A LOOOOOONG Day!

And so it was I went to Creag Meagaidh. After an early start and a pick up at Little Chef in Spean Bridge in a PYB minibus we arrived at the car park to find at least 6 other cars there - keen and on a friday!

I was climbing with Carlo and Spike so we divvied up some kit and headed in, not a bad walk, kind of flat if long and you can see the crag from quite a way away which is encouraging I find.

We had no fixed idea of what to climb but as we neared the crag it became clear that most things would go and that the Post face wasn't looking too busy. A couple of teams heading towards Smiths and some more people up in the Inner Coire. So after a breif discussion we decided to go and give North Post (4 * V,5) a go.

Some wading up a narrow easy angled gully to start and then Spike headed out for what would have been a solo-able pitch if the snow had been better up onto a ledge and towards the start of the gully proper. Then Carlo took over and got us to the base of the steeper climbing. Then it was my turn, more not brilliant snow and ice, some rubbish gear and a few heart flutters later I found a random bit of fixed gear and a resaonable ice screw and yelled safe. Carlo is seconding up in the picture to the left.

Then came the crux pitch according to the guide
past a chockstone on a steep little ice pitch. Would have been much better had the ice been good and solid up to the steep bit and in fact above it!

This led us to the widening of the gully and Carlo took over and led up through an icy smear with yet more bad ice and then to a decision point. Which finish? We opted for the right hand in the end due to time and the poor quality of the ice which had been dinner-plating off with alarming regularity, which made the direct finish very unappealing and the normal left finish not much better with it's exposed traverse. Spike headed off and found us actually quite a pleasant pitch up to the easing of the angle.

Carlo and I then headed for the top and into a bit of a white room. Luckily there was enough visibility to head round towards Easy Gully , which we overshot and ended up heading down the rib on the right (looking down) until near the bottom of the gully we could drop into ot and head for the bags. Not a pleasant walk down - I hate that steep hard snow where slipping is a disaster and it hurts your feet!

We then realised that we were going to be late for the rendevouz time of 5-6pm so set off for the car park at a cracking pace.
Made it down in just over an hour to find that some of our bus team had gotten a lift with Tim and Dave Rudkin ( who had, had a look at Postman Pat and then retreated off a new route). But no sign of the other team who had been on Smiths Gully. 3 hours later they arrived apologetic and looking tired after a tough ascent and descent!

No need to call Mountain Rescue after all, but a rather cold and fed up wait for the 3 of us. Anyway, alls well that ends well. Thanks Carlo and Spike for having me along.

Oh and another Cold Climbs tick aswell. Shame it wasn't in great condition.

Not very exciting!

It's been a bit warm and tropical for the last couple of days, so haven't been up high doing anything exciting.

So warm that yesterday morning this was Andy hanging out on the deck of Lewis!

Bit of general milling about and a trip to the Ice Factor for a bit of plastic climbing without tools - which was quite fun.

Also I got some work - I'm not going to starve!!

Today I was going to head back to Stob Coire nan Lochan but having a sore back day and don't want to aggravate it more than I need too, so bit more chilling today maybe a bit of swimming? And finding a hacksaw so that the transformation of my ice axes can be completed - bring on leashless-ness all the time!

Scotland the beginning.....

Yesterday got us up to the migration north so now time to fill in the north of the border adventures.

We arrived up north just in time to welcome some rain and warmth - how very unhelpful. So after a couple fo days milling about and settling into the luxury of Lewis - our Lochaber Lodge, with Ian Hey and James Thacker, it was time to get involved in the walking that is scottish winter.

First days climbing was not a gentle break-in to walking with a full-on schlap up to Church Door Buttress on Bidean nam Ban in Glencoe. 2 hours of uphill later James (JTM), Toby Keep and I arrived at the bottom of the crag, for a day of excellent and highly sociable climbing. Not only were there three of us, we found Tamsin Gay and Tania Noakes there, and Owen and Rocio too.

We all climbed the 4 * classic West Chimney (V,6 - although probably easier in the conditions we found) - which was brilliant and I got the highly entertaining tunneling pitch which involved some excellent caving rather than climbing. A mixed route so more of that strange hooking and scrabbling to get on with - but I reallt enjoyed it! Thanks JTM and Toby.


Next outing was a voyage of discovery with Andy, after a tip off from some PYB'ers who'd been up that with a course earlier in the week, we headed into the Mamores and Am Bodach for some new routing on some fine little ice falls. Ticked off 3 routes and there a couple more to go at so hoping to head back there before they all fall down. Andy was the crux pitch leader and we (OK well mostly he - coz I'm not sure I really know!) reckon they went at IV, IV/V, and V. The top pitch is shared and was mine and went at a III up until the ice finished and then turned into some mountaineering which we cut a little short of going for the summit but that would be an option. Will try and make a topo once all of the lines have been done!! The photo is Andy on the left-hand of the routes going up a little pillar of ice, steeper than it looks of course but a little short to be a classic!

Right then, coming right up to date with todays outing with Andy.

A jaunt into Stob Coire nan Lochan - the first of the season and I have to say the walk-in was nothing like as bad as I remembered and way shorter than Church Door!

First route on the agenda was Scabbard Chimney (V,6) an excellent mixed climb, which had lots of helpful ice and neve. Glad I wasn't on the sharp end but seemed to go Ok. We then abseiled down the line of The Tempest (M9) as Andy was keen to see what was happening with the fixed gear from the first ascent - most of it is now in our chalet and the rest broke and wouldn't come out! Thanks to the first ascentionist who has made it rather tricky for anyone else to repeat. Not that it was going to be me!

Meanwhile on Dorsal Arete, some somewhat scary death-rope shenanagains were going on, which involved some retreating and some topping out, but luckily all survived the day!

After a frankly very efficient ascent of Scabbard Chimney - it's great having a rope gun that is so good! We thought about Twisting Gully - full of not very efficient teams - so then went for SC Gully (III) another Cold Climbs tick and a great bit of confidence for me as I led all the proper climbing and Andy topped us out. Fab route, although rather runout in several places. Liked being able to do a couple of steps of mixed type stuff alongside the more traditional ice/neve gully climbing.



Back to the bottom down Broad Gully and a scone from our rucksacks.

Catch Up

So here it is - my blog!

I know winter started a while ago and already some stuff has been going on so a quick round-up to start things off!

2009 - pre-christmas routes! Welsh winter started nice and early so quickly scuttled off to Cwm Idwal to get into the swing of things with Andy and we bumped into Dave Rudkin too who tied in for a route although he didn't have a harness.

Andy scooted up The Screen which was fun if a bit wet in the middle and then I dragged myself up The Ramp, getting a go at swinging the cheating sticks - ie Andy's Nomics - brilliant things they are too!

After christmas, Andy and I headed off for a 10 day trip to the Ecrins (where conditions were pretty poor compared to back home) with some dry-tooling (actually soaking wet tooling), some ice climbing in Freisinnieres and Ceillac and a couple of days skiing we drove back - crikey it's a long old way poor Daisy was feeling quite tired.

Oooh yes, and on Boxing Day we took the opportunity to head up and climb Kinder Downfall - although by a slightly indirect route due to wetness - very cool.

Back in the UK we had a small window to screech back over to Wales and have 3 days out in the most amazing welsh conditions. Day 1 for me was with Libby and we headed over to Cwm Silyn, unfortunately we got beaten to the bottom of our route and had quite a wait until the team ahead of us got out of the way! Anyway, Bedrock Gully it was and the old Welsh Winter Guide is USELESS and gave us some pretty duff beta which meant I ended up on some frankly quite tricky climbing on the lead but somehow despite both feet shooting off I managed to drag myself up and Libby appeared looking serene and continued on up the steep icy section and out into the finishing gully.

Day 2 and I found myself standing at the bottom of Craig y Rheader with Turner and we ended up on Central Ice Fall coz there were lots of people around and they wanted to do Cascade (Stu, Dave E, and Ailsa) what a route! Looks nothing like as steep as it is or as sustained - "pumped out of mind tiny mind" was the phrase for all pitches. Fabulous!

Day 3 and it was time for the fickle Devils Appendix - once more with Andy and again a brilliant route and easier than the day before which was a bonus!

2 Cold Climbs ticks in Wales - pretty good going for a bumbly winter climber.

Thank you Andy for dragging me up them - next time maybe I'll be going first?

Then to Scotland for the season, hopefully a very small amount of work, lots of climbing and not too much Fort William minging rain.