Ben Nevis

Back on Ben Nevis with the first part of a Maximum Adventure Three Peaks Challenge. We set off late in the day and reached the summit just before eight pm then back at the car park just after ten o'clock. We were lucky with the weather enjoying sun, some very atmospheric cloud and a lovely sunset.

Climbmts Summer Mountain Leader Training 6th to 20th May

A week working with Stuart Johnston's Climbmts Mountain Leader Training with Erika, James, Andy and Cameron. As there was still a fair bit of snow on the higher summits, we had our expedition in the area around Farragon Hill. We stumbled across a little bothy at just at the right time for lunch on the first day and then found a pleasant spot for our campsite. Heavy rain on that evening gave way to a dry night for night navigation.



 

Ben Nevis

I was out on Ben Nevis today with Maximum Adventure's Three Peaks group in interesting conditions! Snow, rain, wind, cloud - we got it all!

Hidden Chimney

Another fun day climbing and cornice dodging with Ron and Alan.
Lots of great photos from Ron on his blog click here
.

Red Gully

Out climbing in Coire an t-Sneachda with Ron and Alan with beautiful weather and some fun climbing with exciting icy bits!
Lots of pictures on Ron's blog, click here.

Mad Hatter's Gully, Beinn Bhan

Perfect weather, a beautiful place to be and some very steep ice!

Cairngorm snowhole expedition

On Sunday I joined Ron, Mike and Vish for the last two days of the Talisman Easter course for the snowhole expedition.
We walked up along the ridge towards Ben MacDui then cut across to Garbh Uisge Beag to find a suitable place to spend the night. The entrances to thesnowholes that were there a few weeks ago had drifted over but with a bit of probing, I found three, two of which were pretty big and only needed a small amount of digging rather than the four hours that Mike and Vish were expecting.
Ron and I wandered over towards Loch Etchachan for some views. There were some massive drifts, scoured areas and some silky snow which had us wishing we had skis with us.
Over night the temperature dropped dramatically but it was warm in the snowholes. As the sun rose in the morning, the light flooded in through the entrance promising another lovely day.
On Monday morning we walked up to the summit of Ben MacDui to "bag" a peak and to enjoy the views across towards Braeriach, Angel's Peak and Cairn Toul. Then back over the plateau with a quick peek down the Goat Track which was looking very steep so we continued on around the top of the corries to descend in to the ski area from Point 1141.
More on Ron's blog here

Umbrella Falls, Liathach

Another good weather forecast so Ron and I went back to Liathach to climb Umbrella Falls. There were two teams on Poacher's Fall and one on The Salmon Leap so not a busy place.
We started up the icefall on the lower tier below the ramp that can also be used to reach the climb. It was a full 60m of steep ice with some rather strange ice shapes near the top - mini umbrellas?
The next pitch was over the snow on the ramp. It looked a short distance to the ice but must have been about 50m to a rock belay below the start of the ice. The next pitch was fun though the slabby snow on the next tier was a bit worrying as it felt like it could all just slide off and in places it had! Luckily it was quite easy to kick through to the solid neve underneath.
I found another rock belay at the bottom of the next pitch whih did as the guidebook promised as the ice was steadily getting steeper. Our next pitch was the crux and Ron found it steeper than it looked remarking at one point that he felt he was climbing vertical crud as the snow was so crunchy and slabby. Steeper still with a ramp to the right and the point where we could decide if we wanted to continue to the top or used the abalakov threads left previously and abseil down. We chose to continue and had another traversing ice pitch then a short snow and rock pitch to the snow slopes above and on to the ridge. Our descent was down Way Up!

 Looking in to Coire Dubh Mor

 Umbrella Falls

 First pitch

 Third pitch

 Fourth pitch

 Crux pitch

 Sixth pitch - icy traverse

Snow slopes to the ridge

Way down - Way Up

Poacher's Fall, Liathach

Another great day out climbing on a fantastic route!
Ron and I drove up to Liathach for the walk in to Coire Dubh Mor to climb Poacher's Fall. We followed a bit of a trail from the path in to the corrie and found a couple of other teams climbing, one on Poacher's Fall and another further left, possibly on Umbrella Falls.
To begin with, the corrie was in the mist but as the day went on, this cleared giving amazing views of the surrounding hills though the summit of Liathach seemed to remain capped with cloud all day.
The route was great from start to finish with good ice and some tricky bits especially the short icy wall near the top of the crux pitch.  The chimney pitch was narrow but again with great ice.
There were ice threads and other in-situ gear which made abseiling off straightforward and all very Alpine!
Now I'm looking forward to good weather for climbing next week after the stormy weather that is forecast for the next few days.
More from Ron here on his blog.

 great views

 Pocher's Fall and more routes to the left

 Starting up the first pitch

 Ron on the crux pitch...

 ...and on the chimney pitch

Finishing off the top bit



Smith's Gully, Creag Meagaidh

An early-ish start and a pleasant walk in to Creag Meagaidh and Ron and I were off to climb Smith's Gully, a route which had been on Ron's hit list for many years but never seemed to be in condition at the opportune times.
Firstly the route began a lot further up Raeburn's Gully than we expected but looking at the guidebook afterwards showed me that Raeburn's is actually 360m in length. Soon Ron was climbing up the first pitch which turned out to be longer than the 35m described in the guide book. The ice was good and steeper than it looked with the top section proving to be the trickiest part of the whole route! The ice was a bit thin and crusty at this point.
Above was a snow bay, a comfortable stance and a view up the next pitch. The route was considerably foreshortened and 50 metres of rope didn't seem to go very far. Our next belay was on ice screws in a narrow gully down which funnelled what felt like tonnes of spindrift but probably wasn't that much really! 
Pitch four, the crux pitch was the most fun with great climbing up the gully then some steep moves at the top but the ice was good sos it felt easier than the top of the first pitch. Long, easy snow slopes above and we were on to the plateau.

Patey's and Aladdin's Mirror Direct

Ron and I walked into Coire an t-Sneachda to see what looked fun so we climbed Patey's route on Aladdin's Buttress as it looked liked it had good ice on all the bits that needed good ice! And so it did although one of the belays was not very pleasant for a very human reason!
After abseiling down we went over to Mirror Direct which was a wee bit steep but great fun.
I would like to add more but two wee kittens keep jumping on my laptop and I am very impressed with their climbing skills!

Not Spiral Gully!

I joined Ron and Neil today for some climbing in Coire an t-Sneachda. We started up Spiral Gully then deviated up many different icy grooves to reach the plateau. Great fun climbing, good weather and smiles all round.
More on Ron's blog here.