Scottish Winter blog

I’m out climbing with Alastair and Hugo this week, we’ve had a couple of contrasting days. An amazing days climbing yesterday, fantastic weather and a slightly different morning today where we nipped in to Sneachda, up our route and back out again, in fine Scottish conditions!

Matt, Emma and I went for an optimistic walk into Sneachda this morning, passing a few teams who had turned back after just a few minutes walk. Never a good sign….

It was a bit better once we were in the Coire itself, we headed to the Mess of Pottage and climbed a good combination of the message, before a quick abseil to access the Hybrid which took us to the same abseil station and a finish up the message. Does that make sense? Anyway, about 6 pitches of climbing with some good spindrift getting blown off the top of the crags by the southerly wind.

Plenty of small cornice’s being formed at the top of Sneachda, the gullies are rapidly being filled up, not that you’d want to go near them at the moment.

The weather has gone cold again in time for the weekend, and plenty of folk seem to have made the drive/fly/train journey up to Scotland to sample the climbing.

Sneachda was really busy yesterday, with many teams on the gullies and some buttress routes like Fingers ridge, Fluted Buttress direct and Pygmy Ridge.

I had a late start after some admin time in the morning. My climbing partners were otherwise engaged so I headed out on my tod, billy no mates style.

I was originally going to solo something in Sneachda but the gullies were so busy I went up the Goat Track and walked over the back to Hells Lum. There were a few teams finishing routes as I got there but I had the whole crag to myself really. I spent a little while with the guidebook and coffee looking at different lines and wandered around testing ice.

After finding myself at the left hand end of the crag I decided to finish up “Hells Lum” a popular grade II/III which cuts its way through some impressive scenery. I nipped past an obliging team whilst they were sorting their belay out and followed the tracks past a couple of icy steps before finishing through a narrow slot by the cornice. A nice route, and probably about grade III at the moment.

After that I went for a ramble, polishing my navigation skills in the dark by making a fairly big (deliberate) detour. All good practice.

Just back in Newtonmore after four days on the BMG winter training course.

Some mixed weather, including a really wet day in Glencoe when we were looking at some short roping where everything got a soaking.

Yesterday was spent looking at the Scottish snowpack and avalanche hazard which was timed perfectly for a day when the hazard was higher than had been forecasted. We found a human-triggered avalanche that had gone off about five minutes before we arrived and had travelled around a hundred meters. It was a good reminder about how much you have to be on the ball in Scotland, due to the rapidity of the changes of the weather and therefore the snow.

You can sign up for text avalanche bulletins and get the latest forecasts here: http://www.sais.gov.uk/latest-forecasts.asp

The weather looks set to stay dry and stable for a few days, so after a rest day today I’m hoping to get out climbing, the buttress climbs are looking white again.

Dragged myself out of bed this morning to find a lot of fresh snow pilled on top of my van, the new winter tyres proved their worth this morning on the drive back up to Cairngorm.

Rocio and I walked back into Sneachda hoping for some tricky mixed climbing, on something that would push the comfort level a little but we soon realised it wasn’t to be. The new snow had obviously been very dry, and the winds strong so it hadn’t stuck to the crags at all.

Luckily the Mess of Pottage was rimed up from the westerly wind so we saved the day by climbing the first half of “hybrid” (IV, 5) and then finishing up the tricky corner of “The Melting Pot” (V, 6). Both routes felt fairly tricky for the grade, loose powder on the ledges not helping but the turf is well frozen and the cracks free of ice.

There’s probably more snow in the car park than on the hill, thanks to the high winds, but every little helps!

A few teams on Hidden Chimney, Droidless, and digging pits in the snow banks of the Coire. The Ben still seems to be a good bet for winter routes at the moment.

Matt and I made the drive over to the West coast from Newtonmore again today. We drove past Meggy, The Ben and finally parked in Glencoe opposite Stob Coire Nan Lochain, quite a early start and a long drive.

It is defiantly one of my favourite cliffs, where I have many fond memories of my first ever winter lead (Y Gully right hand with my dad, it was terrifying) and working through the grades with different climbing partners in the last few years.

Unfortunately our intended mixed line was too black for our winter ethics today. We were a bit gutted and it was tricky to find something in condition that we wanted to climb. I started up Chimney route, a steep grade VI, 6 but it was running with water which had thawed out the snow and turf on the route, and I ended up retreating after six foot or so.

We then headed over to Scabbard Chimney, which we had both done before but we were just keen to get climbing by this stage. I had won paper scissors stone so i got to lead the main pitch which I did in about 40m or so. A great technical pitch of V, 6 with plenty of fixed gear and pegs at the crux. Its probably a really good route to try if your looking at pushing into the grade.

After abseiling down The Tempest, (steep but cool looking climbing) we went up Original route, a first for me, a good mountaineering style route (IV, 4) and really good fun to climb. Turf and ledges and some good weaving around trying to find the easier lines up the mountain.

Lots of teams on Dorsel arete, Adam and his friends were on Unicorn which looked fantastic and some quick euro dudes on Central Grooves and Tilt (they were both a little black)

Another fine day on Ben Nevis yesterday. I climbed with Matt and Adam which made for good banter on the belays and a nice light rucksack as everything was shared out a bit more.

We headed up into Coire Na Ciste again and for a few ice routes we’d spied from previous visits last week. Adam was happy to coast along (having done about 15 days in a row) so Matt and I were able to practice some more guiding techniques by leading a route each.

I led Comb Gully Buttress with the ice variant which was a brilliant IV, 4 with a little brittle ice but good climbing past hanging ice daggers. We then abseiled into number 3 gully and Matt led us up Winter Cascade (IV, 5) a rarely formed ice streak to the right of winter chimney. A long 60m pitch took us above the difficulties where a short pitch on snow led to the plateau again.

It was still early, so a double abseil down number two gully took us to the bottom of Comb Gully where we soloed to the start of the steep climbing. Matt led us up The Comb, Left flank another great IV, 4 with some thin ice but some nice plastic stuff as well. Two pitches took us to the top again and we met up with some friends at the top of number four gully which made for a social descent back to the car park.

So a good day on Scotland premier mountain, just a shame I left the memory card out of my camera!

Had another blue sky day in Scotland, this time back into Sneachda with Matt to check out a couple of work routes for future reference.

There was a surprising amount of rime on the crags meaning a lot of the mixed lines were climbable with easily cleared cracks for rock gear. There was the odd loose block on both Original Summer route and Pygmy ridge as you’d expect when there isn’t a huge amount of snow on the ledges.

Plenty of folk out on the hill, lot’s of the gullies getting climbed although the grade I’s aren’t complete in most cases.

My feet (and legs) feel like they’ve taken a bashing so I’m due for a rest day, but good weather looks set to continue for a bit anyway.

Back in my temporary home of Newtonmore after two good days on the Ben.

The conditions after the thaw were interesting, lots of snow has been striped away but what is left has frozen hard into some fine neve meaning many routes are in great condition, you just have to pick the right one.

Rocio and I headed up pretty early on Thursday morning and walked up Observatory gully to below Smiths route. We’d both climbed it before but though it would be a good option as it’s pretty much the highest ice climb in Scotland. Despite this it was dripping, or flowing, with water and although in climbable condition we didn’t fancy the cold soaking on a route we’d climbed before. We left it for some keen parties behind and and carried on up Tower Gully giving the calves a good workout in the process.

We were still keen for a route, and both wanting to check routes for future clients, we headed down no. 3 and climbed Green Gully (IV, 4) in five pitches back to the plateau. It was in thin condition, with a few holes in places but totally climbable and a great classic route.

Today it was back up Observatory Gully and up to Indicator Wall. Neither of us had climbed it before and it looked like it was going to be OK, thin in places but it had had 24hrs of good freeze so the ice wasn’t dripping today. I headed up the right-hand variation which gave a good first pitch of V, 5 before we joined the standard route which Rocio led through, (Probably about V, 4 as the guidebook suggests)

We topped out at the summit trig point (the final belay around the post) and sat sun bathing in the sunshine, what a treat! It was completely still and we had amazing views, including some impressive close quarter flying by some fast RAF jet.

We were pretty sated, and stayed in the sunshine by heading down the zig zags and through the partially frozen bog back to the van.

Some great mountaineering routes in good condition at the moment; Tower Ridge, Ledge route, and probably all the grade I and II gullies. Some harder stuff; Tower scoop, comb and green gullies, central ice fall, Smiths, Good Friday, Indicator to name but a few. Basically if it’s got snow or ice on the route and looks complete it’s probably very climbable.  The buttress lines are pretty black, couldn’t see any mixed routes in condition today. It’ll be busy at the weekend though, so keep a few options in mind when your heading up.