Nevis Range
Its been a busy week! Kev and myself headed up to Nevis Range on Monday for some rock dodging and grass skiing! While the snow was a little thin there was some nice powder on a few of the runs and dodging the big icy patches is what skiing in Scotland is all about isn't it? The weather was rather wild as well with some pretty fierce winds and whiteout conditions most of the day! Apparently skiing blind is just as hard as you'd imagen it to be! A good day non the less!
Aonach Mor West Face
Tuesday saw me and Kev back on Aonach Mor, this time for some climbing! Conditions weren't too bad, although they weren't exactly great. There was a fair bit of fresh snow and not all the turf was fully frozen. Plan A was to do Western Rib II/III which i had tried last season and backed off of after the 1st pitch as Paddy who i was climbing with was feeling a little rough around the edges! Sadly the second attempt didn't go much better! From the bottom of the buttress i lead up a short but pretty steep icy corned which felt at least III4 of not harder! Topping out of this i found very thinly iced slabs with no worthwhile gear to be seen! After a while faffing around trying to decide the best route i decided i probably wasn't where i was supposed to be and lower (very gently!) off a slightly suspect looking ice thread!
Deciding to leave Western Rib for another time (again!) we headed for Gendarme Ridge II with the intention of soloing it to the top. Unfortunately this didn't go to plan either! About 3/4 of the way up we opted for the steep, direct route up the buttress rather than the easy ramp to its right. Near the top of this, after some rather stiff climbing for a II on semi frozen turf i hit a bit of a stopper! A steep powder covered corner. I really didn't like the look of soloing this and just as i thought this a few meters below me Kev asked if this would be an awkward moment to ask for a rope. As it turns out it was! In my infinite wisdom i had stripped off my harness etc at the bottom of Western Rib so ended up dancing on a very small, insecure feeling, sloping ledge trying to put a harness back on and flake the rope out. After a few cheek clenching minutes we were back on the ball and decided that today clearly just wasn't our day and rather than carry on we abbed of an insitu nut and descended the gully at the side of the ridge.
Sadly this wasn't the end of our day! We now had 45 minutes to make it back along the valley and up to the gondola station from the bottom of Gendarme, before the last gondola! After legging it back we both collapsed into the gondola feeling very tired and with seconds to spare!
Not our finest day!
Invernookie
Thursday however proved to be a much more successful day! Craig, G, Jamie and myself headed over to the Cairngorms in the hope of finding good conditions and we weren't disappointed! We left the car park at the ski center and made the short walk in to Corie an t'Sneachda. This is the 1st time i've climbed in the Gorms and the novelty of a short, almost flat walk in didn't go unappreciated! In the Corie we split up and me and Craig headed over to the bottom of Invernookie, a three star grade III4. The route its self turned out to be brilliant. We soloed the 1st pitch, set up a belay and Craig lead up the 2nd pitch to a big corner. From here i lead a steep wee corner, then up a short chimney on good hooks to a cave belay. Here Craig led the final pitch. A short traverse then a shallow snow chimney to top out into the glorious sunshine!
A lazy walk around the top of the corie, enjoying the views and stopping to chat with other teams then down through the ski center brought us back to the car park in good time! Brilliant day out!
The 1st corner
Catching some rays!
Craig just after topping out
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