Using the arms...

Yesterday for the first time since my operation I went CLIMBING!!! It's now 3 months on and that was the timeline given by surgeon and physio before I was allowed to put a harness on. So 12 weeks and 1 day after going under the knife I headed down to Awesome Walls in Stockport and felt VERY nervous. I started off doing a little traversing no more than 2 feet off the ground, then I tried out a few of the "warm-up" boulder problems. Although the climbing felt ok, movement is definitely restricted and anything twisty was tricky. Mostly though I just felt worried about the concept of falling off. So I strapped on a harness and climbed a few routes, up one of the slabs. I was concerned that lowering off would be painful or even uncomfortable but all seemed to be fine.

Only did 3 routes then did a load of stretching and exercises followed by 3 more routes,  one of which was a 6a slab - maybe the old magic is still there.

Hanging out watching the other boulderers was interesting, normally I don't pay that much attention but as I've been wondering about getting involved in coaching type work I took the opportunity to see if I thought I could actually help people - I think the answer is a resounding YES!!

As you might realise this is not a picture from yesterday!! Although probably have about the same level of non-tan!

De-pinking......

Now when someone buys an amazing black and white full carbon road bike - why oh why would you put pink handlebar tape, pink tyres, pink cables and a hideous pink saddle on it?????

I very recently bought a new bike on ebay, and now that I've been united with it the first job was to get rid of the pink!!! Yesterday I went and bought the bits, would you believe you can wander into a cycle shop and be told that you need to have your bum measured for a seat!! This process luckily doesn't involve a tape measure and one of the shop boys. You get sat on a special gel pack and then in tells you which size seat to buy, very nicely they don't size them as small medium and large, but pink, green or blue!! I was happily size green.

Armed with new saddle and bar tape, I handed the rest of the job over to my bike mechanic who can be seen in the pictures returning some of the original style back to the lovely little Giant. Not quite got enough cash to be replacing the tyres just now and at least they are bright pink not nasty pastel. 











You didn't think I'd publish a picture of me in lycra did you??



Immediately fixed into the turbo trainer and have had my first ride - amazing! Can't wait to get out on the roads, which as I can reach the handlebars more easily and don't have to be as bent will be sooner than it would have been on the old bike. (Sorry Cube!)

Today I touched my toes!

I realise to most that doesn't sound like any great feat of flexibility but I am feeling quite proud of myself! Those little feet have been feeling like a long way away and it's not because I have a set of long supermodel type legs (more's the pity!).
2 weeks and counting until I can put a harness on, not sure I've had a total climbing break for such a long time for, well....ever!!

Still pretty snowy here on the tops at least, street level is more akin to a skating rink than the nice crunchy snow it was last week. Managed a little shuffle about on skis last week - only on the flat so no danger of falling over, although with such lovely snow around some downhill turns were really tempting...... 

Icebreaker??

These are the conditions around New Mills, cold, snowy and snowing some more right now. These pictures are from a couple of days ago, there is now a whole load of snow and think the barges might need an ice breaker to get out!

Really beautiful though, especially as I don't have to go anywhere. Feeling a little bit jealous of all the tales of winter routes getting done, especially as some of the amazing ice routes are going to start being formed if this cold continues as it's forecast to do.

Ah well, hopefully it'll be another long cold winter and I'll get a chance at some point....

Real exercise......isn't it great???

It feel like forever since I did anything that raised my heartrate and meant that I was actually properly sweating! Today for the first time in over 2 months I got fully hot and bothered.
Yesterday my new turbo trainer arrived, so I immediately fitted it together and fixed in my bike - ahhh my bike I've missed the lovely Cube. As I'd already been for an early morning swim yesterday and done a whole load of those physio exercises and some extra pilates type things I decided that a 5 mins burn just to check it worked was enough.
But today I had a full 45 minute ride - you don't half get hot when you haven't got the breeze caused by your bike actually moving!!

Amazing!!! I think I may have been suffering from a lack of exrecise endorphins - swimming just doesn't quite cut it!

No Winter for Ruth

Most people are starting to get over excited by the thought of winter coming. Not me, despite actually enjoying last season I have a pretty good excuse this year not to be getting involved in the scottish winter season. 6 weeks ago I had surgery on my spine to try and stop it hurting which it has done for the last 2 1/2 years, all day evey day.

Fingers crossed it'll do the trick but the recovery process is not going to be super quick and carrying heavy rucksacks around the mountains is not recommended by any of the medical profession!!

First picture is straight out of hospital - and those are my pyjamas not my pants! The second is a day after the stitches and dressing came off, about 10 days after surgery.

Six weeks on it's all getting slowly,slowly, very slowly better. No longer do I get overtaken by old people and zimmer frames, I can walk at normal speed, do a little bit of swimming and can reach my knees! Shoelaces aren't great and sitting up for longer than 30minutes at a time is a no-no but according to the physio all is going very well.

I'll post some updates as the winter goes along, maybe if I'm really good I'll get to do something roadside in Wales at the end of the season if I can persuade someone to carry everything!

Farewell to winter....

And what a day to finish on! My last 3 days in Scotland were spent working for Jagged Globe. The last day was an absolute stunner so we headed up No. 4 Gully on the Ben and were lucky to have perfect visibility and gorgeous sunshine. Really nice team too.

On the whole this winter has been amazing, good weather, fab climbing and work has gone really well. Was like a going away present from Scotland to have such a lovely final day.
Disappointingly the drive home was miserable through snow, lashing rain and winds but made it eventually.
Now looking forward to a summer of some rock climbing adventures so I guess this is the end of the Winter Blog. Maybe next year there will be more???? Still got a MASSIVE tick list of routes to do.
Thanks for reading.

Polldubh Cragging

Well it looks as though winter may be over........well OK there is still loads of snow and conditions high up on the Ben are apparently pretty good, but there is sunshine and dry rock to be had so today Andy, Ian and I headed into Glen Nevis and the Polldubh crags. Above is a picture of Ian on the classic The Gutter (Diff) and below Andy trying out Jahu (E6 6a) we also all did Ressurection (VS 4c), Razor (VS 4c) and Diagonal Crack (VS 4c). Millions of stars and a very enjoyable afternoon down the glen.

Jahu E6 6a
Not too hard with a rope above your head but would be terrifying to actually lead, well solo as there isn't any gear.

Roger comes to Scotland....

As is normal Rog comes to Scotland and the weather takes a turn for the worse! After the weekend trip to Liathach I was pleased to see that the forecast for Tuesday was actually looking pretty good, just a bit of drizzle in the morning.

So we decided to head up the Ben with Andy and Ian and see what was looking good. Thankfully

the thawing over the last few days meant that the Ben track was passable so no need for the sit down start. Andy and Ian disapperared at a rate of knots with promises of kettles being put on, Rog and I took a more leisurely pace and arrived at the CIC hut to brews. The difference in conditions since my last visit was amazing the CIC cascades were looking much much thinnner and everything lower down the mountain was black. After much discussion Rog and I decided to go and do Slingsby's Chimney (II) as it would mean a relatively short walk and being able to abseil off form the top.

The photos above show me on the 1st pitch and Rog on the 2nd. Not without incident, Rog had a case of the butter-fingers and managed to drop one of my pink quickdraws and then one of my gloves that he was borrowing! The top pitch of the route was in pretty poor condition with very little snow so after setting off I found a lovely spike and decided to retreat. So we scuttled back to the hut for more tea and then headed down. Andy and Ian did Vanishing Gully (V, 5) which was apparently vanishing before their very picks!

The next day a rather exhausted Rog wasn't up with the larks so we had a gentle day and wandered into Steall Falls whcih was in a very different state to my last visit. For a start we had to use the bridge to cross the river and with temperatures of around 10 degrees none of it was frozen! The following day the forecast was miserable so we went to the wall and got pumped! Thanks for visiting Rog and hope you had at least some fun!

Not the best conditions......

Saturday dawned a bit damp and warm but as Libby had come up from Wales we had a plan to head to the North West and attempt Poacher's Fall (V, 5) on Liathach. Andy and Catrin were also in the team, so we left Lewis and headed up arriving in the car park to a light drizzle.
Walking in we went through several heavy showers interspersed with light rain - but for some reason none of us sounded the retreat and before we knew it we were all at the bottom of the route and geared up.
Andy and Catrin headed up first with Andy doing a super long first pitch. Libby headed up and did a shorter pitch which left me the second pitch and a very steep little ice fall. Luckily I hadn't set off when Andy dislodged a MASSIVE chunk from a bove which crashed down missing us as we were tucked under a handy roof. The warm wet weather meant the ice was amazing for getting brilliant placements and really easy to get screws into, not sure they were that brilliant but made us feel better!
Libby headed up the next fab ice fall, quite a long pitch with a couple of steeper sections. By the time I was seconding up Andy and Catrin were abseiling back down with less than great reviews of the next pitch. I was feeling pretty chilly and my gloves and hands, and in fact down to my elbows, were completely soaked so we decided that we could bail from where we were and promptly did!

Definitely an adventure and good climbing in a lovely place - but not exactly enjoyable for much of the time! No pictures today - way too wet to get as camera out!

No. 6 Gully - Aonach Dubh

Another day out with Catrin today and we opted for a short walk in and a Cold Climbs tick once more. We headed for No. 6 Gully hoping it would still be in condition after the warmer temperatures we've had in the last few days.
Pitch one was awesome, proper good axe placements. The second was rather wet and had some holes in it which was slightly disconcerting and meant there was no gear but was pretty easy.
Then came a very short steep section and then an easy slope up to the bottom of the crux icefall. Luckily this pitch was still quite fat if thawing, so up I scooted and managed to get a few screws and some rock gear in before topping out onto another snow slope and a split in the gully.
Catrin headed off and round to the right and out of sight. All a bit snow free but super frozen turf so we made it out the top of the route and then headed off and down into the bottom of Coire nam Beith. Probably wouldn't be wanting to do this route tomorrow so pretty happy to have snatched this one before it disappears for the winter.
The normal gorge that you walk down is COMPLETELY filled with avalanche debris snow, so no need to hop back and too across the stream at the moment just wander down nice soft snow.

We even made it down to Fort William in time for hot chocolate and cake - after which I felt a bit sick - way too much sugar!!!
Thanks Catrin for the photos.

More Cold Climbs ticks......

Back from the spring-like south Andy and I headed straight for the Big Bad Ben - my first visit this year. Unfortunately the track is competely impassable so it meant a walk from the sit-down start in the North Face carpark.

Another beautiful day and the snow conditions are perfect so Andy decided we should go and do Minus 2 Gully (V,5). It was a busy day on the Ben but we arrived at the bottom to find a team about to leave the belay at the top of the first pitch. 4 good long pictches up very cool narrow gullies with mostly very good neve. Getting a little bit used in places which did mean a bit of a footless pull on pitch one. We topped out onto North East Buttress and decided to head down (tired, cold and grumpy on my part!) so did a couple of abseils down the ridge and then followed the ramp off the back. A weary walk back to the car but a good day out.

Today I was out with Catrin and we decided to head south to Beinn an Dothaidh. Weather forecast was for more wind than of late, a whole lot of cloud and some drizzle. We bumbled up into the coire and managed to find the route we were looking for - Taxus (III). In fab condition with some good ice and some gentle snow slopes in between. We opted for the IceFall Finish (IV,4) and very glad we did too - was brilliant! Then we sauntered back down out of the cloud and into some drizzle to welcome us back to the car.

Couple of grand days out and more planned for the next few days........... watch this space!

Wales Mini-Break

Just back from a trip back to Wales. Andy was summoned to the film festival as a sponsored hero so thought I'd tag along. There was WAY too much sunshine to sit around indoors watching film so once Turner had been released from hero duties we high-tailed it with Catrin (see above) and Naomi, up to the Slate on Saturday afternoon for a couple of pitches around Never Never Land and Seamstress - Fresh Air and Seams the Same.

A gorgeous morning at Tremadog followed - not a phrase you would expect me to associate with the usually cursed place but actually enjoyed it! We did Pretzl Logic followed by Grim Wall Direct/Meshach combo and then scooted back to Llanberis for Ste McClures lecture and then jsut to be greedy we bombed up the Pass for a lap of Little Groover just near the Grochan.

Monday once again dawned fair and so we again headed for the Pass with our chauffeur - Catrin in the Yellow Peril. The Wastad was the crag of choice and a couple of esoteric gems, Trilon and Goldcrest.

Phew a whistle-stop tour! I LOVE rock-climbing! Almost seems a shame to be heading back for winter.

No Leashes, No Ropes - just Fun!

This is the next installment of adventure, bit delayed due to a big dump of snow and hence very scary snow conditions.

A tragic week in the West Highlands left us all shocked and very sad - we will miss Chris Walker as someone who always made us laugh and was a caring and loyal friend. Unbelievable that he's gone and that it happened somewhere we all would have thought the safe option for descending off Buchaille Etive Mor in the snow conditions.

Things have started to settle down a little bit after some frankly MASSIVE avalanches, check out the SAIS blogs for photos.

This week everyone and their dogs have been doing Steall Falls, I have however been working whilst the sun was shining and the sky was blue and the temperatures were chilly. Andy in the meantime had been getting strapped to some new routes in the NW Highlands, firstly with Rich Cross and then with Blair Fyffe.
Fortunately I managed to get the friday off work so that we could drive south to attend the Llanberis Mountain Film Festival (LLAMFF), which is sponsored by Mountain Equipment and so Andy had been summoned. This meant that we could get a quick lap of Steall Falls in before driving south - result!!
A route I've wanted to climb since walking into the falls the first winter I was in Scotland and realising that sometimes it freezes. Andy was suffering lethargy from new routing but agreed to come with me anyway.
We arrived by about 9:30am in a bit of drizzle to find the Falls still frozen and only one other team gearing up at the bottom. Now our cunning plan was to set off soloing and see what happenend, so with a few screws on my harness and Andy with a rope tied onto his back we set off and before I knew it we were way the hell up there and having a brilliant time. Nice ice - not at all brittle, a few holes on the right side with water running behind, very pretty. There were a couple of chunks came down but they missed us and we made it all the way to the top. One abseil and we were on a path down through the trees and skipping back out to the car to drive back to Wales. The round route trip took us just over 2 hours and I was beaming!! Check out the video clip below for some fine climbing technique!

Glencoe at it's finest......

Here are a couple of photos from the last couple of days. I've been working out on the hill for Jagged Globe, in Glencoe. Amazing weather with not a breath of wind.

The first is looking out to Loch Etive from the top of Buchaille Etive Beag and the second was taken on Stob Coire nan Lochan, beautiful surface hoar at the moment which sounds like little tinkling pieces of glass when you walk around.

Weather looks set to stay clear, cold and calm so more blue sky loveliness to come. Looking forward to my next non-work adventure - where will it be???
Oh and South Gully of the Black Wall gets into Cold Climbs too - the quest continues!

Beinn Udlaidh and Blue skies

Another perfect day in Scotland - I can't believe how amazing it has been up here this winter! Goregous sunshine but a chilly morning. Daisy was saying -10.

On Friday, Andy and I headed for Beinn Udlaidh for some continental style icefall climbing - along with the rest of the world it seems. Definitely not the place to be heading this weekend. This, of course, meant that the was no chance of getting anywhere near my target route of Quartzvein Scoop. We headed way over to the right to a route called Junior Jaunt (IV,5) which doesn't get any stars in the normal guidebook but came recommended by Dave Evans on the walk-in. Not a single other team on the route the whole time we were at the crag. The route starts out of Central Gully with a steep slab first pitch and a steeper icicle second pitch. I got pitch 1 (see below) which was about IV,4 and I actually enjoyed it too. Andy took the top pitch which was more brittle and very hollow sounding in places.

We reached the top in good time and could see lots of other teams also topping out, this meant Andy set off at about Warp 7 to get to another route before anyone else. Quarzvein still had about 3 teams on it, so we headed for South Gully of the Black Wall (IV, 4). At this point Andy took to belay bunny duty and handed over the rack of screws. Pitch 1 is a fairly mild pitch although it would have been nice to have a few wires for the bottom 20m until I got near some ice that would take a screw. But all was uneventful. The second pitch is steeper and harder and can be done in 2 ways at the moment either by nipping off to the right into a scoop and easier ground or straight up following the steeper ice. I decided that I was going to give the steeper stuff a go and with quite a lot of puffing and being rubbish at putting screws in with my left hand I made it over the ice fall and onto a snow slope. Phew! Then there was just the cornice to deal with, the last piece of gear a distant memory I was faced with the top of the cornice being at about the bottom of my ribs - hmmm! So demonstrating some great elegance I stuck one foot near my shoulder out to the side for a least a little help and then dragged myself up, with some fine quality knee action. Much to the entertainment of some other climbers who wished they'd had a camera!

We then had to scoot back to Ballachulish so I could meet my clients for the next 3 days, so thanks for the belaying Andy and for going bumbling with me!

More snowy-ness

Thought it was time for a little update, mostly not been going climbing in the last couple of weeks. After working in the Cairngorms I headed south home to New Mills, for a trip to Stepping Hill Hospital for some more back shenangains.

Back up for a weekend working at Glenmore Lodge which was frankly pretty casual, meet clients late and saunter into the corries for a while and then wander back for tea and cake.

Then hurtled back to the luxury chalet for a super speedy shower and then down to Fort William for the Jimmy Marshall night of the Film Festival. Andy and Dave Mcleod did a fab job introducing themselves and the film from the week on the Ben which was very successful. Check out the film clips on YouTube
A top evening Jimmy Marshall a great character and well impressive climber.

Then back to work this time for Jagged Globe and today we were out in Stob Coire nan Lochan, on a gorgeous day, perfect blue skies,then a big snow shower and then back to blue skies. Could cope with work if it was always like that!! Forecast is good for the rest of the week so hoping to get out climbing on Friday - watch this space!

Smith-Marshall Update

Days 1-2 - Great Chimney and Piggotts Climb now in the bag. Some film taken and good routes reported.
Well done boys.

Sunshine on the East

Just a quick one, I've been over East for the last few days. Had a couple of days working but thought I'd better go and get an idea of what was going on over that way and where the best conditions and spots would be for teaching stuff!

So I dragged Andy over there with me to get some top advice from someone who's worked over there lots and so we got to hang out together before he became a media star for a week. He's up on the Ben for the week filming the Smith-Marshall reconstruction for the Fort William Film Festival. They had a good day yesterday and it looks alright out there now so hopefully some good climbing and filming going on.

So anyway, it was a perfect day, gorgeous sunshine and visibility and good snow.

Not so the next couple of days when you could barely see 30m half the time! But I survived without getting lost or anyone putting sharp spiky things in themselves - a success!

North West Adventuring

Today was another LONG day. Infact it started yesterday. Ian and I drove north last night and slept at the carpark in his cosy van.

Which car park I hear you ask - the one for Beinn Dearg up in the North West nearly as far as Ullapool but not quite.

Up and walking by 8am we got some fabulous sunshine to walk in as you can see from the picture to the left. A fairly long walk (2 1/2 hours) but along a forestry track and a good path saw us underneath the crag and getting ready for yet another Cold Climbs tick - Emerald Gully (IV,4).

There was TONS of snow everywhere which meant that wading was the order of the day followed by lots of snow clearing. Pitch one was relatively straight-forward and took us to the crux icefall which was steep for a few moves and then the angle eased and the ice/snow got worse and you had to dig to get any decent placements, and one of my fingers is now suffering with a mighty bruise!

This is the belay below the top pitch, which is supposed to have another icefall but doesn't at the moment so some wandering around in mixed terrain is the option. This might be a pleasant alternative if there wasn't 2 feet of snow on everthing. Ian was in full clearing mode and I was submerged in powder for quite a lot of the time!

Good skills Ian!

Me at the top of the last real pitch.

We topped out and then began the journey back to the van, we had thought about following the ridge all the way but the excess of snow and lack of trail soon changed our minds and we dropped back into the glen and onto the path after a couple of kilometre. Making it back to known terrrain just in time to get out the trusty headtorches and finally after what seemed like an age back to the van, for some well earned treats that we had stashed.

Thank you Ian, for leading everything except the top out and for taking some fab pictures (all his except this last one of course!).

Ian setting out on the last pitch.

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.