April 07 Conditions

Sunday 29th April 2007

The sandstone crag of Ardmair was a popular place today. Pete, Murdo, Rich, Mark and myself were out enjoying the excellent Torridonian Sandstone. Ardmair gets the sun for much of the day and has a 15 minute approach from the road just 5km North of Ullapool.

We finished the day with a visit to The Scatwell River Boulder. Rich has been developing this bouldering and it's now included in the latest addition to our Downloads page. The Strathconon Bouldering topo includes Meig, Glenmarksie and Scatwell.

Saturday 28th April 2007

If you are thinking of doing some scrambling on Skye or booking an instructor to take you scrambling on some of Scotland's other fantastic ridges then here are some pictures to wet your appetite.

These photos were all taken in the last 2 days on Skye. We are still taking bookings for scrambling courses for dates in May and June. Contact us to chat about your aspirations.

Tuesday 24th April 2007

Today Ben and I went climbing on the Moray Firth coast at Logie Head. Mark, Des and Hanna were also out enjoying the mild weather. We managed to get a few routes done before the heavy afternoon showers.

Looks like a high pressure might settle over Scotland for the second half of this week giving some great scrambling and climbing weather.

Saturday 14th April 2007

Mike and I got up early to enjoy a few routes on the Yorkshire Gritstone at Crookrise. It was soon very warm and sunny.

We were soon joined by Fergus, Jack and Rob who were out enjoying a hot spring morning of climbing.

Awesome conditions this afternoon for getting married. My wife Amy and I had a fantastic time in Carleton, Yorkshire.

We were joined by loads of friends and family for certainly the best wedding I've ever been too!

Sunday 8th April 2007

Thanks to Ben and Scott for these photos from yesterday on Skye. They had a great day of scrambling on a section of the Skye ridge traverse which included Naismith's Route on The Basteir Tooth.

April, May and June can be a great time for booking a scrambling course on Skye. It looks like this high pressure dominating the weather could last into next weekend.

Saturday 7th April 2007

With rain forecast for the North West we headed east to enjoy the hot sunshine of Deeside.

The South facing crags of the Pass of Ballater offer excellent rock climbing on good granite. Many folk from Aberdeen were also out enjoying Easter Saturday on the granite crags.

Friday 6th April 2007

Rich and I have just finished putting together a topo for the Meig Crag Boulders. These boulders sit underneath the left hand side of Meig Crag in Strathconon (NH 366557), about 40 minutes west of Inverness.

A number of enjoyable problems have been cleaned and climbed and a couple of project lines remain. The boulders now give a varied and pleasant evening circuit.

You can now download a PDF version of
The Meig Crag Boulders Topo

Thursday 5th April 2007

Rich and I had a great afternoon bouldering at the Meig Crag Boulders. It was colder than yesterday but still had a spring feel. The ground is so dry at the moment and with no midges it's a fantastic time to go rock climbing.
We will soon have a topo ready for these boulders which I will put on the website and will be available in a pdf format.

Wednesday 4th April 2007

The last few days have been fantastic for climbing. Whether you're ice climbing high on the Ben, rock climbing or bouldering in the glens.

I was on Zero Gully this morning climbing into the dawn. Even before dawn there was a steady stream of water gurgling behind the ice. It looks like the forecast is for more warm weather.

Sunday 1st April 2007

I was out with Mike today looking at Winter Mountaineering for the ski mountaineer. We ascended The Couloir in Coire an Lochain looking at snow belays, ice screw placements and rock belays.

We then looked at abseiling safely using a snow bollard and how to do a crevasse rescue.