After three days not getting out due to lots of warm weather and rain I was pretty keen to get out for another day of winter climbing despite the slightly dodgy forecast. I was out with Jason from Peak Aspect today and it was great to be out with an experienced winter climber having done a lot of guiding less experienced friends over the past few weeks. The past two days of rain caused a significant thaw and it wasn’t forecast to cool down until the early hours of the morning, due to this we decided to head up high on Ben Nevis in the hope that anything that might have refrozen would be there. The day started pretty badly as it was raining when we got out of the car which meant a sweaty walk up to the CIC hut in gortex and I somehow managed to forget my camera. As we were walking in the rain eased up and the weather cleared up from the west which produced some fantastic views back down the valley and towards Ben Nevis. Ben Nevis seems to have coped fairly well with the thaw and all. Read the full article…

The traverse of An Teallach is often described as the best ridge in mainland Scotland, this description put a winter traverse of An Teallach high on my to do list. However, due to An Teallach being so far north west and wanting a good weather day for the route it had so far escaped my attention. With a ridge of high pressure across Scotland and far too much snow on Ben Nevis to go climbing we decided to head back up to the North West. As the weather was improving throughout the day we decided to have a late start and accept that we would be finishing in the dark. There was snow down to the valleys, which while is pretty isn’t always great for making quick progress. Thankfully with the good quality stalkers track we made good progress despite the snow and were soon on the mor below Sàil Laith. The conditions on the walk in were fantastic with lots of sun and blue sky and views which just kept getting better, however we were walking towards a very cloudy An Teallach with the hope that the cloud would lift as. Read the full article…

We were after a short day today due to having a big day planned tomorrow, and only having a brief weather window in the morning. Due to this we stayed in the Cairngorms and headed back up to Coire an t-Sneachda, we were aiming for Hidden Chimney as we wanted to climb a slightly easier route than yesterday to ensure that we could climb it quickly. The weather on the walk into the coire was fantastic with the sun, although the wind was bitter and for the first 20mins I was pretty cold and wishing I had an extra layer on. Thankfully we were soon in the sun, and having to work harder in the slightly soft snow and the walk in became very enjoyable and after an hour we were gearing up below the Mess of Pottage. There were a number of other teams ahead and behind us, and we were hoping that no one else was heading to Hidden Chimney as it seemed that everyone else had the same idea and had headed to the Mess of Pottage. Thankfully as we arrived at the base of the route it became. Read the full article…

After two days of ignoring the forecast to head east, we finally gave in and headed to the popular northern corries of the Cairngorms. After a late start we made good time up into Coire an t’Sneachda, we had brilliant views on the walk in and the snow conditions underfoot were fantastic, with a solid layer of neve with small amounts of wind blown snow on top. The wind picked up as we entered the coire, in fact we were both nearly blown over at one point! We geared up behind a rock and headed up the scoured approach slopes, were were glad to see that the other parties in the coire weren’t heading for the route we had in mind. There were a number of teams heading for Hidden Chimney but we had The Haston Line all to ourselves. The route is given III, 4 but at least in todays conditions it felt more line IV, 4/5. The first pitch was a long pitch up an obvious ramp, with two main sections. The first being up a small chimney and the second (crux) being up an awkward but very well. Read the full article…

After a very successful trip the week before last, I headed back up this week with a bit of a questionable weather forecast. On the first morning we woke up in Glencoe to a warm, wet and windy morning so decided against going up into the hills. After all, your willingness to suffer is always lowest on the first day! After lots of sitting in the Nevis Sport cafe and reading the weather forecasts, we decided to take a bit of a gamble and head up to the north west to have a look at Penguin Gully on Beinn Dearg. This was due to there being less snow up there, an overnight thaw before a freeze from the early hours. Overnight I kept being woken up by the rain, which seemed to be going on for much longer than it was forecast to, and hadn’t really stopped by the morning. However, after a day sitting doing nothing we weren’t going to be deterred so headed up the long walk in up to Beinn Dearg. It was pretty wet to start with which meant that it was a morning to be. Read the full article…

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…