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.