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.

Langdale Mountaineering

The forecast for the weekend was good, with the UK finally getting a little high pressure and temperatures dropping and skies clearing. Unfortunately due to a prior engagement on the Saturday I was unable to make it to Scotland for the weekend which was a shame as it seemed like the place to be. Instead, Sunday morning Ash, Bec and myself headed up to Langdale.

Raven Crag and a frosty Langdale in the morning.

We left the Old Dungeon Ghyll car park and headed straight up to the base of Raven Crag where roped up and set up off up Middlefell Buttress D. It was bright and sunny however the rock was cold (but not too cold) and there was a chill breeze. We moved together with Ash leading, Bec following and myself at the back. Once we reached the final steep wall we swapped round and I took over the lead. We then moved across to follow a continuation on the buttress just to the right the top of Middlefell for another 100m or so until we reached easy ground.

Getting lured in by Gimmer Crag.

Our original plan for the day had been to do the scramble on Thorn Crag before heading over to do another scramble on the face of Pike of Stickle. As we approached Thorn Crag though we couldn't take our eyes off Gimmer which looked awesome in the morning sunshine so decided, despite only having one rope and a very minimal scrambling rack to go and have a go at Gimmer Chimney.

Myself leading up Gimmer Chimney.

We managed to do Gimmer Chimney VD+ in two long pitches and little bit of alpine trickery. I led the first long pitch to the base of the chimney which I thought felt a little stiff however this probably had something to do with the fact it was extremely cold, I was in boots and that the rock was verglassed in places. I'm quite glad to have ticked it off as I'd never climbed it before, and I do always enjoy climbing on Gimmer, its a fantastic crag.

Walking off Gimmer Crag, Langdale valley below and Windemere in the distance.

We descended back down to the car and then proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon drinking, eating and gear perusing in Ambleside.

Trinity Face Solo

Sunday morning I headed back up to Pen Y Pass and then in on Pyg Track up towards Snowdon. A lot of wet  snow was falling as I left the car park and by the time I got a to the notch below Crib Goch there a few inches of fresh snow lying on the ground. Once I passed the notch there was a noticeable increase in the amount of snow with drifts being several feet deep in places. The wind was not quite as strong as the previous day but the visibility was reduced.

Good ice forming on sections of the face.

Eventually I reached the ruins in the cwm above the Glaslyn where I took a minute to eat, drink, gear up and build a small snowman. I then headed up towards the face on the approach slopes. The snow, while still powdery in places seemed to have consolidated from the previous day to some extent and there was less evidence of the windslab we'd seen the day before also.

The iced slabs on skier's right of the gully.

Overnight a lot more ice had developed which was promising as well as some patches of snow which had turned to neve. I headed up towards Central Trinity II again, passing the chockstone where we had reached the previous day. Above the chockstone the gully narrowed, from photos I've seen this banks out usually, but being early in the season it hasn't yet and consisted of a neve runnel bounded by the rock wall on the right and the iced slabs on the left. This made for some excellent fun climbing, if a little out there for grade II.

Nearing the top of the gully and exit slopes.

The vast majority of the turf was well frozen, which was particularly evident once I topped out of the gully and climbed the exit slopes to the summit ridge. The cornices are present in places but from the ones that I observed are small and shouldn't pose an issue.

The route marked in red.

Once I topped out I visited the summit and then headed down. I was contemplating descending Crib Goch but due to the high winds on the top I decided to save it for another day. I managed to do the route car park to car park in just over 4 hours which I was quite happy with considering I wouldn't say that I'm that fit at the moment.

Blade Runner - Helvellyn

Martin Freeman, Carl Stubbs and myself headed up to Red Tarn Cove on Helvellyn on Saturday morning with high hopes of getting our first route of the winter season in after a promising report for Steve Ashworth at the Epicentre on the Friday evening.

Blade Runner take the line up the centre of the buttress, bounded by No.2 gully to the left and No.1 gully to the right.

We opted for the northern approach on the road, heading up to Penrith first which proved to be a wise move as Kirkstone Pass was closed. We were at the YHA car park at Glenridding for soon after first light. Temperatures were around freezing and snow was down to a low level which was promising, unfortunately due to being the first party there (which we were surprised at) we had to break trail all the way into the cove, which at times was drifts of 30cm deep unconsolidated powder, as such the walk in took us considerably longer than the standard 45 minutes.

Myself leading on Blade Runner.

As there was quite a bit of unconsolidated snow around and we were unsure on how frozen turf would be we opted for Blade Runner IV which is a mixed line following a rocky rib which divides no.2 and no.1 gully. It is also one of the remaining routes of the face that I have left to climb. The climb was good, following a series of grooves and ledge systems and a bit of ridge and arete climbing on the second pitch. In places where it was exposed the turf was well frozen however where it has been covered by snow and insulated it is still not solid, it needs a hard freeze to bring it properly into condition. There was a bit of ice forming here and there, and across the gully V-Corner looked to have it's share as well.

Stubbs coming up to the second belay.

I spoke to a party who did No.1 Gully and they said that while a large proportion of it was unconsolidated the crux step and several other areas did have neve on them. It was worth noting that we observed a lot of avalanche debris below the above area which looked to have originated in no.2 gully, from its age I guess this slid sometime on Friday or that night. The scarp slopes below the summit above the main buttresses were in places fairly heavily loaded with a 10-15cm layer on windslab readily detaching on the top. There are cornices in place across the top however they are small and easily passable. We un-roped at the top of the Blade Runner Buttress and soloed to the top.

Martin heading towards the cornice.

After topping out we summited Helvellyn, took a few minutes in the shelter before descending Striding Edge taking a  sueprdirect line which was good fun.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Junkyards & Norquay

Just a quick note here.


Last weekend (Sunday 28th) I headed out to the Junkyards with Dena & Ian for a fairly chilled afternoon, we threw a top rope up and climbed some of the steeper lines on the curtain before doing Scottish Gully, all fairly standard stuff. With regards to conditions theres are some big shear cracks forming in the ice on the main falls, I counted 4/5 with about 6ft in between them, I don't think theres any immediate danger but its certainly showing that its late in the season. The curtain is also thinning, and theres a big hole at the bottom. The itself isn't too bad to climb on, theres a granular layer thats sitting on top of the proper stuff thats formed as a result of the freeze cycles, this in combination with the ice below actually gives quite easy placements, it goes without saying that the steeper (WI4) lines are all really hooked out. If your after leading stuff I'd be wearing as due to the quality of the ice I was wearing about placing screws, and if you do place some, especially for top-roping make sure you bury them with some snow/ice. It was over 10 degrees when we were out there in bright sunshine and screws were certainly falling victim to melting out.

On a side note we hired some gear from a place in Canmore as we were a bit short, including a pair of Black Diamond Cobras - absolutely amazing tools, probably the best I've climbed on (yes, better than the Nomics I think!).


Yesterday (Sunday 4th) I was out skiing, as the other resorts were going to be busy due tot he easter weekend we decided to check out Norquay. Its a small resort, only 5 chairs all with a mixture of runs coming off them but it was satisfying for the day, if I spent several days there in a row I would certainly get bored, its no Sunshine or Louise but considering there were probably only 50 other people there all day (Sunshine would of been in the 1000s) it made some pleasant skiing, being able to just burn down runs with nobody else on them.

When i get chance I'll try and ass some photos to this. I reckon I maybe have next weekend left for winter stuff if the weather keeps going the way it is and then I'll be packing the skis and axes up until next season.