeline for Observatory gully to check out conditions. Orion Direct looked thin at the bottom and we'd heard from others that it wasn't in nick, Hadrian's Wall looked better however lower down it was still a little thin. This left is with Zero gully and Point Five V, of which we chose the latter.


I was climbing in a three with Stu and Julie and unfortunately we got beaten to the first belay. This meant a lot of queuing behind two parties, who in turn were slowed by less then favourable conditions and spindrift for nearly an hour and a half. Eventually I left the belay, leading a nice long pitch over the first steeping, past the ledge and moving left up the initial vertical wall to the in-situ belay. In place the ice was good however in other is was poor and I was a little dubious of a few of the screws I'd placed should I of taken a whipper. The hardest part was passing the almost overhanging bulge near the top on the left as the ice the had lined the slabs that you can bridge on had all been hacked or kicked off which made it all a little spicy.

Above this I had to spend another half an hour or so waiting for the belay, constantly getting showered with spindrift and ice from above. I also got hot aches, which made the experience even more delightful. I say the pitch felt about WI4 in continental grading. Eventually I brought Julie and Stu up, who found it pretty hard, with Julie almost coming off the crux. We had a chat at the belay and I set off up the next chimney pitch, getting five meters up before Julie made her feeling clear that she didn't feel up to completing the route (she's been ill on the walk in). I contemplated just lowering Julie off so she could walk out and me and Stu could continue but with it being late in the day, and the time that that would take, poor conditions, deteriating weather, and being behind two other parties we made the call to all go down and save it for another day.


Once at the bottom we had a quick bite to eat and Julie composed herself and started the trudge down Observatory Gully. Stu and myself decided that with a few hours of daylight left we could still get something else in so we quickly headed round under Observatory buttress and ran up Tower Scoop III in two long pitches. It felt about right for the grade, apart from the top section where I led a steep pillar to the far left which felt more like IV. Once at the top we decided with half an hour left to head up and make the exposed traverse back right to below Tower Gap before climbing the mixed ground to the gap itself and finishing up the final section of Tower Ridge IV to top out on the Ben.


We didn't get our original objective done, but what we did climb of it was excellent and I'm very keen to get back and tick it off for real.

Ben Nevis: CIC Hut

Last weekend I spent an excellent 3 days up at the CIC at the base of Tower Ridge, below the north face of Ben Nevis, the only true alpine style hut in the UK.

The walk-in.

Day 1 - Friday

After a laborious walk in with big packs we reached the hut mid-morning and made ourselves at home before setting out to do a few routes. Tom, Mark, Chris, Julie and Martin headed up to do Tower Scoop while myself and Stubbs headed up to scope out conditions in Corrie na Ciste. We were a little skeptical of conditions with the warm temperatures (I'd been rock climbing with my shirt of all day a few days before) but once we were a few hundred meters above the hut the snow turned to neve and quite a few of the ice lines looked to be in good nick.

We decided on Green Gully IV 4 ****, a Cold Climbs classic. It was in excellent nick with the three steep ice pitches being fat and plastic and with styrofoam like neve in between. Conditions were so good infact that we never got the rope out and simul-soloed the whole route in just over 30 minutes! It felt excellent just to be moving really fast and un-encumbered up some reasonably technical terrain, Stubbs needed some encouraging words to do the crux but did an excellent job despite claiming to be slightly out of his comfort zone in retrospect.

Hut life - Jagermeister and curry.

After topping out we descended No 3 Gully I, with a small abseil over the slumping cornice. On the way down as it was still early we did the East-West Traverse I of the Douglas Boulder, and just about resited the urge to get on Tower Ridge!

Day 2 - Saturday

Up into the Ciste with Chris today, we went straight for Comb Gully IV 4 ***, another classic ice route. We soloed up the approach slopes and did the route in two main pitches, a shorter first one. Ice was nice and plastic again.

I was quite keen to get on something a bit harder so once we'd done the No3 Gully descent we headed back round and underneath our previous route and up towards the Cascade V 5. It looked a little thin, and very steep but there was what looked like a ramp of neve at just over half height which would give a rest before the top section. The route is about 40m in total. I started up the first section, which was initially a little hollow sounding but then got onto some great plastic steep ice, vertical in places. Four screws and about 25m later this changed as I hit the neve band, which unfortunately wasn't neve - it was unconsolidated ice, almost as if somebody had just poured crushed ice onto it. With poor pick and foot placements and no immediate screws, and even though it wasn't steep I was un-confident of my ability to climb it safely so decided retreat was perhaps a better option and started digging. I got through the layers of crud and found some better ice below and got a screw in to protect we while I built the abalkov. I built one, but wasn't confident in it strength so dug a little deeper and built another. I threaded this one, and put a mallion on it so I could lower off unclipping and unscrewing my runners I went, just to increase my safety margin if it did go. Before I took the screw out I tested and waited the thread and it didn't fail so cautiously committed to it. Chris lowered me and I got the first two screw out, as I was reaching the third though the thread blew and I fell 15m hitting the snow below, bouncing and sliding stopping as the load came onto the next runner. Thankfully I was ok, I checked myself and nothing felt broken. A small cut on my nose, stiff neck and 3 small punctures in the left thigh from my crampons (but no holes in my trousers!?) were the only injuries.

After having a moment I re-climbed the lower section of the route to get my screws back. Its been annoying me ever since as to why the thread failed. My first thought was that maybe the cord broke, or I just tied it incorrectly in haste but on inspection afterwards it was correct. I knew the ice was poor but I did test it and it didn't fail, and why didn't it fail when I first weighted it on the abseil and not halfway down? AT the point the thread failed the angle of pull on the tread changed slightely from being straight down to towards one side, perhaps this was the reason.

Anyhow the fact that it blew justifies in my mind the decision to back off rather than push on up the crap ice. It also makes we think I certainly did the right thing in leaving the runners clipped as apose to abseiling straight off the thread, in which case I very well may of slid off down the mountain when it had gone. Thanks to Chris for holding me, and staying calm. I did ask him if he wanted a go but he gracefully declined.

Day 3 - Sunday

Ice pitch at the start of Glovers Chimney.

Final day up in the Ciste, myself and Martin headed to do Glovers Chimney III 4 on the side of Tower Ridge. The first pitch gave an awesome 20m of steep ice, certainly at the top end of III. We then moved together for around 150m up the snow slope and small ice steps to the base of the crux mixed chimney. I led this and it was excellent technical mixed climbing, feeling tricky as it was quite thin but well protected. Theres three pegs, each by the hard moves, in addition to this I think I only placed a sling and nut. You top out right in the middle of Tower Gap which is awesome.

Final mixed pitch of Glovers.

We finished up the upper section of Tower Ridge to the summit plateau before descending and walking out. A session in th Clachiage followed.

Cairngorms: Ski Mountaineering & Winter Climbing

Saturday morning, after a relaxed drive up on the Friday afternoon I skinned into Coire an t'Sneachda along with Hannah, Joe, Jonny and Tom who were on foot. We split into two team with Hannah, Jonny and Tom heading to Fiaciall Couloir. Joe wanted to climb so steep ice so we went up to look at Mirror Direct IV 4 and I gave him some tips on tool and screw placements as well as foot work and then he did a superb job of leading the route which was his first proper ice route. At the moment its fairly banked out but still giving a good 6-8m just off vertical section. I followed and then we abseiled from the in-situ belay at the top.

Back at the rescue box we had a bite to eat and I stuck the skis back on and we headed over to Fiaciall Buttress, I managed to skin almost to the bottom only having to put my skis on my back for the final section, much to the pleasure of Joe who was wading through the snow behind me. We looked at Invernookie but decided the wind was a bit high but went for Fiaciall Couloir II/III. We roped together with about 30m of rope between us with myself leading and Joe following and climbed the route in about 20 minutes which was awesome. After topping out we headed round to 1141m where I left the other to walk down to the daylodge while I skied the Cas headwall and then blagged a few laps of the Corrie Cas T-bar.

Sunday we headed into the Corrie again and with the high winds and avalanche hazard decided to go for the sheltered option of Patey's Route IV 5. The first challenge of the day was constructing a harness for Hannah as she had failed to pack her's in the chaos of the morning. Joe led the pitch up to below the first bulge where I took over climbing this and then the crux pitch. The route was fairly thin in places, but still good, if a little tricky. Once at the top of the difficulties we soloed up Alladin's Mirror to the top.

Joe and Hannah filmed quite a bit of footage over the weekend and they've put it together in the video below:

Snow & Ice 2011

Over the last few days I've been up in the Cairngorms on the West Lancashire Scouts annual winter skills and mountaineering scheme, Snow & Ice, based out of Nethy Bridge. I fist went to the event as a participant 7 years ago, and its where I first learnt most of my winter mountain-craft, so its really nice to be able to go back now as an instructor and impart some of knowledge to people younger than me. The event also has a reasonably good social side to it as well.

Day 1

Ice axe arrest training in Corrie na Ciste.

The first day of the scheme is a compulsory winter skills training or refresher day for all participants. After a minor setback with the ski road being closed due to high winds we set off walking up towards the ski car park. I took my group into Corrie na Ciste above the over-flow ski carpark. First we looked at traveling with the axe, safe travel technique, the axe self belay before getting to arresting a fall with an axe. After some lunch we headed a little higher and found some hard neve to practice kicking and cutting steps, something I think is perhaps a neglected skill these days. We then had a look at avalanche awareness, digging a rustschblock which failed quite impressively and then looking at a tap/compression test. We ran through some basic winter belays quickly, digging a few snow bollards, bucket seats and burying a few axes and looking at how to use body belays with them. Finally we put crampons on and had a quick walk around so everybody could get a feel for them before we headed down.

The group we're really good and we got through most things quickly, and I think they all learnt a few things which is always good.

Day 2

The forecast for Sunday was worse than the previous day, but decided to head into Sneachda to see if we could get up anything. The walk in was tedious and took a long time in the high winds, almost feeling like one step forward two steps back. The team split in the corrie with most bailing back to the car park. Myself and Stu perceived though, and climbed up the mixed ground to the Fiacaill Ridge col before soloing along the ridge. If taken direct, Fiacaill Ridge is actually a really good day out with some easy but exposed mixed climbing in places, and the chimney crux section is certainly a good section of II. We topped out into a whiteout on the plateau where the compasses came out to get round to 1141 and down into Cas. The cornices lining the rim of Sneachda were particularity huge.

Day 3

On Monday Jayne, Stubbs, Stu and myself headed back into Sneachda with a group of 6 punters to look at winter climbing skills, with the potential of doing a route at the end of the day. Again the walk in was tedious and slow. The gullies weren't really in conidion due to large amounts of wind slab and the big cornices at the top. We decided that our intinery from the previous day would be idea, so headed up the mixed ground, looking at belays and ropework, before roping up to climb the ridge itself. Once on the plateau the weather was even worse than the previous day which gave the opportunity to look at some navigation in really bad weather, when you really don't want to get it wrong! The cloud lifted slightly as we hit 1141 and walked down to the day lodge. Again I think people had a good day out, it was hard to explain a lot off things in the high wind but I think people understood most things we did, and everybody enjoyed the ridge - and we didn't get blown off!

After topping out of the Fiaciall Ridge.

Day 4

The final day of the scheme there weren't many takers for climbing as most were either skiing or on overnight expeditions, so the small group of myself, Stu, Martin and Jon headed into Sneachda again, in much better weather, to see if we could get up something. We initially went for Fingers Ridge, which I've got a little bit of a vendetta with. I lead off up the first ptich and immediately found it quite hard going, with the entire ridge being covered in about a foot of loose unconsolidated powder snow making both climbing and finding gear and tool placements very difficult. I decided it was for the best to bail so lowered off from the first belay, deja vu.

Fluted Buttress tempting us with seemingly good conditions...

The four of us then ran across to Goat Track Gully, which was fairly banked out but still gave bit of sport coming over the two bulges. We climbed a varition at the top, going straight up the rock prow on the left, at about tech 3/4-. Again the standard walk off was over and down via 1141, as the Goat Track was still looking pretty dodgy with no tracks going up or down it.

Jon following our mixed variation at the top of Goat Track Gully.

In summary an excellent event, as always. The weather was difficult, but workable, and while everybody may not be able to pull of the most perfect axe arrest in every position or other finite skills I think everybody gains some good mountain life skills/experiences - not letting your gloves blow away, what you need handy in your rucksack, layering etc.

End of the day in the daylodge car park.

Tower Ridge

This weekend I was up in Lochaber, once again staying at the Inchree Center. Saturday, Tom, Ali, Jayne and myself headed up to the Ben for a go at Tower Ridge IV 3 *** 800m. I climbed Tower Ridge about 4 years ago in summer, naively without a proper guidebook and with somebody who'd never really climbed outside before. Obviously, this turned into a bit of an epic with us getting off route, people getting scared and generally being slow - we took nine ours CIC to summit. At the time this was a big learning experience on several fronts, but I did fall in love with the route, and with the North Face of the Ben. I've climbed on the Ben several times since then, but my winter attempts at Tower Ridge have always been thwarted for some reason or another.

Myself leading the Eastern Traverse.

With a promising forecast I first convinced Tom to come and have a crack at it, but then realising we'd need transport we roped in both Jayne and Ali, and planned to climb in two pairs. A 4:45am wake up call, followed by packing and a brief breakfast had us leaving the north face car park at Torlundy at 6am. There are two main options for walking in to the north face, with the approach up Allt a' Mhuilinn probably being the most popular. Some people however prefer, and believe starting from Glen Nevis and traversing in to the CIC from the halfway lochan is faster, we took the former. Since the last time I headed up the Allt a' Mhuilinn path its been improved, and is now signposted and marked all the way tot he top car park, and wide enough all the way to walk two a-abreast.

We paused at the CIC hut around 7:45am just as it was getting light to restock on water before making our way up towards the Douglas Boulder. It was very claggy and visibility was low so it took us a while to locate the start of the route but by 8:30am we had geared up and were making our way up the initial gully to the notch behind the Douglas Boulder. I won't describe the whole route, but will give a brief overview of the crux sections below, which are all interspersed with sections of grade I or II ridge climbing:

1. Douglas Boulder Notch, 3: a short steep mixed pitch leads out of the notch and onto the ridge proper.
2. Little Tower, 3-: Another mixed pitch up the little tower, we took the left flank.
3. Easter Traverse, 2: Not hard, just an exposed traverse.
4. Great Tower, 3: Probably the climbing crux of the route in my mind, a steep pitch and pull over a bulge that lead you back to the ridge crest and summit of the Great Tower.
5. Tower Gap, 3: Not as physically hard as the previous, but more physiologically demanding with the step/lower down into the gap being fairly tricky.

Tom, just before Tower Gap on the final stages of the route.

I climbed with Jayne, and led the vast majrity of the route, and Tom with Ali. We followed a Russian pair up for most of the route who were good company - one of them actually fell while climbing down into Tower Gap and ended up a few meters down Glover's Chimney but thankfully was ok. We had to queue for a while before a few of the cruxes, specifically the Little Tower, Eastern Traverse and Tower Gap which probably equated to around 1-1.5hours of waiting, but this gave us time to eat and chill out. We topped out at 2pm, taking 5.5 hours including the queuing which I think is good, considering the SMC guidebook suggests 6-10 hours for the route. Conditions were good, with solid neve providing a motorway all the way up. The weather cleared as we reached the upper section as well with the cloud lifting to reveal a stunning day with bright sunshine.

Tom, Myself and Jayne on the descent. Very satisfied.

Honestly I found the route easier than expected, the good conditions had something to with this but still I thought the cruxes only just warranted their technical 3 grades. I can understand the adjectival grade of IV being given to the route as it is a long way, but perhaps a III/IV would be more appropriate. Anyhow, none of this takes away from he fact that this is an awesome route, its got a true alpine feel to it, and certainly deserves its rightful place in Cold Climbs. If you've not done it, go and do it - it's ace.

Photos courtesy of Dr. Ali Chambers.

Ski Cairngorm

Last day in the Cairngorms on Thursday I decided on an easier day as I was feeling the strain after climbing pretty much non stop since boxing day so headed out on the planks. After some debating I bought a ski pass (£22 for a student) and took the Gondola up to the Ptarmigan station. I did a few laps on the pistes first to get back into the swing of things as the last time I was on my skis was April. I could feel in my thighs that my ski legs had certainly diminished in the last 6 months! Conditions were good for Scotland, although there were patches of bullet hard ice around that you had to watch for as (with my blunt edges anyway) you struggled to hold and edge on them.

Whiteout conditions on Caringorm.

I then put my skins on and headed off up towards Cairngorm. The weather was pretty bad, with a strong winds and visibility down to about 10m. Skinning on a bearing soon had me at the summit, and I huddled behind the weather station to take my skins off and have a quick bite to eat. I skied off on another bearing East towards Corrie Cas, before traversing north and dropping into Corrie Cas itself and down to the ski area.

Last run of the day.

After a late lunch in the Ptarmigan restaurant I spent the afternoon skiing the pistes with the others from LUMC until the sun set, and excellent way to finish the trip.

Coire an t'Scneachda: Patey's Route

Wednesday we headed back into Scneachda for another day of climbing. I was climbing with Naomi and Claire, who had both never worn crampons before so we had a crash course in winter mountaineering down by the rescue box before heading up to our route. As they are both quite good summer climber I decided to forgo the usual first winter climb experience of slogging up a grade I gully and we headed up to do Patey's Route IV 5 *** on Aladdin's Buttress.

Myself on the second pitch, shortly before moving out left.

We'd had some snow overnight so the rock hard neve of the previous day was now covered in a few inches of unconsolidated powder, most of the rock and cracks were all still iced though. We set off up following a team of two above us. The first pitch rambles up easy ice in the gully gradually steepening until you reach the first chockstone, which is usually taken straight on by going over the bulge. The team above us however traversed out left as they couldn't make the move over the bulge and I did the same, this however was certainly not easier and involved some fairly tenous climbing on thinly ice slabs out left, then a some steeper moved up a mixed groove to get back right into the gully all with dubious gear - good fun though.

Claire about to come back right over the crux slab.

The next pitch is what is written in the guidebook as being the tech 5 crux (although it certainly felt easier than the variation on the previous pitch, which the party above us also agreed with). It follows the gully first up snow until it steepens into ice which is for a short section vertical. You get a good runner under the overhang below the chockstone before moving out left onto a ledge, clip a peg, and then the reachy crux move back right into the gully above the overhang. An awesome pitch. Easy grade II ground then leads up to Aladdin's Seat where we finished up Aladdin's Couloir I.

Belay on Aladdin's Seat at sunset.

I really enjoyed the route, its probably one of the best mixed routes I've done and I'd recommend it to anybody. Naomi and Claire were fantastic seconds, especially considering it was their first winter route. Two definite converts to winter climbing there.

Coire an t'Scneachda: Aladdin's Mirror Direct, The Runnel & Fingers Ridge

After my stint on the West Coast I had a quick turn around and headed back up to the East with LUMC on Monday for some climbing and skiing. The first day myself, Struggles, Joe and Toby headed into Scneachda for some climbing. Conditions under foot were very icy with some parties putting crampons on at the ski car park for the entirety of the walk in.

Struggles climbing his first IV.

We got to the rescue box in good time and geared up, before splitting into two pairs with Joe and Toby heading up towards trident gullies area and myself and Struggles heading up to Aladdin's Mirror Direct IV 4 ***. The route was in good conditions, giving a good 20m pitch of ice, of which about 12m was probably vertical, the rest being just off. I lead it and then Struggles followed and did really well for somebody whose only done a few easy gullys before, and he was climbing with two walking axes! Once at the top we chose to abseil back down as a pose to walking round on the Mirror as their is a good in-situ belay (3 pegs and block with a sling around it) in place at the top.

Struggles abseiling down from Mirror Direct.

Next up, we traverse across to the trident gullies area and chased Joe and Toby up The Runnel II ***. I think we did 5 pitches but we climbed quickly as conditions we nice firm neve with me leading and Struggles following. The narrow chimney at the top was good fun, we took the lefthand exit. Once on the top we made our way across to and then down the Goat Track before tucking ourselves behind a boulder for some lunch.

Struggles coming through the cornice on the Runnel.

We then headed over to Finger's Ridge IV 4 *** hoping for a quick ascent before we lost the light, Joe and Toby were on Broken Gully next too us. The first pitch was fantastic with great mixed climbing that was continually interesting, the rock was hoared and all the crack were filled with hard ice which made gear sparse in places but the climbing easier. Joe was having some difficultly below me having got off route so once at the belay I dropped him a loop and brought both him and Struggles up, and then Toby. The next pitch up to the Fingers looked awesome and I was keen for it but the other were pretty cold and the light was failing so made the decision to bail. We abbed off the the spike that can be threaded at the belay and got to the bottom (just!) in one 50m rappel. Certainly will be going back for another go as it was awesome.

Stob Corrie nan Lochan & Beinn Udlaidh

Andy, Mark and I headed up to Stob Coire nan Lochan in Glencoe to get a quick route in before that evening's celebrations (New Years Eve). We did the standard approach very quickly not stopping once between the car and corrie base taking around 1:10hrs. Conditions were poor with warm temperatures, the snow was fairly wet and most of the rock was black, ice was still clinging to lots of places though.

Leaving the car in drizzle on the A82.

We headed up for Twisting Gully III 4 *** which is a Cold Climbs Classic. The pitch was a simple steep snow/neve slope which leads you to below the tech 4 crux. From photos I've seen this usually is covered in ice or consolidated snow but for us there was only a thin layer and some old snow ice which made it quite sporting for 4, although still well protected. Above this another snow slope leads to a peg belay. The next pitch is the final hard one with a move through over a chockstone, this again was good fun, and thin, but easier than the previous. Two more pitches of around grade II lead up the finishing section of the gully before going through the cornice. I'd like to go back and do the route in fatter conditions I think as it would probably be more enjoyable.

A damp belay on Twisting Gully.

I pulled through the cornice at 2:10pm and then started bringing Mark and Andy up, we then legged it round and down Broad Gully I before de-gearing and heading back down the valley. We all pretty shocked when we were driving across the bridge in Glencoe at 4:10pm! Poor conditions but a good day, moving very fast.

We began the journey home on Sunday 2nd after a rest day on New Years day. I'd always wanted to climb on Beinn Udlaidh which is small hill near the Bridge of Orchy, but which offer some of Scotlands best pure ice climbing so we went for a look. Due to the recent thaw a lot of the lines weren't in and some had only jsut started re-forming with the last 24 hours of cold temperatures. We went for Quartzvein Scoop IV 4 *** which gave us 3 pitches of climbing, with the middle being the steep and sustained crux. The quality of the ice varies with it being plastic in some places and brittle in other, good screws could be found where needed though. We climbed fairly slowly as I led all the pitches and brought Andy, Mark and Martin up in a continuous line. We topped out just as the sun was dipping below the hills, de-geared and headed down to meet Lewis at the cars.

Myself leading the crux pitch on Quartzvein Scoop.

So in summary of the last two posts an excellent week spent climbing in Scotland in good company. I think we achieved a good balance of climbing and having a bit of holiday. For me the thing that made the trip was the chalet we rented at the Inchree Center - far superior to camping!

Aonach Mor & Creise

Tuesday (28th Dec) myself, Martin and Andy headed up to Aonach Mor catching the climbers Gondola up at 8am. There are two approaches to the West face, either the traverse in, across the climber's ridge into Corrie an Lochain or to slog up to the summit and abseil/down-climb down Easy Gully I. In the past I've always traversed in but that day we decided to try the latter which actually felt much easier and quicker despite more ascent. The cornice was fairly sizable so we dug a snow bollard to abseil over the cornice, and down-climbed from their. Apparently it can often be passed without abseil on skier's left but due to poor visibility we couldn't see this.

Myself leading up towards the mixed chimney/groove on the second pitch.

Once below the West Face we traversed until underneath the Ribbed Walls area. We decided on White Shark IV 4 ***. The first pitch gave two fairly short but steep ice pitches and ends at a good peg belay on the left on the snowfield above. For the second we climbed the mixed chimney to the right which had ice in the back and a crack on the face to torque to give 10m of fairly sustained just off-vertical mixed climbing. Above the snow conditions began to deteriorate a bit, I imagine this pitch is usually either good ice or perhaps turf and neve but on this day it was unconsolidated snow ice which made for some quite scary runout climbing. After this a final short pitch over the cornice, which was easily passable to the right led us to the top. It was an excellent route, if a little tricky in the warm conditions we climbed it in.

The nest day (Wednesday) joined by Lewis and Mark the 5 of us headed up to Creise at the Eastern end of Glencoe. We parked at the ski center and walked a little further rather then trying to cross the river Etive further to the West. The approach took us a while but we got good views of the King's Tear which looks like a awesome easy ice route on the North Face of Stob a' Ghlais Chorie. We played on ice falls which have formed on the stream on the approach to the corrie and Lewis got his first taste of pure ice.

Inglis Clark Ridge on the skyline, with the ice pitch partially visible at the start.

Once geared up we made our way to the base of the Inglis Clark Ridge III, with Lewis and Andy climbing with me and Martin and Mark climbing as a pair. The first pitch is a pure ice pitch of 30-40m depending on where you start, with the crux being at the top. Due tot he warm temperature the ice was plastic which made the climbing fairly easy. Lewis took a bit of a tumble seconding one of the short vertical sections but gamely got back on and finished it. After this the line is open to several variations. My team kept crampons on and we climbed a series of snowed up turfy chimneys and grooves to the left of the crest moving together and short pitching, whereas Martin and Mark ditched the spikes and stuck to the crest which was scoured of snow and ice for most parts. Both were satisfying and we ended up at the summit at 4pm just as the light was fading.

Taking a rest on the descent.

We descended a snow gully a few hundred meters skier's right of the ridge which lead us into the Corrie base, before crossing the river and gaining the path which eventually led us back to ski center just as the weather began to deteriorate. This was quite tedious and due to Lewis hurting his ankle tripping up we moved fairly slowly and only reached the car around 8pm.

Scottish Winter Climbing

Climbing in Scotland, and in the other parts of the UK in winter has to be pretty unique. Having spent my formative years climbing in wet, cold wind blasted corries in the Cairngorms or the faces of Ben Nevis spending the year here climbing beautiful fat water ice in lovely cold dry conditions has been quite the contrast, a good one though. The routes are still challenging here, but theres not quite as much suffering involved which allows you to concentrate more on the climbing, perhaps allowing you to push yourself a little harder.

Anyhow trying to explain this contrast to locals has proven challenging, many have the view that the UK mountains, well our mere hills, are tame compared to the rest of the world and in some respects they probably are, but in others they are most certainly not. I found this video below and I think it gives a good picture of what the British winter climbing scene is like, and its not like its bias either - coming from a group of continentals! Make sure to watch it on full screen.



Obviously the grades these guys are knocking out are far harder than the average British climber, myself included climb and they do make some of them look pretty easy! But I'm a firm believer (perhaps because I don't in the grand scheme of things climb that hard) that climbing isn't about the grade, its about the process.