Winter – Page 41 – West Coast Mountain Guides

More chimney action: The Guardian, Aonach Mor

February 12, 2017/0 Comments/in News, Scotland, Winter

Nick wanted a slightly shorter day than yesterday, as had to get down to Glasgow this afternoon in order to catch an evening flight, so we settled for climbing on the East Face of Aonach Mor.

Another glorious day

Surprisingly, it was very quiet as we geared up on the summit plateau of Aonach Mor, with just Mark with two friends who went on to climb Grooved Arete. From the bottom of Easy Gully, we went the other direction, to The Prow area, where we climbed The Guardian. The route, whilst fairly short, packs a lot of high quality climbing into it’s two steep, contrasting pitches. The first follows a corner groove steeply, before a series of turfy ledges out right lead up to a steep step to gain a rocky slab, which has just enough turf dotted here and there to allow secure progress. From here, the route enters the main event, a wide and steep off-width chimney, which is surprisingly accommodating with plenty of good hooks and ledges for feet. It’s also very well protected. On exiting the chimney, easy snow slopes and a final steepening leads to the exit slopes. Today, a few moves to the right avoided the small cornice that’s present at the moment. The turf is well frozen (which it needs to be) but there is some cruddy ice low down. Overall, the climb is excellent, and quite reminiscent of Deep Cut Chimney on Hell’s Lum.

Top of pitch 1

Looking up at the chimney

Looking down the chimney

Nick found the climbing challenging, but enjoyed it throughout. We did contemplate a second route, but thought we should quit whilst we were ahead, so that he wouldn’t have to rush for his flight. Thanks to Nick for a great couple of days. Unfortunately, it looks like he’s taking this cold, clear weather away with him.

Topping out

Meanwhile, Lou and Steve were also enjoying the good weather, whilst climbing Curved Ridge to the summit of Buachaille Etive Mor. It seemed that it was windier in Glencoe than in and around Ben Nevis today, but they were on their way down before the winds really picked up. Tom was out again with Jan and Ariana. They too were in Glencoe, and had a productive and enjoyable day on Meall a’Bhuiridh. Lastly, Hannah was out with Chris and Andy on the Ballachulish Horseshoe.

3* Climbing to Ourselves: Shelf Route

February 11, 2017/0 Comments/in News, Scotland, Winter

It’s been another stunning winters day in the Scottish Highlands, with clear skies and cold temperatures. When it’s like this, there’s no where else I would rather be. I was out with one of my favourite regulars, Nick. Favourite because he has always brought with him good weather and great climbing conditions, and today was no different.

Nick doesn’t mind a bit of adventure and so with the forecast looking great and with it being the start of half-term week, we decided to pick a route that was hopefully going to be away from the crowds, and Shelf Route on Buachaille Etive Mor seemed like it might fit the bill. As we drove through Glencoe this morning, most of the car parks were filling up fast, and the one for the Buachaille was no different, but despite this, we saw very few folk on the approach. By the time we reached the foot of Crowberry Gully, it was clear that we were at least the first team to head for Shelf Route. Perfect.

Looking up the first chimney of Shelf Route

The route ahead

Looking back down

The route is quite long, and largely consists of short, steep chimneys interspersed with easier sections. There’s fun to be had on every pitch, particularly the final crux, which is a bit more sustained than the chimneys before it. We were largely sheltered from the wind, but Nick didn’t appreciate the spindrift picking up just as he was ‘in the zone’ on the final pitch. The route thoroughly deserves three stars, it’s an excellent route and very atmospheric.

Crowberry Tower

Plenty of teams on Curved Ridge and we could see a steady stream of folk heading up to North Buttress.

Views from the summit

Hannah and Lucy were out with a returning group from Essex, who are on their second attempt at summiting the three national peaks (Ben Nevis, Scafell and Snowdown) in one weekend, in winter. They will be heading south now, starting the night shift. All the best to them.

Lou was out with Steven, who is keen to reach the summit of the local Munros via mountaineering routes. Today, they tackled Ledge Route to get to the summit of Ben Nevis.

Finally, Tom was out with Jan and Ariana, on the first of their two day winter skills course. They had a look at core winter skills on Aonach Mor.

It’s great to see so many folk making the most of the great wintry conditions we have right now. Long may it last!

Another fine day: Morwind, Aonach Mor

February 10, 2017/0 Comments/in News, Scotland, Winter

For Jess and Rich’s final day, they wanted to climb something challenging, and with the need to get away fairly swiftly for their drive back to Yorkshire, we made use of the gondola at Nevis Range, and made our way up to the East Face of Aonach Mor. It was completely still on the summit plateau, which boded well for the day ahead. Abseiling into the East Face, via the line of Morwind, gave us the opportunity to have a look at abseiling off a snow bollard and setting our personal multi-pitch abseils up with a cow’s tail and a means of back-up.

The initial chimney of Morwind, may well be graded for a greater accumulation of snow. Currently it’s quite a long and tricky step, and got both Jess and Rich thinking and having to work quite hard to unlock the sequence of moves required to escape it. Both managed to find ways to rest whilst in the chimney, and managed to use traditional back-and-foot techniques to thrutch their way up. Jess and Rich enjoyed the remainder of the route, which doesn’t ease up until the upper snow slopes.

South of Easy Gully today

Jess clearly enjoying herself

Conditions on the route were pretty good, with the turf well frozen and some useful ice. Again, a bit of consolidation would help the snow to no end, but all things considered, we can’t grumble at the prolonged dry and cold spell we’re currently enjoying.

Henry, Alun and Clive climbed Left Twin and reported it to be thin (particularly on the first pitch) but climbable. Another team were slowly making progress up Tinsel Town.

Clear views to Ben Nevis

Great day on Curved Ridge, Glencoe

February 9, 2017/0 Comments/in News, Scotland, Winter

Plan A for today had been Tower Ridge on Ben Nevis, but on seeing the avalanche forecast, which indicated that there would be a high avalanche hazard on NW-NE slopes above 900m, we decided to change plan, and headed to Glencoe instead, where we climbed the classic Curved Ridge on Buachaille Etive Mor.

On the walk-in, we spent some time talking about heuristic traps, which seems wholly appropriate. If you haven’t heard of heuristic traps when it comes to avalanches, it’s well worth reading the following articles:
http://www.northernmountainsport.co.uk/index.php?/eng/content/download/1533/7517/file/Avalanche%20article.pdf
https://www.glenmorelodge.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Avoid-Being-Avalanched-AH-TGO-Nov-2013.pdf
https://www.glenmorelodge.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Talking-Yourself-Out-of-Avalanche-Trouble-AH-TGO-Dec-2013.pdf

The snow on Curved Ridge is starting to consolidate and good in places, but still quite loose in others, which enabled Jess and Rich to get stuck into a variety of mixed climbing techniques. Above the crux, they took turns on the sharp end before we reached the summit of Stob Dearg, amazingly with not a breath of wind. It has been another great day with the pair from Yorkshire.

Quite a few teams on North Buttress, as well as a couple of teams on Shelf Route. One team did attempt the NE Zig Zags, but retreated after the third pitch, reporting poor conditions.

Day of leading: Dorsal Arete, Glencoe

February 8, 2017/0 Comments/in News, Scotland, Winter

Jess and Rich are both great students to be out with. They are super enthusiastic, keen to learn and realise that the best way to develop is to step out of their comfort zone and to rise up to new challenges, which is what this week has been about so far. We continued that theme today, by heading up to Stob Coire nan Lochan in Glencoe to climb Dorsal Arete, with them taking turns on the sharp end.

Stob Coire nan Lochan this morning.

Dorsal Arete lends itself well to this, as it has ample gear placements and very convenient belays throughout. The exact line on this route can be varied depending on conditions and desired level of challenge, but I always think it’s a shame to miss out the pièce de résistance, the narrow fin of rock high up, that gives the route its name. As Jess had to sit out yesterday, Rich, being the gentleman that he is, offered up the crux pitch to Jess. Fortunately, Jess was up for the challenge, so with plenty of gear placed ahead for her to clip into, she made short work of the couple of steep moves required to gain the crest of the fin. Nice work and great leading from both of them!

Rich belaying on Dorsal Arete

Jess on the crux fin of Dorsal Arete

Conditions were not too dissimilar to yesterday, with again, less consolidation from the corrie floor upwards than lower down. The final gully of Dorsal Arete, which had been scoured, was slighty lean, but what snow was there was in surprisingly good condition compared to lower down. It was very quiet up there today, with one team ahead of us, and one team who started up Raeburn’s (Ordinary) Route on Central Buttress, before binning it. I’d imagine that the turf on the first pitch is still unfrozen.

Sticking to the ridges

February 7, 2017/0 Comments/in News, Scotland, Winter

With all the fresh snow that has recently fallen and blown about, Jess, Rich and I decided to make life easier for ourselves and stick to climbing ridges over the past two days.

Yesterday, with a deterioration in the weather due for early afternoon, we opted for an early start and climbed the East Ridge of the North Top of Stob Ban. Even with an early start, the winds were still quite bracing, but manageable. It wasn’t a day for hanging about, so we made a fairly swift ascent, before we made a sharp right turn at the top and descended the north ridge. Steve was out shadowing us, as he had not been along the ridge before. Thanks to him for the photos.

Today, Jess wasn’t feeling great, so decided to give today a miss. That left Rich and I breaking trail to Castle Ridge. As the freezing levels had risen but not quite to the summits last night, before dropping back down again, we found the lower two thirds of the ridge to be in much better conditions, with frozen turf and consolidating snow, than the top third which where the rocks weren’t well bonded together and the snowy very dry and powdery. That all said, Rich enjoyed every minute of the route, and found the crux, which is quite a bit harder than anything else on the route, quite challenging. I hope that he didn’t come to Scotland expecting an easy ride!

We’ve got a mass of cold polar air moving over the UK as of this evening, so it’s going to be a cold, but fairly settled period ahead, which is great news.

Eagle soaring over Stob Ban

February 5, 2017/0 Comments/in News, Scotland, Winter

For Nick and Allan’s final day, we decided to play it safe after the rapid build up of fresh wind-blown snow over the past 24 hours, and headed to Stob Ban to climb the brilliant East Ridge of the North Buttress. I was hoping to follow a trail through the snow this morning, but no such luck, but we did spot what I thought a juvenile Golden Eagle soaring above the East Ridge, which was quite a majestic sight.

After a fair bit of wading, we reached the foot of the East Ridge, and made our way up the numerous tricky steps and sections of exposed ridge, all of which were covered in deep snow. The climbing is never particularly difficult, although some variation is possible on a number of the steeper rocky steps, however, the route flows nicely, is great fun and tops out on the north top of Stob Ban, a short distance from the main summit. With Nick and Allan making the drive back down south this evening, we made a sharp right turn at the top, and made our way down the north ridge.

Great conditions

On the crux corner

Finally, snow! Castle Ridge, Ben Nevis

February 4, 2017/0 Comments/in News, Scotland, Winter

Firstly, it has been snowing fairly constantly last night and through much of today, turning the hills white above 400m. It’s the dump of snow that we’ve definitely been missing recently.

Ben Nevis looking a bit more how it should

Allan decided to have a day off, so it was just Nick and myself. As Nick hadn’t climbed Castle Ridge before, we decided that it would make for a good day. The ridge was completely devoid of snow yesterday, but overnight, had turned into a brilliant winter mountaineering route, which Nick enjoyed. The two main cruxes on Castle Ridge are as tricky as anything on Tower Ridge, but the ground in-between is generally a little less sustained. That said, there are plenty of tricky little steps throughout the ridge, and it maintains interest throughout. Steve was behind us for most of the day with his client. Other than that, we didn’t see anybody on the mountain all day, although I think that a number of teams went into Coire na Ciste.

Nick above the first tricky step on Castle Ridge

Nick on the crux of Castle Ridge

We chose not to hang around at the top, and made a fairly direct descent down the NW flanks of Carn Dearg. This is a quick, if a little awkward, route down, and certainly a bit easier with a bit of snow cover, as it had today.

Meanwhile, just around the corner, Max was also out for us today. He was out on Ledge Route with Stephen and Jardine. They are looking to build up their winter climbing experience with the aim of climbing Tower Ridge in the future.

Nice day on No. Three Gully Buttress, Ben Nevis

February 3, 2017/0 Comments/in News, Scotland, Winter

An intentionally relaxed start for Nick, Allan and myself meant missing the early rain and strongest winds of the day, and also gave the crags a chance to re-whiten as fresh snow fell first thing this morning. Nick and Allan were up last year and we had three stunning days out, so I was a little worried that today wasn’t going to be quite on par, however, it evolved into a pleasant, dry and cold day.

It was quite busy in Coire na Ciste by the time we arrived, with many skills and mountaineering teams making use of No. 4 Gully and it’s adjacent ‘Descent Variation’ as listed in Godefroy Perroux’s guidebook. Fortunately, with clear views to the summit plateau, we could clearly see a steady streak of ice at the base of No. Three Gully Buttress, which we made a beeline for. The ice isn’t fat, but is very climbable, with options to either step onto mixed ground to the right or to stick to the steeper ice on the left.

Alan on pitch 2

Nick just after the tricky step on the third pitch

We took the direct variation at the top, which gives some interesting mixed climbing up to the plateau. The rocks were much more bonded together by ice today, which was reassuring. Cooler tomorrow, and we’re due some much needed snow, looks like a promising weekend ahead.

Nice afternoon light over Loch Linnhe and Loch Eil

Blustery Day: South Gully, Ben Nevis

January 30, 2017/0 Comments/in News, Scotland, Winter

Steve and I headed out early this morning up to Ben Nevis for a day of personal climbing. The mountain was looking brilliant this morning, with clear views to the summit, so we headed up high to have a go at a mixed route that both of us have had on our radars for some time now.

Unfortunately, despite the crags looking white, it was clear from the first few moves that the rocks weren’t bonded well due to the lack of ice holding it all together, so rather than force our way up on wobbly hooks and blocks, we decided to change tact. Having heard that both Central Gullies had been climbed quite a bit recently, we thought that South Gully, a route that neither of us had done, might be worth investigating. However, on starting up the second pitch, which is quite tricky to see into from below, we found it to be rather lean, and required a bit more mixed climbing than snow/ice climbing as we had expected. Good to climb it, but I wouldn’t rush up there if I were you.

Clear on Ben Nevis this morning

Quite quiet on the mountain today, with only a few teams out, climbing Ledge Route, No. 3&4 Gullies, North Gully and Central Gully R/H. The winds picked up quite a bit as the morning progressed, forming noticeable wind slab in a number of sheltered areas. Temperatures are slowly rising this evening, which will help consolidate the snow and start binding the rock together when it cools back down.

The lean second pitch of South Gully

Me setting off on the final pitch of South Gully

Steve on the final slopes of South Gully

Meanwhile over on the East Face of Aonach Mor, it seems that with the face catching a bit more morning sunshine, the ice up there has formed much better in places than on Ben Nevis. Hannah, Lena and Dave enjoyed a couple of unnamed ice routes at about grade III/IV, and reported good ice. Looks like we should have gone there instead!

Dave enjoying good ice on Aonach Mor

Lena getting stuck into great ice on Aonach Mor