After two rest days I was pretty keen to get out today, despite the less than ideal forecast. After yesterday’s turbo thaw it was unclear what would be left and how quickly it would refreeze with the slowly dropping freezing level, so we decided to head high. Glencoe seemed to have a lower avalanche forecast so we headed up to Stob Coire nan Lochan with the aim of climbing Twisting Gully. We left the car in the rain and proceeded to get fairly warm making the walk up fully covered in goretex, however the walk into SCNL is fairly short and we were soon at the snowline. We were just behind a guided group heading for Dorsal Arete as we arrived in the lower coire and were grateful to follow their steps up into the main coire. As we ascended we began to notice the snow refreezing and were starting to feel more optimistic as the weather seemed to clear up as we were approaching a gearing up rock. While we were getting ready there were even some views up Glencoe. The ascent up to the base of Twisting Gully. Read the full article…

Today I was out with Steve who I was introducing to winter climbing, over the past few years we have tried to climb together a few times but haven’t succeeded due to weather. After three days in a row on Ben Nevis I was after a shorter day, due to overnight snow being less in Glencoe leading to a lower avalanche forecast there seemed to be an obvious choice. This was to head to the Crowberry Basin area of Buachaille Etive Mor with an open mind, our primary objective was Crowberry Gully which was reported to be in grade III conditions, with a backup of Curved Ridge, but we were fully prepared to turn around depending on what we found when we got to the start of the routes. As the weather was getting better throughout the day we decided to have a lie in and had a leisurely start as we started walking at 9:30. We headed up on the direct approach to Crowberry Gully which takes you up a scramble and past the base of North Buttress. This was a really interesting approach due to having to scramble, which. Read the full article…

For the third morning in a row my alarm went off at a horrible hour in order to start the walk up to the Ben. The car park was very busy again, and at 5:45 we took the last proper car parking space. It was a really warm walk in until we were greeted by the wind funnelling down the valley which had a large windchill. The snowpack up to Coire na Ciste was thinner than the last few days but noticeably firmer having been through a melt freeze cycle over the past 24hrs. The conditions in the coire were surprisingly good as there were good views to the north and the cloud was high up in the coire which gave a good view of all the climbing conditions. Mega Route X is still looking fantastic, along with every other ice line on the Ben, we made good progress up to the Comb due to the well frozen snow, but it still feels like a long way up… Eventually we arrived at the base of the route and geared up, before I soloed up the first easy pitch. It was. Read the full article…

I was pretty tired last night after a long day, but not wanting to waste another good days climbing we made plans to head up the Ben again but to stay low and aim for The Curtain. It is in fantastic condition at the moment with thick ice all the way up, unfortunately due to the great conditions it has been getting lots of ascents so is entirely hooked out. There have been reports of long queues for the route over the last week, this combined with it being a weekend and there being an overnight frost made us aim for a very early start so we could be first on the route. We left the car park at 5:45 and made good time on the walk in despite the objections from my legs, it was barely light when we got to the gearing up spot but there was a lovely sunrise and inversion towards the valley. Jo headed off up the long first pitch up to the cave and found the climbing very straight forward due to following a ladder, despite this is was enjoyable climbing which could be. Read the full article…

I have plans to spend next week in Scotland with some friends from university, however with a decent forecast and fantastic conditions I was unable to resist the urge to come up a bit early and do a bit of climbing. My aim for the day was another big classic Ben Nevis route, Zero Gully, which has a reputation for being a very serious route. I was climbing with Tony who I met off UKC, it was very odd meeting my climbing partner for the day for the first time in the car park as we were sorting gear. We had a relatively leisurely start as Tony had to drive across Scotland, and I only arrived in the car park at 2am so was grateful for a bit more sleep, although four hours is not really enough… We made good time on the very warm walk in and thankfully as we gained height the temperature started to cool and by the time we arrived at the snowline we were greated with a firm snowpack, which makes a nice change compared to my last few trips. Due to our leisurely start we were expecting other people. Read the full article…