January 13 Conditions

Thursday 31st January 2013

Forcan Ridge, Glen Sheil

We hoped to avoid the slow moving front that was about to engulf Lochaber today. But, we failed! We headed north to do Forcan Ridge in Glen Sheil but the front nudged further north than was expected and we had strong westerlies and snow showers.

We had the mountain to ourselves and we had an excellent time climbing up the ridge. The snow that fell was getting blown into sheltered easterly corries. We descended on the North side of the ridge and noticed windslab starting to form on the old well consolidated snow.

Wednesday 30th January 2013

Escaping the wind in the Ice Factor

Today Bruce and I headed to the Ice Factor to escape the wind and do some training. It was Bruce's first time on the artificial ice wall. We practicing placing ice screws and creating an abalakov thread as well as getting pumped swinging axes.

We then had a great wee session on the climbing wall looking at efficient climbing movement, reading routes and resting techniques.

Tuesday 29th January 2013

Dorsal Arete before the storm arrived

Bruce and I headed into Stob Coire nan Lochan in Glencoe today. We looked at the Far Eastern Buttress on the East Face of Aonach Dubh on the way up but the temperature was 5°C and it looked very soggy. We decided to continue up the mountain, and high on Dorsal Arete we found good cold conditions for climbing.

It was a really pleasant morning of climbing with no other parties on the route and no tracks from previous days. Near the top the wind picked up and the snow began to fall. Back down in the coire it was wild and the snow was turning to sleat. There were 2 other parties out on Spectre and Innuendo on Summit Buttress.

Monday 28th January 2013

North Buttress on the Buchaille

Today I was out with Bruce and we climbed North Buttress on Buchaille Etive Mor. There was lots of snow on the approach and on the route. With the high avalanche forecast I was glad we were on a buttress.

Tim and Kath were out taking advantage of our trail into the route as well. It looked like a pretty wild snow storm was kicking off on the summits so we abseiled off after the main difficulties. The first 4 or 5 pitchs of this route give excellent grade 4 climbing with the option to abseil and avoid the top of the mountain.

Sunday 27th January 2013

Snow belay workshop

Yesterday I was attending a workshop to look at the use and abuse of snow belays. This was part of our AMI AGM weekend.

Along with 6 other MIC's we headed up into Coire na Ciste in the Cairngorms to find some snow to dig into. Here we tested to destruction several different snow belays including; buried mountaineering and technical ice axes, reinforced buried axes, a bull horn configuration with 2 technical axes, a dead man and a bucket seat. Using a loadcell we recorded the forces needed. I'll include a write up on our findings in a later report.

We also looked at the forces that are created when a person is arrested from a sliding fall. There is a short video of me sliding here.

The weather was good to us with no precipitation and even some sunshine.

Friday 25th January 2013

A great week in the north west highlands

I was working in the north west for the last 5 days and we have had great weather and decent conditions. On Tuesday I went to the drytooling crag in Strathcarron with Andrew and Simon. We had a good work out and practiced some rope work like belay setups and hoisting.

On Wednesday we headed into Beinn Bhann and climbed the first pitch of March Hare Gully. It was a bit steep for Andrew so after a valient effort we changed plans and headed up on to A' Chioch ridge and climbed that to the top. It was a beautiful day and there were teams on Mad Hatter's Gully and North Gully. Silver Tear looked a bit thin.

Yesterday was the final day of the course for Simon and Andrew and we headed to the Bealach na Ba where we found some good roadside ice for coaching and then set off up Turquoise Gully. The initial pitch gave a good grade 3 pitch of ice after which the gully backed off and the guys swung leads to the top.

I was working for Martin Moran this week.

Monday 21st January 2013

Cold and windy in the north west highlands

For the last 2 days I have been working in the NW highlands. It has been cold and windy but not too much snow unlike other parts of the country. Conditions are generally good on the hill with ice lines starting to form in the continually cold temperatures.

Today I was out with Andrew and Simon and we climbed Deep North Gully on Beinn Alligin. There were a few sluffs coming down the gully so we escaped on to the buttress to the right near the top of the gully.

Yesterday wasn't so windy but was probably a bit colder. I was out with Andrew and Toby yesterday and we climbed up Forcan Ridge in Glen Sheil. They moved together on the ridge and did all the ropework themselves.

Friday 18th January 2013

Blood, Sweat and Frozen Tears

Twenty years ago Martin Moran and Andy Nisbet climbed a route on the West Buttress of Beinn Eighe's famous Triple Buttress. This grade 8 route has become a classic and the idea of climbing it has niggled away in the back of my mind for the last 10 years.

Yesterday Duncan and I headed up onto Beinn Eighe in the pre-dawn darkness with this objective in mind. The day dawned clear and calm and not too cold for standing on belays. After Tuesday's trip up the same hill we knew conditions were good.

We extended the abseil tat to avoid any stuck ropes ... we failed! Releasing the stuck rope wasted a good hour which we would certainly notice at the other end of the day.

It was Dunc's turn to lead and after a 2 hour battle up the surprisingly steep first pitch we had overcome the first 30 metres of this 100m route. It wasn't going to be short day. The second pitch involved some very delicate layback torques across a short steep slab to the relative safety of the upper ledge of the Upper Girdle. The steep roof off the ledge made me sweat but no blood or tears yet.

The final pitch is an epic 50 metres which Duncan led quietly and meticulously for an hour each side of darkness. He was rewarded with a view of the Northern Lights as I followed him back to our bags and the end of an awesome day in the north west highlands.

Tuesday 15th January 2013

A beautiful day in Torridon

Dunc and I headed to Beinn Eighe today. We had a great time on Fuselage Wall climbing Fight or Flight. It was cold (minus 4C) and clear with awesome views.

It looked like Greg Boswell and Guy Robertson were making good progress on the first winter ascent of Shooting the Breeze on the West Central Wall.

Saturday 12th January 2013

Alpha Mountaineering and Social Media

I have finally succumbed to joining the billion or so other users of social media sites and have joined Facebook and Twitter.

I hope you 'like' my Facebook page and please 'follow' me on Twitter if you find my tweets at all useful.

Friday 11th January 2013

Another good day in the Cairngorms

I was in the Cairngorms again today with James and Howard. We headed into Coire an Lochain and Howard and James swung leads on The Couloir. It was their first winter climbing lead.

There were a few other teams out mostly climbing the well frozen neve in the gullies.

It hovered between -1 and 1 degrees all day. With hardly any wind it didn't feel cold at all. There is rime starting to form on the buttresses.

Thursday 10th January 2013

A winter's day in the Northern Corries

Today I headed into Coire an T-sneachda with James. It was his first day winter climbing.

Fortunately after the big thaw it was cold today and although there aren't that many complete lines what's there was well frozen. There was a good coating of verglas on the rocks low down and rime higher up the buttresses.

We climbed Jacob's Ladder and then descended Goat Track before finally climbing Central Gully Left Hand. There was hardly any wind and we spent much of the day popping out of the top of a cloud inversion. It was a very pleasant day out.

Friday 4th January 2013

Warm but windy at Moy

Mark, Anesh and I decided to go sport climbing today. We headed to Moy where although it was 10 degrees it felt colder in the strong westerly breeze.

It had been many years since Mark had sport climbed and Anesh had never clipped bolts outside of a climbing wall.

We had a good day climbing on Raven Buttress gradually progressing from toproping to onsighting routes.

Thursday 3rd January 2013

Busy on the Nose

Today it was too warm to go winter climbing. I was out with Anesh and Mark and we opted for a classic mountain route on the west coast; Cioch Nose on Sgurr A'Chaorachain in Applecross.

This excellent Severe grade climb ascends the front of the Cioch and the continuation is a great climb/scramble over multiple tops of Sgurr A'Chaorachain.

Unusually there was another party of 3 on the same route. However, it was good to catch up with my friend Matt who I hadn't seen for a few years. What a small world it is.