Mountain Diary and Conditions

Ken: After a soggy day on Ben Nevis yesterday, where we made a swift ascent of Ledge Route and pushed on to the summit, today felt much calmer and more settled. Kumar and I made an ascent of No. 2 Gully, which mush be one of the most atmospheric gullies in Scotland. It’s a deep cleft, high on the mountain, with an overhanging right wall for much of the way.

There was a decent amount of ice on the sidewalls, and very little in the way of rock protection to be had, so take a few ice screws! The snow in the gully was quite soft, but it should firm up a bit by tomorrow, as the freezing levels are due to drop in the early hours.

Some significant ice falls forming on The Cascade, the base of Comb Gully Buttress and around Tramp/Diane area and No. 3 Gully Buttress looks like it would be good sport today.

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Ken: A bit of faith was needed this morning, as driving out of Fort William and through Glen Spean, it was quite damp and the mist was lingering in the glen. As expected, by the time Nick and I reached the car park at the southwestern end of Loch Laggan, it was looking a bit more promising.

The plan was to ride in, but Nick’s bike wasn’t playing ball, so we walked in up the forestry tracks to Ardverikie Wall on Beinnin Shaus. Thankfully, it’s not a long walk! The route was almost completely dry, apart from a few patches on the 4th pitch, none of which impacted the climbing. It’s such a good route with excellent climbing from the first step, right the way to the very top. Nick soon found his rock climbing feet and climbed the route in good style.

The weather wasn’t quite as dry as expected, but the few patches of drizzle didn’t amount to much.

Dave: Another day with Stuart and the objective was a mountain day covering lots of terrain, the plan up North Buttress and down Gret Gully Buttress on Buachaille Etive Mòr.

Walking in through the mist made us wander how dry the rock would be and if we would get above the cloud. Fortunately the rock wasn’t too damp in the mist and we appeared out of the cloud below the main climbing section.

The climbing was amazing in the sun with a sea of cloud below, after some time on the summit we made a swift descent of Great Gully Buttress.

Dave: Yesterday I was out on the Dubhs Ridge with Ben and Laura. It was their first time on the Cuillin and they wanted to do the route having seen the recent Danny MacAskill film.

Being a Sunday the Ferry from Elgol was not running but through local contacts I arranged a fisherman to take us across on his way to work.

The normal start is up the grassy gully but I chose to lead the initial slab in a few pitches climbing as close to “cycle path” as possible. Higher up we went as direct as possible and traversed the left exposed edge trying to identify parts of the film.

After the amazing abseil descent from Sgurr Dubh Beag we descended Coir’ a’ Chaoruinn to the head of Loch Courisk traveling down a part of the Cuillin I have never been and don’t know anyone who has either.

Once on the Loch side we then had the long walk out to Kilmarie via the Bad Step and Camasunary.

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It’s been a busy two- and a-bit weeks on Skye but at the same time the mountains have often felt much quieter than earlier in the season. This may be because I have been continuing my theme this season of trying to get off the standard routes to tailoring the experience for the clients.

Some variations have been-

Accessing Sgurr Ghreadaidh via ramp which runs under Eag Dubh and onto the ridge of Sgurr Eadar da Choire.

Climbing the Northern 3 Munros via Sgurr a Bhasteir to Bruach na Frithe and descended from Sgurr nan Gillean via the South East Ridge.

Descended from Bannachdaich via Sgurr nan Gobhar.

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