Archive for February, 2015

Winter walking days; February 20-23rd

27/02/15

Weather always strongly affects what we suggest to do on any given day and there have been some challenging forecasts to interpret.

Damien & Sue booked a few days of winter walking around last weekend. Friday saw us take a 7 mile hike around the coast via Suisinish and Boreraig, villages abandoned in the Highland Clearances.

P1050607 (1024x768)Rising up out of Boreraig with Rum and a looming snow cloud in the background

We pushed the boat out on ambitions and made an ascent of Sgurr na Banachdaich, the easiest Black Cuillin, in perfect weather on Saturday ahead of an enforced rest day Sunday.

P1050634 (1024x768)Sue snapchatting everyone (apart from her mum) from the top.

We opted for 2 short (1.5hr) walks between showers and coffee shops on Monday, firstly out to the lighthouse at Neist Point

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and then amongst the magical rock formations of the Quiraing.

 

Training for the Blanc 16-19th Feb

26/02/15

Tony & Maija have ambitions on climbing Mont Blanc this summer so my brief was to get them confident on their crampons.

We met in awful weather on the first morning but the forecast was to improve through the day so we spent a very productive hour fine-tuning and discussing the kit. It was still damp as we left the carpark but breaks soon began to appear.

P1050475 (1024x768)Maija not convinced about this improving forecast….

Our delayed start not only worked very well with the weather but we were the 3rd party up the Great Gully on Ba Bheinn that day so had a wonderful line of bucket steps right to the crest. As so often this season the summit views were outstanding.

P1050516 (1024x768)Blue skies on top

We wore crampons for practice more than safety but were very glad to have them on as we started our descent; the change of aspect made meant the initial 10 minutes were on very hard old snow before we got back to the soft stuff and some essential bumsliding to avoid sinking every step.

Next day there were strong gusts so we opted for the low-lying Broad Gully on Sgurr a’ Bhasteir.

P1050520 (1024x768)Passing the “Jacuzzi” pool.

On the ascent we encountered a wide variety of consitency, a common theme this season with so much weather going on. The ridge and corrie were surprisingly sheltered but the gusts were soon bowling us over on the way out.

P1050537 (1024x768)Tony looking up the Bhasteir Gorge to Pinnacle Ridge

On Wednesday we hid from the wet weather and had a concentrated skills session on the Portree high school wall and by Thursday it looked like we would struggle to find any snow to play on at all….

P1050546 (1024x768)A black looking Coire Lagan.

How wrong we were; snow with great consistency led right up the An Stac screes, around the bypass (and a huge new rockfall btw!) and up past the In Pinn to the summit crest.

P1050566 (1024x768)Very definitely winter!

I love it when the mountains treat you to such a wonderful surprise; a great way to finish the course.

Skye Winter Festival 2015 report.

22/02/15

Wow; what a fortnight. A huge thanks to everyone who came along to support the event, to Angus and all of the staff at the Old Inn for making us so welcome, to Annmarie for keeping us all domesticated and, perhaps most of all, to the weather gods for turning on the winter weather spectacularly. The only day when nothing was climbed was 25th January but it did mean that nobody was late for their Burn’s supper!

panoPanorama above the clouds from Friday 6th

Over 40 people all appeared to be having a good time whatever the weather threw at them and reaped the benefits of some spectacular conditions for both mixed and pure ice climbing. More than 20 new routes were added between grades I and VII. Over half of the participants lost their Cuillin winter virginity and now can’t decide if they are nymphomaniacs or just perverts 🙂

peepoStuart popping through Mo’s hole…..

Mentions in dispatches, in no particular order, go out to most folk and apologies if you’re not listed-

Craig, Rory & Dylan who embraced the spirit of the festival brilliantly despite their first day being more like a tropical typhoon than Scottish winter; they went on to add at least 4 new routes over the coming days.

P1050119Rory’s hole

Michael Barnard and partners for showing everyone quite how much Cuillin potential there is for the accomplished winter climber in the higher grades. He came up 3 weekends on the trot.

Skye HighMichael on Skye High V,7

Antoni for keeping the standards of single malt incredibly high despite less cultured alcoholic interference.

Jonny for his modest “I’m not a climber” achievements through the week including the In Pinn; every team should have a Jonny to break trail!

Lucy for services to the team including top-roping 5 folk on the icefalls in a blizzard then missing out herself and being first to balance up the In Pinn with only a nut key to clear cracks.

Pinn startLucy starting up the Pinn

James found Deep gash had little usable ice in it but his consolation route was the third ascent of Doug Scott’s The Smear!

And Romain, what can I say? For taking gaelic flare and passion for Skye & winter further than anyone thought possible, for winding me up to the great entertainment of everyone else and for surviving a diarrhoea filled car journey through drifts & blizzards.

RomainRomain

I loved all of my days out but there were a few particularly good highlights-

A team effort with good friends Beads, Antoni & David in the wild blizzards of Friday 30th to finally tackle the twin icefalls (they’ve teased for 20 years) high on Sgurr a’ Bhasteir. We aimed for the pair but the weather dictated that teamwork was the best idea.

trenchTrench warfare approaching Twicicle

Twicicle was a superb grade IV with Beads & I sharing the gear & the craic on lead. Another highlight that day was the huge relief at the whole festival team reappearing back in the corrie cave out of the maelstrom; phew.

JonnyJonny, Cat & Jo sheltering from the maelstrom on Friday 30th

On the Sunday I got a complete beasting at the hands of James on Con’s Cleft (VII,7). He’d run out of daylight 2 days earlier and I was more than happy to come and help him get the project finished. It was a fantastic effort from him, poor style on my part but a long term ambition put to bed and great to climb with James again for the first time in over a decade.

crux

James on the crux of Cons Cleft

Next day Ally & I were the only ones left and were rewarded with the first properly settled day of the meet. Onceicle had grown to suitable thickness, gave 45m of great steep fun and moonlight lit our walkout.

OnceicleOnceicle, just below the steepening

Wednesday dawned stunningly and I took a gamble to return to a mixed venue that had defeated me twice previously; the day turned out to be the highpoint of my festival. Lying on the north side of the West Ridge of Garbh-bheinn is a 100m high cliff of gabbro unusually adorned with loads of vegetation. Conditions were just right with frozen turf and oodles of ice smears. Mo, Stuart and I grabbed the first good looking line leading to a tight chimney with a crucial chockstone.

starfishMo on the crux chimney of Chockolates

Mo’s pitch started by poking herself through a tiny squeeze before some great moves to top out. Full of character we decided Chockolates was a 2 star V,6. With some daylight left we shot down again and Mo led off up Yat for the Doh, II- a Hong Kong phrase meaning “one for the road”.

For more images and tales see the festival Facebook page. For those who were there please put links to your own accounts and look closely at your privacy settings so that as many folk as possible can see anything you have shared with the Skye Winter Festival page. Any photos gratefully received.

Wild ‘n windy. 15th Feb

15/02/15

Too wild for the mountains today (Sunday) so went for a bit of gentle climbing at the seaside

 

🙂

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Alpine route for an Alpine day; 15th Feb

15/02/15

Clear blue skies and heavy frost signalled stonking conditions and we weren’t disappointed. I opted for one of the longest snow lines in the Cuillin, Diagonal Gully on Ghreadaidh.

The snow was uniform from bottom to top; not steel hard but definitely calf burning.

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I’ve had big crevasses in the lower reaches before but todays wasn’t wide; deep enough to swallow us but we all crossed safely and paced ourselves on “fast simmer” for the next 1000ft.

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The views from the Ridge crest were stunning with snow-clad peaks laid out spectacularly.

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Climbing along the narrow crest was a slow and delicate procedure with only tiny amounts of rime ice muting the squeals from our crampons. Check out the short video HERE

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The descent of the crest was higher octane with long runnels of water-ice to negotiate and the hard snow in An Dorus gave 20 minutes of concentrated and thigh-burning descent.

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Lucky Friday the 13th.

14/02/15

My first outing in the Cuillin for over a week looked like it wasn’t going to be too wintery as I gazed on Coir’ a’ Bhasteir stripped of its ice. We rationalised down to single axe and single rope with the Tooth as an ambition.

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By the time we reached the gorge a coat of rime was eveident above 600m and we donned crampons pretty soon afterwards on the NE Ridge of Sgurr a’ Bhasteir.

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Still I exxpected a rock scramble up Collie’s Route which, in the full glare of westerly wind, sun & rain must surely have been stripped. No such thing as we descended past the Tooth into Lota Corrie.

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5m of icy rock led into the diagonal break of Collie’s Route which rolled up away into the mist as a continuous white line of neve. We moved together placing runners every now & again but never on moves that were more than grade I.  Traversing a (normally easy) horizontal ledge system proved the scariest with the banked out snow steepening up.

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Dropping into the nick & up onto the Tooth was a simple exercise but all of the abseil tat was buried in King’s Cave Chimney. A sling on a block at the back allowed us to pull the ropes safely though (thank goodness) and we lapped up the scenery on the descent as the clouds cleared.P1050392

 

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Mega Ice on the Ben; too good to resist. 12thFeb

14/02/15

There has been so much stonking ice in evidence on photos from Ben Nevis that I couldn’t resist a quick hit on Thursday. Icky, Lucy, Cat & I arrived late in the CIC and didn’t rise early but still had a clear Curtain to start with.

A gentle angled pitch full of footsteps and hooks gave a good warm up-P1060420

…..before the steep upper half-

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We were heading over to Italian Climb when Mega Route X came into sight just above us. Now I watched Cubby climbing this on video over 20 years ago and even bought one of (a large collection??) the red Cassin axes that he’d used on the ascent; apparently quite a lot of people have also bought the same axes with the same background tale 🙂 I digress, I knew it had been climbed a fair bit recently and it looked like it had plenty of bobbles for footholds. The team gave me the nod of approval and so off we went. IMG_1560

I’ve reverted to using wrist leashes on steep ice and loved them instantly; my arms really do appreciate not having to keep hold of the shafts at all. The ice was of stunning consistency (better than the steep part of Curtain) and the bobbles for feet allowed plenty of stability while placing screws.

Icky romped up behind and, although her arms wouldn’t quite do it, Cat has the pose of the day-

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Icky & Lucy joined me on the belay and we all admired the icicle fringes all around us. The top pitch started steeply but soon relented with a groove on the left and just one short cheeky section of snowy ice before the final steepening.

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A 50m abseil back to the ground was followed by pizza, tea & beer in the hut before the most dangerous part of the day- the drive home. Thank you Big Bad Ben for a glorious day 🙂

 

Skye Winter Festival photo update from week 1.

03/02/15

 

P1060320Bhasteir Icefalls

Weather was testing but results were great. Wee sample but too busy having fun. Follow us on the Skye Winter Festival facebook page- https://www.facebook.com/skyewinterfestival?ref=hl

 

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Lagan fun

Marsco

Marsco cloaked

MB

Michael Barnard in ation Ghrunnda

Onceicle

 

Onceicle

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Relief from the storms on Friday

Ally 1st lead

Ally’s 1st lead on Ice

bridge

bridge1Monkey business

Full body armour

Twiceicle

 

How Steep

How Steep

james Cam manJames Cam Man

james pullJames pulling the ropes after finishing Con’s Cleft

Lagan vistaCoire lagan from the Sgumain Pinnacles