Busy Busy!

Time for another long overdue update!

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

Run Away!

After Thursday's near perfect weather today was a bit of a contrast! I headed for the Ben again with Nick with the intention of doing a nice easy route to introduce Nick to the world of roped winter climbing, sadly the weather had other plans! The walk in was damp, windy and cold, and thing didn't get any better higher up!
Once in the corie its self we headed for No. 2 gully, unfortunately there had been a considerable amount more fresh snow than expected and the snow pack didn't feel too stable. A quick excavation near the base of the gully revealed about an inch of fresh windslab sitting on about 6 inches of firmer crust which didn't appear to be attached to anything at all! In fact the entire slab (about 7 inches thick) fell away before i had even finished digging! Not very confidence inspiring at all!

We had a quick look for Raeburns Easy Route but with very poor visibility, an unstable snowpack, worsening weather conditions and numerous powder avalanches pouring down from above we decided to cut out losses and made a quick retreat!

On the way back we ran into numerous other teams who were all doing exactly the same as ourselves.

So as to not completely waste the day i took Nick back to the same small ice pitch i had played around on on Thursday and we looked at the basics of climbing technique, axe/ foot placements etc. The weather lower down was much more settled and it turned into a pleasant, sociable afternoon when we were joined by Ross and Emma (fresh back from the MCOS Norway ice trip!) who we had discussed conditions with around No.2.

Garadh Gully:

On Thursday we took full advantage of the perfect conditions and i headed for the Ben with Craig and Jamie. The original plan had been to run up Garadh Gully and then do Glovers Chimney but after a false start due to dropped head torch, long approach involving soloing grade II ground with 1 axe and no crampons, and thin conditions on the approach route and another team beating us to it we decided to leave Glovers for another day!

The 'approach'

Garadh Gully its self turned out to be a very enjoyable route in its own right. We moved together for the 1st pitch (avoiding the dodgey looking detached ice step at the very start) then set up a belay for pitch 2. This is supposed to have a simple grade II ice step but unfortunately there was very little ice on it so it turned out to be more of a grade III mixed step on very thinly ices rock, good fun though!

The belay above pitch 2

Craig took the lead for pitch 3 and Jamie finished it all off for us by running it out on pitch 4. Not bad going considering the guidebook has it marked as a 95m route ( we managed to run out near enough 200m of rope on it!)

Team ahead on P2 of Glovers

From here we descended back down the corrie, stopping to play on a few short ice pitches on route before walking out. Another lovely day out!

Jamie having a play!

Sorry about the photo quality! Had the camera on the wrong setting!

SC Gully and Dorsal Arete:

On Sunday I headed down to Stob Corie nan Lochan in Glen Coe with Graham, Craig and Lee. We had an early start but were still beaten to the carpark by a surprising number of cars. With a good pace up the track however we made it to the crags before they got too busy.
Graham had been hoping to do Ordinary Route but unfortunetly we were beaten to it and as it didn't look in great nick we all headed for SC Gully.
This proved to be rather thin and felt sporting for the grade (especially when accidentaly trying to do the grade IV variation). The bottom Ice pitch was think, cruddy and poorly protected. The steep, right trending ice step that starts pitch 2 was not fully formed and very think so instead we made a short steep mixed step just above the ice to gain the ramp.  From here the snow was good and we quickly finished the route.

While waiting for Craig and Lee to finish Graham and myself descended Broad Gully then soloed Dorsal Arete before dropping drown Broad again to meet the others. I'll definitely have to go back and try SC again in better conditions.

Another long day out but a very enjoyable one.

Swimming Lessons:

Yesterday Craig, Graham and myself went to have a look whats been going on on the Ben. The initial idea was to try Glovers Chimney but with the recent heavy snow fall and high avalanche risk we walked into Corie na Ciste with a very open mind, hoping to find something that would be safe to climb.
A quick look at Glovers showed worryingly large amounts of avalanche debris at the base of it so instead we headed for No. 3 Gully Buttress (III).  The approach was somewhat dubious, crossing large areas of windslab and eventually after literally swimming up the final part of the approach in waist deep powder we reached to bottom of the first pitch.

We climbed the route in 4 long pitches with myself taking the 1st icefall pitch, Craig taking the 2nd traverse pitch, G taking the 3rd traverse pitch with the steep rocky step and myself finishing up the final pitch. I think we may have gone slightly off route on the final pitch. Rather than making an exposed step and finishing up snow ramp we took a steep line directly above this, up a short but steep corned.

On the decent we stopped to have a quick chat with Paddy Cave who had just completed Andy Tunrer's route The Secret IX9. Congratulations to him! Great work

Wet and Wild on CMD

Last night i got a text from Nick asking if i fancied doing something today. Having already seen the forecast my first thought was 'not a chance mate!' but after a quick bit of thought i decided that i've been far too lucky with my days out this season so i'd better go punish myself a little to appease the weather gods! After the heavy snowfall of the last day or two we decided not to go for a climb today so instead headed for the CMD arete which neither of us had done under winter conditions yet. As predicted the day turned out to be a real belter! Almost constant rain upto the summit of Carn Beag Derag, 50mph winds, snow, hail, spindrift and whiteout for the rest! Add to that the foot or so of fresh, soggy, sticky snow covering everything and it made for a real adventure of a day! GREAT FUN!

New Routing on Aonach Mor West Face?

On Sunday Geoff, Phil and myself went for a look at the West Face of Aonach Mor. We were joined by another Phil and Ann, members of the Polldubh club. Geoff and Phil who had been up a few days previous wanted to go try Gully 3, a III/IV on the left end of the face before the main ridges are reached. Unfortunately the lower ice pitches of Gully 3 hadn't faired very well with the recent thaw so instead we went for the gully directly left of gully 3. This doesn't appear be in the guidebook and may or may not be a new route. Either way it have two lovely grade III 4 ice pitches before turning into a pleasant, if rather long snow gully. The weather was warm but still and fairly clear and we all enjoyed a lovely sociable days climbing.

Me at the top of P1

Phil hot on Phil's heels on P2

Photos courtesy of Geoff Hewit.