Tower Ridge.

Today Isi, Rich and myself headed out for a days climbing on the Ben. Things have been a little milder lately so we weren't sure what we'd find but we set off anyway with a vague plan to have a look at Castle Ridge. On the walk in it quickly became clear that Castle wasn't really in condition at the moment so we set our sights on Tower Ridge instead. Rich has done Tower many times now but for Isi and myself it was a first.

The snow on approach was pretty firm and things looked promising. I lead up the 1st chimney pitch to gain the ridge its self and from there we soloed upto the end of the eastern traverse. Here Rich lead the steep section that gains the top of the great tower and we moved across to tower gap.

I lead across the gap and out the other side before we quickly soloed the remaining section of the ridge and topped out into the sun!

Condition are excellent for this early in the season! The lower snows are consolidating nicely and while things higher up are still rather soft the rock is well rimed and ice can be seen forming. Looks like we could be in for another bumper winter!

Deep in it!

We were told that today was going to be a 'self study' day at college, so naturally we all headed outdoors! Myself, Kev, Craig and Callum headed up to Corrie Nan Lochan (2nd time in less than a week for myself and Kev!) with the plan to do Dorsal Arete. The walk in was surprisingly warm but things soon cooled down once in the Corrie itself.

Once above the snowline we found one thing. Powder, and lots of it! Which made the rest of the walk in a rather grueling experience, wading through knee (occasional waist)  deep powder. Once at the base of the route we quickly geared up and made quick work of the easier lower sections, only roping up to traverse the 'Fin' which proved to be a touch more exciting than expected (it really means it when the guidebook mentions a 'steep step!')

A quick decent of Broad Gully soon had us back to the corrie floor and heading for home!

Conditions were soft but seemed fairly stable for the moment. Hopefully the next week will bring some consolidation and we'll be looking at some brilliant early season climbing!

A day indoors!

After yesterdays foray up to Corie Nan Lochan i was feeling a little stiff (clearly not been out enough lately!) so myself and Isi decided that rather than enduring a days hill walking in some truly foul weather we'd get some training in at the Ice Factor.
We spent the afternoon practicing our dry tooling skills in the bouldering room on the routes set as training for the Scottish tooling comp this weekend. After a little practice i managed the complete circuit, minus fig4/8/13ing up the chain for the final moves!
We also took the opportunity to log some air time and practice taking lead falls to boost confidence for when on the sharp end of things. This turned out to be more fun than expected, with both climbers and belayers managing to achieve lift off!

11/11/10

First of Many!

Today Kev, Isi and myself took full advantage of the prefect weather and headed down to Glen Coe for the day to try and get in our first early season winter route before the bad weather returns.

A sweaty walk in soon had us in the midst of Corrie nan Lochan and having heard reports that it was in good nick we headed straight for Forked Gully (I/II). The turf was mostly nicely frozen with a good covering of powder and the odd icy step. The gully felt fairly steep for I/II and was probably solid II in the thin conditions. For some added interest i finished the last section up a shallow mixed groove on the left edge of the gully which proved to be an excellent mixed section of the route.

The corrie was busy today with several other parties out on various routes. Conditions are thin but theres still plenty to be done!

A long time coming!

Well its been a while since I've updated this so i felt i'd better fill you all in!

Since my last entry there has been a LOT of rain here in the Fort! Perfect weather for ducks... and paddlers! Sadly on doctors orders im still not allowed near any white water so instead i've been making up for my complete lack of climbing over the summer with numerous trips to the Ice Factor.

I also had a days work with Ptarmigan Events guiding a group of charity walkers up the Pony track on the Ben and amazingly enough it stayed dry all day! The walk was in aid of Kidney Research UK and all the guys did fantastically. We even had some entertainment on the summit in the form of the Essex 6 piece rock  band Kings Cross who had lugged a full PA system, generator and instruments to the summit to play the 'highest gig in Britain' to raise money for charity. A short video of their performance can be found here.

Hello old friend...

The plan for today was to spend most of the day curled up recovering from my birthday celebrations last night but feeling surprisingly fresh (all things considered) i arranged to meet Graham for what would be my first time climbing on real rock since June! We headed up to Gorge Crag and G set off up a route called Conscription E1 5b. This wasn't exactly the nice easy start back to cragging i'd been hoping for and my summer of paddling and injuries really seems to have taken its toll on my climbing. After an awful lot of sweating, swearing and resting on the rope i did however make it to the top (after a fashion anyway)

I'd like to thank Graham for his patience and encouragement. Now, lets get back out there and get some more routes in before the snow arrives!

(09/10/10

A day of two half's...

Last firday my self and Graham decided to take full advantage of the truly foul forecast (90mph gusts, rain and could!) and took a trip out to Creag Meagaidh as neither of us had been before.
We made our way up Creag na Cailliche ridge onto the summit, took full advantage of the conditions by practicing some Nav on the plateau before making a quick, soggy exit back to the car.

Unfortunately the trip home wasn't quite as smooth as our time on the hill and after a slightly over enthusiastic bit of cornering in the wet conditions we found ourselves well and truly in the ditch. Thankfully neither of us were hurt, although the poor car will never be the same again.