Grooved Rib and into Crotched Gully

Today Sue, Carron and I went out to enjoy the good weather on Cairngorm. We walked into Coire an t-Sneachda and climbed the first pitch of Grooved Ridge then traversed across into Crotched Gully where we met up with Ron, Jason and Jude who were on the Talisman Mountaineering course. They had climbed Crotched Gully and photos from Ron here.
We found a mix of good neve in the gullies and unconsolidated snow where we traversed!
Ron sent through some more photos

Cairngorm summit and snowholes

The weather was so much better today compared to Saturday though our views over the Cairngorm Plateau were brief. Sue and I, with the Talisman Mountaineering winter skills and mountaineering course participants walked up to the back of Coire Cas then up the steep headwall where good and steady footwork was required then we continued on to the summit. The visibility deteriorated and Sue took us all down to Ciste Mhiread where we found a comfortable and clean snowhole for what was possibly our third lunch!
We dug some emergency shelters then had a look at how we could get down over some cornices using the rope and a snow bollard and then climbing down, both with a variety of fun results!

A bit of a blustery day

It was the start of the Talisman Mountaineering winter skills and winter mountaineering courses today and what a blustery one it was!
We started from the Coire na Ciste car park to get to a sheltered spot to look at all types of movement skills, using the boots, the axes and finally crampons. After some practise at self arrest with and without the axes, we dropped down to lower levels later in the afternoon to look at some navigation techniques.
The forecast looks much more promising for tomorrow!

Hell's Lum

With such a good weather forecast for today, Ron and I decided to go over to Hell's Lum to see what we could find. A few other folk were also headed in the same direction including Oli with some of his mountaineering club friends and John and Dave too.
We walked underneath the crag towards the Chancer which Ron quite fancied climbing again but there were quite a few climbers in Hell's Lum itself so rather than wait to climb it's first pitch to reach the icefall of The Chancer we took a line to the left so we could try and cut across a bit higher up. Where there was good ice, it was great but otherwise the ice was a bit thin and the cracks were mostly iced up. We did a couple of short pitches then traversed across into Hell's Lum and climbed down.
Our change of plan had us climbing up Kiwi Gully which gave some interesting and very enjoyable climbing especially the steep pitch in the middle. We had spindrift pouring down on us for the last section but no cornice to contend with!
More pictures on Ron's blog here.

Nottingham Uni MPS out on Cairngorm

Sunshine, blue skies and sundogs on Cairngorm for the Nottingham University Munro Pineapple group today. Look at the wikipedia link here for an explanation of what sundogs are. Certainly they are something that I have never seen before and thanks to Reuben for pointing them out to us.
The weather was perfect as Claire, Rosie, Ellen, Reuben, Sinead and I  walked up Coire Chais ridge and up to the summit. The emphasis was on the differences between summer and winter navigation today but with the visibility so good, a lot of imagination had to be used! We had a brief look at the snowholes in Ciste Mhiread, jumped on some snow drifts and abseiled over cornices.

As an extra note, there are quite a few decent sized snowholes in Ciste Mhiread but one or two have rather large, unpleasant amounts of yellow snow in them. Surely people can walk away from the snowhole area? Beware of where you dig.

Nottingham University MPS winter skills

I was out today with the Talisman Activities Nottingham University Munro Pineapple Society winter skills group - Ellen, Claire, Sinead, Rosie and Reuben.
We walked into Coire an t-Sneachda where we got some views into the corrie before the low cloud hid everything away. There was some good snow to use for practising step kicking and cutting before we walked over to the moraine ridge. I was surprised that there wasn't more snow but the snow that was that gave us a lot to look at and talk about with all the different layers that we could see. We found a good spot to try out the crampons then walked back to Coire Cas for some ice axe braking. The fresh snow meant it wasn't really that slippy until the folk sliding got a bit of help from Reuben as he towed them down the slope.

Back to Aviemore

A lot of snow fell overnight in La Grave so we had to dig out the car this morning before we could drive to Grenoble airport for the flight back to Edinburgh.
So back home now and looking forward to finding out what's happening here!

Les Deux Alpes

We all enjoyed a relaxing day skiing on the Vallee Blanche side of Les Deux Alpes and the weather was much better than we expected with some sun and only a light breeze.

Snow forecast for here for Friday so packing and clearing up the apartment then back home on Saturday.

Super Misere, Alpe d'Huez

Back to Alpe d'Huez  for our last climb of the trip to climb Super Misere which looked like a Scottish icy gully on Ben Nevis!
The first pitch had some steep icy bulges and the ice was rock solid as it wasn't in the sun. The second pitch looked less steep but with some thin ice in places, a couple of the ice screws actually bottomed out on the rock. It was steeper than it looked and even where it looked like the angle eased, it was still steep! Finally into the sun at the top of the second pitch with the ice becoming a bit more amenable.

Supercramp, Alpe d'Huez

Alpe d'Huez with its sunshine was just too appealing compared to the bitter cold of the La Grave valley!
This time we climbed Supercramp taking the ramp that forms the start of Supercramp direct but continuing on and across to the belay at the top of Supercramp's first pitch. The ice above was steep especially the last few metres but the sun had softened the ice making it easy to whack in the axes and the crampon points just stuck in the ice.

The water was dripping off the icicles above as I climbed the first pitch but I soon dried out in the sun on the belay. On the top pitch it was a bit wet just below the final steep section where bridging out to the left seemed the best way to get over the bulge and the icicles to bridge against were surprisingly solid. They didn't look it!

Symphone d'Automne, Alpe d'Huez

Another day at Alpe d'Huez this time to climb Symphonie d'Automne.
The ice on the first pitch was much harder and more brittle than we expected. The route gets the sun late in the day which meant that as it softens, the water runs down and fills in all the axe and crampon placements from the day before making the climbing hard work first thing in the morning.
We climbed up the first long pitch then on towards the curtain of icicles that form over the route before abseiling back down for a picnic in the sun.
There was a group of climbers on Ice Bille but other than them, we saw no others and we were surprised by how quiet the climbs were.
Ian enjoyed the skiing though some of the runs higher up were shut due to high winds at altitude.

Stalactus, Alpe d'Huez

The overnight temperature at La Grave has been around -12c and the ice is hard and brittle. The high pressure that has settled over the Alps has given milder temperatures higher up so we decided to go to Alpe d'Huez to get the benefit of this. The ice routes are accessed by a half hour walk along a pisted trail from the first level of the lift that ultimately ends up at Pic Blanc.

As it was the weekend we expected the routes to be busy however there was one large guided group on Ice Bille, some more folk on Symphonie d'Automne and Supercramp so we picked out an icy line to the right of Ice Bille, had a quick look at the guide book at the wrong description and set off thinking we were on something totally different. We were actually on Stalactus (II, 4) which had a steep ice wall for the first pitch then an icy groove with a steep bulge at the top for the second pitch. Lovely climbing!
The route came into the sun quite quickly softening the ice and making us over heat in all our warm clothes!

Le Pylone

Ron and I went to try out our new ice axes on Le Pylone and for me, to try climbing steep ice without leashes. The ice was hard and fragile in places and the axes took a bit of getting used to but with nobody above us, we could enjoy the climbing.

Le Pylone is probably the most popular route and one of the most accessible. Last Sunday we counted at least nineteen climbers at or on the route so a place best avoided at weekends.