Cubby...

26 May 2013

With a good forecast for Sunday we headed to Ballachulish to climb the schoolhouse ridge of Sgorr Dhearg and its neighbour Sgorr Dhonuil. This is a great route with some nice scrambling on two of the finest peaks, with great views to Glen Coe, The Mamores, Ben Nevis, Ardgour and beyond to America ! We made the best of the day by reversing the route coming back over Sgorr Dhearg and down Sgorr Bhan to our start point, fantastic... 

Schoolhouse ridge of Sgorr Dhearg from our decent route on Sgorr Bhan

Looking back to Sgorr Dhearg from Sgorr Dhonuil

Sgorr Dhonuil

Looking towards Loch Linnhe and Ardgour from Sgorr Dhonuil  

Ballachulish and loch Leven

April ?

21 April 2013

A quick blast up The Cobbler and Ben Ime on Sunday with fresh snow at 600m. It felt like early winter with low cloud, wind and blown snow. The hill was quite but then again I took the route less travelled ...

There is still some climbing to be had on the higher Ben Nevis routes.

 

Tough call...

7 April 2013

It was quiet in Glen Coe, so we had the Lost Valley to ourselves. This is a great walk that I seldom do as I normally cut up right onto the Zig Zags of Gearr Aonach. We headed to the snow line and the coire headwall with the plan of climbing Stob Coire Sgreamhach, but on assessing the final snow slope (32°+)
I found 2 weak layers in the snow pack that changed the plan.

We headed to a safer spot, dug a snow shelter, had soup and decided to head off the hill.

A great day with good decisions made...

Summer time in Scotland ...

No.6 Gully 1V*** of Aonach Dubh is another of the “Classic Climbs” that we wanted to do this winter.

We walked in with stellar conditions, -3, no wind and brilliant sunshine at 6.30am. Regardless of the time we were second team on the route, but the guys in front didn’t hang about.

The first pitch offered Craig some nice ice to gain confidence with his improvised harness. The next pitch of “easy ground” led me to a short ice corner, this was good sport and warmed me up for the crux, a full 50m of steep ice. This was great climbing and really enjoyable, the ice was soft in places but “dinner-plating” in others.

Craig joined me at the belay with a big grin and felt confident with his “rig” to lead the final right hand exit pitch to a sunny alpine ridge.

We walked off in the sunshine, skirting round the suspect hard slab.

A true Alpine day in Scotland on the eve of summertime !

More reading here on the Simply Epic blog with pics of Craig’s lightweight harness...

No.6 (the right hand ice fall)

Pitch 1

Pitch 4, 50m ice fall

Alpine

Craig on the decent slopes

Looking across to Stob Coire nam Beith

 

Fancy Dan...

17 March 2013

We had a quick hit on the hill on Sunday. The snow line was at 350m with new snow over wet grass, but this soon became deeper and more wintery with altitude. The rocks were well rimed and there was lots of accumulations of unstable snow. We even found Graupel pellets trapped below a thin icy top crust, scary, but avoidable...

 

4.30am - boots on...

9th-10th March 2013

Craig and I headed to the Ben on Friday night for a weekend of climbing.  We had big plans (Point 5 and Green), but the wind on Saturday morning was vicious and was repelling teams at the CIC hut. Some folk (brave or bold) headed in the direction of Minus 1 gully and Orion but with people (including me) getting blown off their feet we decided to travel deep into Corrie na Ciste to see what was “in” and “scope” out future routes.

The following morning with the wind abating slightly, but it was still Artic cold. We arrived first at the foot of Green Gully IV,4*** This "Cold Climbs" classic, is well climbed and justifies its popularity and status.

I led off up the first pitch with Craig following through. We swung leads with every pitch, interesting and engaging, but never overly difficult or tricky. The ice and neve was in great condition and the wind died as I led the final rope length to the plateau.

Most of the pics are of me as my camera got frostbite on route (sorry Craig).

We had a great weekend with fantastic climbing in a world class location...Scotland at its best.

More on the Simply Epic blog here.

Vanishing...

2 March 2013

Craig and I headed into SCNL on Saturday to see what was left after 2 days of thaw. We had intended climbing the right hand variation of Twisting Gully but with the warm temperatures on the walk in , we knew this was unlikely. I climbed the crux of the original route , which was in surprisingly good condition, Craig led through and I took the final pitch to the top.

We had the coire to ourselves so down climbed NC Gully to get onto Raeburn's Route on Summit Buttress. This gave us 3 pitches of mixed (more rock than ice on the upper sections) before we headed back down to our bags.

The Coire was eerily quiet apart from some teams on Dorsal and Paul from Peak Mountaineering looking at winter skills with his team.

All in a good day but we need a return to cold temperatures ASAP!

The full story here Craig on our Simply Epic website.

The fabled ...

24 February 2013

Crowberry Gully is one of those routes that has loads of history and epics, Harold Raeburn, Murray and MacInnes and Co using "combined tactics" on the left hand variation. Its also a route that is seldom in condition due to its aspect and the fact it avalanches frequently, but with this long period of settled cold weather Craig and I knew it would be good-to-go.

Despite a super early drive from Glasgow we arrived at the base of the climb with 3 parties ahead.

We swung leads quickly catching the teams in front, but the weather was great and the situation fantastic so were quite happy to chill and chat.

The ramps between the steep ice sections were straightforward and the steep sections had brilliant chewy ice that sucked your ice pics making the climbing very enjoyable.

A very atmospheric route worthy of its stars, IV ***

A quick bite of lunch on the summit and some cheeky chat with Donald from Abacus before we headed down Coire Na Tulaich. 

More here on the Epic blog.

 

Exfoliating ...

We spent a few hours on Sunday in the white room on Ben Donich. It was full on winter with the 2 parties in front quickly feeling “out of our depth, ” and “this is crazy”.  It was, but we plodded on making holes in the new and crunching up the old snow, there was some slab about but it was easily avoided. We took shelter from the wind in one of the spooky fissures before heading back down the hill.
A quick but full on day with a free exfoliating and a blood shot eye, magic.

Out there...

North Buttress IV, 4

Craig and I Headed to Glen Coe to climb North Buttress of Stob Dearg (Buachaille Etive Mor). We know this route well and have climbed many times in summer and have had a couple of bailed attempts in winter.

We arrive ahead of another 3 teams of 2. The conditions looked good but the snow only had a crust, so was less than ideal. Still, being first on the route, we pushed on with me leading the first pitch. Craig led through to climb the second chimney and me the third. At times it was slow going to  find gear placements under the snow and finding bomber placements was just about non existent.

All of the 3 main pitches felt a grade harder today with some really insecure placements on all the crux moves.

Conditions improved with the altitude, and by the time the technical climbing was over we cruised together over super icy but still tricky "easier" ground on the ridge to the summit.

With the avalanche conditions high on East facing slopes and finding lots of slab we opted to come down "my dad's route" (the West Ridge) rather than Coire Na Tulaich, as it was loaded.

A fantastic day out with some good decision making on the descent, with energy levels low and in fading light...Epic.