French bindings…

6 March 2016

Jane and I headed to Bridge of Orchy for some winter mountaineering in the sun. I had almost forgot what a pleasure it was to walk in the sunshine rather than shiver on a belay.

Today the early morning weather was excellent with good underfoot conditions and little wind.

Teams bailing off a fat looking Fahrenheit complaining of cruddy ice.

I was able to helps some youths with their antique crampons needing some unorthodox lacing to keep them attached to rather bendy boots...

 

Heading to Beinn Dorain

Raised footprints

Summit team

Don’t drink that coffee …

Craig and I headed to the Coe with the plan of climbing Scabbard Chimney (V,6). We both have eyed this route for ages and today looked like the day. The first slab looked easily doable but was covered

in unless thin crud, we both had a go but it just didn’t feel right…

Next up, Ordinary Route Summit Buttress (IV,5) – This turned out to be good and interesting climbing. A full account can be found here on the Simple Epic blog

Sending more than a card…

14th February 2016

Shelf Route IV,6

Knowing the start of this route means you have to commit to the lower reaches of Crowberry Gully, Craig and I opted to atack the ridge head on. This made for 2 interesting pitches before we got onto the route proper.

Craig with some good beta sent me ahead with the instructions to climb the centre of three chimneys, me having never been able to follow instructions,  headed up the left hand one instead. This made for good sustained bridging with good hooks but unhelpful snow. The difficulties not being over till I swam up the deep unconsolidated powder to the belay, this was dug and backed up as the stance was steep.

Craig followed and climbed on till he found a suitable spike for us to bail from. It took us 4 abseils to get us off the route clear of Crowberry Gully.

An exiting day with good decisions made getting on and off our route.

More here on the Simply Epic Adventures website blog.

Wild at heart…

Sunday 7th February

Craig and I had Liam and Robbie on the hill on Sunday for a bit of skills and a look at safe travel.

The avalanche hazard was considerable so there was a lot of learning done and the boys seemed happy with the bombardment of information discussed off the hill and how it was all deployed on the hill on a truly wild day...

The snow was unhelpful on the Zig Zags but this weeks colder temperatures should help firm up the snow pack for some good climbing.

More here on the Simply Epic Adventures website

Winter update...

Traffic as our route joined Twisting Gully pitch 3

The 8.1 felt good but a bit stiff to handle

Not really had the chance to update the blog recently leaving Craig to tell most of the tales on the Simply Epic blog.

Winter thus far has been slow to start, we have snow, but far from ideal climbing conditions…

1. Corie an Lochan – black, bailed.
2. Raeburns Route STNL in lots of powder before Christmas, abseiled the route as it was windy on top.
3. NB on the Buachaille – bailed after pitch 1 due to constant avalanche of graupel.
4. No 5 gully on the Ben, we went for a walk to look see what was in. Not much but No5 gully gave an interesting amble through some super rock architecture that we wouldn’t normally go near.
5. Twisting Groves (a variation) - climbed 2 pitches to the chalkstone of twisting then got caught up in traffic so bailed on Craigs new 8.1, 60m “strings".

Fully stories here on the Simply Epic blog…

Thanks to Craig for the pics on Sunday.

Going for Gold…

12 October 2015

Craigs final Gold DofE of the year got cancelled last minute so he joined me on the uber classic Curved Ridge with Jane.

I had Jane on a short rope and Craig soloed alongside offering her support where needed. This was working well until we heard a cry for help coming from D Gully Buttress. A solo climber had got separated from his party and started climbing, but soon got crag fast. Craig and I headed down the ridge till I could drop a loop of rope to him and escort him to Curved Ridge were his group were now assembled. The whole operation took less than 25 mins - so no major drama!

The sun was out by then so we added the traverse to Crowberry ridge and up to the best picnic spot in the Glen; Crowberry Tower for Coffee and cake.

More on the Simply Epic blog...

Lip balm…

Arderikie Wall**** HS 4b

Gerry and I took advantage of the good forecast and headed North to Binnein Shuas. We walked up the estate track with various overnight camping teams heading out in what can only be described as July weather.

We tossed the wee blue lip balm tin to see who was first up and I win. Gerry had climbed the route many years before with George so it seemed only right. We followed Gary’s description and ran the original 12m first and second pitch together.

The climbing and situation was fantastic if not a little run out on the top section, but the holds were good and with such good weather it was easy to just keep climbing. Gerry arrived at the belay looking relaxed and eager to tackle the impressive looking flake (I was slightly jealous of this to be honest). Pitch dispatched without drama and I led through on yet another great pitch on great rock with good gear. Being ‘now’ in the groove  the final two pitches went by in a flash and left us feeling we wanted another 10 pitches !!!

The route is amazing and impressive in equal measures and well worth getting up early for. It’s been on Craig’s list for a while also so perhaps I'll get to lead the flake pitch sometime soon.

 

 

Cheese...

21-29 August 2015

I teamed up with Gerry for this years Alps fix.

We both wanted to climb Alpin-durst (14 pitches 4c) on the Jagihorn. We both wanted to climb Castor and Pollux, the Eiger, the Matterhorn, Lyskamm, the Frendo; the list is endless… so, within 10 hours of leaving Edinburgh we were swinging leads on the grippy gneiss high above Sass Grund sucking in thin air on a bright sunny day and making plans for the coming week.

The Swiss meteo was showing a 1.5 day blip with heavy weather up high so we relocated to the valley for some sport climbing and Ferrata at Belvedere then onto the Grand Hotel Kurhaus in the Arolla valley to pack for a couple nights at Klein Matterhorn. We arrived in Zermatt in good time and headed up to the Hut for stunning 360 views.

First up each day we had the plateau and journey to our mountains in complete solitude. Castor and Pollux were in great conditions with firm and squeaky snow and on both occasions we had the summits to ourselves.

High altitude sleeps over we headed to the valley to mainline on some oxygen and then some multi pitch climbing in the sun at Pierr du Moelle.

Thanks to Gerry for the great photographs (I dropped my camera down Alpindurst) and for his encyclopaedic memory for mountain shapes and names...a great trip.

Alpin-Durst               © Gerry McGarry

                                                                        © Gerry McGarry

Jagihorn summit 

Ferrata Belvedere                    © Mark McGinnes

Breithorn with Pollux and Castor behind              © Mark McGinnes

 Tying alpine butterflies at 5am                               © Gerry McGarry

Fixed ropes on Pollux                                            © Gerry McGarry

Gerry on the Pollux summit ridge                        © Mark McGinnes

Summit ridge Castor                   © Gerry McGarry

 Castor summit ridge                                             © Mark McGinnes

Summit selfie

 Looking across to Lyskamm                                  © Mark McGinnes

Limestone multi-pitch climbing                             © Mark McGinnes

                                                                                © Mark McGinnes

Gerry continues his Alps trip this week with Carol...

                                                                                  © Gerry McGarry

Mmmm, now where is this ?

The greatest mountain in human history !

1 July 2015

Great day guiding on Ben Nevis with all the guys making it to the summit via the Carn Mor Dearg Arête.

This was particularly satisfying for both Craig and myself as they were all part of a 'Simply Epic Adventures 'organised trip - seven Canadians over here to celebrate their friendship of many years.

Base camp was manned by the charismatic Colin who made sure the beers were on the bar at the end.

The Tour de Ecosse continues this week with adventures on Knoydart and Applecross.

More info soon here on the Simply Epic Adventures website or email Craig for ideas and availability for your own Simply Epic Adventure.

Some pics from the day...