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.