Gone with the wind...

15 February

Craig and I headed to the Nevis range for the first lift. This worked well but the high winds meant we walked from the gondola station to the top ski hut.

Abseiling intro easy gully gave respite from the wind but the CLAG meant finding routes difficult. We walked until we found Left Twin, we soloed the first pitch and Craig led the ice fall; this was in great knick and felt 4 rather than 3 today.

We abed down again as the sky cleared revealing amazing ice everywhere, White Shark IV 4 *** looked fat so I set on up. The ice was great and took screws and to be honest felt more grade 5 than 4, the climbing was great on first time placements. Arriving at the belay and bringing Craig up, the wind increased so we decided to bail. This was the best decision of the day, on reflection…

We climbed out easy gully and made our way to the Gondola station only to be told 98mph gusts earlier in the day forced them to close. We headed down the cycle track and back to the car in 45mins or so.

A great day climbing on a great crag. More here on the Simply Epic website.

Turbo thaw

8 February 2015

Turbo thaw,

Great day on Sunday with Craig in SCNL. The day started early and with a plan to climb Shelf route but conditions looked thin from Jacksonville.

Arriving in the Lochan to 100% zero vis meant we went for a route we knew would be climbable in the rising temperatures and more to the point, FIND!
 

More here on the Simply Epic site.

 

 -3º at 7.45am

 

 +6º at 11am

Back for more ...

Following on from the soaking he got last week Kevin was persuaded to head to the hills once more. This time I promised, blue skies and snow. I didn’t tell him it would be cold but he should have guessed with the layering and fatter gloves!

Ben Donich is a great hill for your first winter hill walk, it feels like a proper mountain journey with lots of ups and downs and interesting rock features. There was lots of wind blown snow but we were able to pick our way round all of it making for a more interesting but circuitous route.

Kevin did really well for his first time in crampons with good balance and weight distribution…

Raised Footprints

Lagavulin talking ?

11 January 2014

Kevin picked the worse possible day for his first ever hill walk. Storm force winds meant we stayed relatively low (600m) and made a quick ascent of Mid Hill.

He did very well to cope with the conditions underfoot; the wind, the hail, the rain and the snow, not complain, smile and ask if he can come again!

Everyday a school day...

4th January 2014

I headed into SCNL with Gerry, Murray and George. With 5ºc at the car we thought we would be taking the rack and ropes for a walk. The walk-in was warmer than usual but we split into 2 teams both heading for Twisting... some gamesmanship had Murray and I arrive at the belay first leaving Gerry and George to go in search of something that looked "in".

Twisting was full of unhelpful snow where you wanted neve but we made it past the first difficulty. The chockstone was a technical grade harder today (IMHO) and the final pitch was on soft snow and turf. Good climbing tho and Murray enjoyed so much he offered to carry both ropes out!

Gerry and George headed up Dorsal after bailing on a soggy Langsam. The pinnacles were in good icy nick and looked great fun from our vantage point.

Funny video from Murray of the day here.

Mind over matter…

2 January 2015

We headed up Coire na Eanachan to blow the cobwebs away…it was cold and clear and the wind was blowing very hard from the West.

Good quick half day half hr from Glasgow.

NOMICS (nomates more like it…)

30 December 2014

I headed into SCNL in 1hr 13mins to solo some routes and burn some Christmas cake. I swam up NC gully then crunched up Pearly Gates… conditions not quite there yet TBH.

A bit of a knees up...

 22 December 2014

Craig and I headed to Aviemore looking for a couple of days of good climbing conditions before Christmas. The 100mph winds of the previous days had quite literally stripped everything from the Pottage, Aladinn's and Fingers areas leaving only the more sheltered Fiacaill Buttress with  snow.

We headed over to the Seam and soloed to the start of the difficulties only to queue behind a rope of three. Shouts of "Hotaichs" and "I'm pumped" and little progress after 60mins had us decide to fire on up Invernookie for the 100th time - this is an exaggeration but we have climbed this route many times and in every conceivable condition, but its always good!

Next day was mild and wet at the ski station so we bailed and went for a second breakfast… some pics of Craig as he likes his picture taken...

A cats cradle...

25 September 2014

North Face Route** 240m (Severe 4a)

I raved about this route since climbing it with Gerry and Murray earlier this summer. Craig was as always Captain Keen regardless of the weather and we figured that we could both manage a Severe in the wet. I lead the pitches I didn’t lead last time and can honestly say there is not one bad pitch on the route. It was cold, wet and damp till the penultimate pitch on dry grippy rock. Great climbing and good to have Craig back on the rock again after a summer of DofE work.

Great climbing with some air miles…

18 September 2014

Punster's crack**** (S 4b)

Climbing with Gerry (man with photographic memory for rock holds and gear placements) on the classic route on the Cobbler makes for really good and interesting moves (pitch 2) on immaculate rock. Well worth it's 4 stars.

S Crack** VS 4c

Next up I agreed to hold the ropes on S Crack. This one pitch wonder (40m) is spicy for the grade unless you have a rack of big nuts. It's a great line that would benefit from more traffic to help keep the vegetation at bay. No pics unfortunately as rest points for the leader were limited. Great lead …

Where the land meets the sea...

Some pics from a special place… one word, a m a z i n g !