[ad_1] I was back on Ben Nevis today, this time with Stephen and Jardine. Fortunately, things have cooled down quite a bit since I was last up there, on Thursday and with a fresh dusting of snow, things were looking much more wintry. The old snow, which was saturated, has firmed up well, particularly above […]
[ad_1] With a rather sustained thaw in progress, we opted for ridges to stay out of the way of falling debris. Phil and Diggy made a quick ascent of NE Buttress, which they reported to be in reasonable condition, although the 40 Ft Corner was quite bold, with a thick layer of refrozen (and slowly […]
[ad_1] Yesterday, Phil took Diggy and Devon up Tower Ridge, whilst I was on Castle Ridge with Linnea and Andrew. Castle Ridge was covered in deep snow, and the first crux groove was only a couple of metres rather than its usual eight. We descended the northern flanks of Carn Dearg, which was very easy […]
[ad_1] We're up at the CIC Hut on Ben Nevis this week, and thought we should make the most of the cooler weather, by squeezing a route in this afternoon. Phil took Devon and Diggy up the East Ridge of the Douglas Boulder, whilst I climbed Fawlty Towers with Linnea and Andrew. Fawlty Towers was […]
[ad_1] After encountering firm snow/ice on the western flanks of the north ridge of Stob Coire nan Lochan yesterday (and plenty of deep, soft snow on Raeburn’s Route), Rob and I went up to the Summit Ribs on the West Face of Aonach Mor, hoping to find things more consolidated up there. We weren’t alone, […]
[ad_1] Today, I was out with Rob and we headed to Stob Coire nan Lochan with the aim of climbing Raeburn's Route on Central Buttress. We broke trail into the corrie, which with a slight rain crust was quite hard work this morning. With the temperatures having largely been below zero above 900m recently, I […]
[ad_1] With high winds and lots of snow on the cards, Blair and I stuck with the theme of ridges and went for one that is fantastically sheltered from the strong westerly winds; The East Ridge of Beinn a'Chaorainn. It felt like a real winter wonderland as we made our approach through the forest and […]
[ad_1] I was out with Blair, who joined us on one of our winter mountaineering courses earlier this season. Blair wanted to explore the type of ground he might consider doing by himself, rather than as a pair, so we headed to the Mamores, where we initially made an ascent of Stob Ban via its […]
[ad_1] For Neil's second day, we made an early start so that he could hit the road sooner rather than later. Quite a bit of fresh snow had fallen overnight but as we set off, as expected, it was quite settled and calm. It didn't stay this way! We rattled up the first three pitches, […]
[ad_1] With plenty of overnight snow having been brought in on strong westerly winds, Neil and I made our way round to the Summit Ribs on the West Face of Aonach Mor, which as expected, was quite scoured. There, we climbed Daim Buttress, a route that gets far less attention than it deserves. We weren't […]
