Blog Posts in Category: Locations

Western Gully – Black Ladders

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Winter Climbing Short Link

In an attempt to make the most of the brilliant conditions up in North Wales at the moment we took Friday off work and headed up for a long weekend winter climbing in North Wales. It was great to only spend 4hrs in a car and be at a winter climbing destination, rather than the normal 9 hours it takes to get to Scotland. Today we headed up into the Black Ladders to climb the classic Western Gully, a route which Nick had unfinished business with. After a reasonably leisurely start we set off just as it got light and made the seemingly never ending walk up towards the crag. Not knowing much about the conditions of the Black Ladders we were pleased when it came into view and was suitably white. Eventually we got to the base of the crag and had to make the long slog up the approach slopes, which was incredibly tedious thanks to unconsolidated snow on top of rocks. Eventually we arrived at the base of the climb and geared up. In an attempt to save some time we started by soloing the easy initial. Read the full article…

An Attempt at Ski Touring the Cairngorm 4000ers

Alastair BegleyScotland, Ski Touring Short Link

I had made plans with Nick to head up to Scotland for some climbing this weekend, however the never ending snowfall all week made that seem unlikely due to arduous and dangerous approaches to the climbs. We are both capable skiers and decided that this would be a good opportunity to learn to ski tour, especially as the forecast for Saturday spoke about Alpine conditions. Nick and I have a history of not doing things in half measures (two years ago we climbed Orion Face, Tower Ridge and Point Five in a brilliant weekend while camping at the base of the north face of Ben Nevis). This was no exception to that, as instead of doing an easy day tour to learn how to do it, we decided to do a two day tour and attempt to climb all five of the Cairngorm 4000ft peaks. After a slow drive up to Aviemore after work on Friday we hired kit early on Saturday morning and headed to cairngorm mountain where we avoided looking to stupid as we skinned up the side of the ski lifts. We were soon at the summit of. Read the full article…

Morwind – Aonach Mor

Alastair BegleyScotland, Winter Climbing Short Link

I was pretty keen to get out today after spending a blue sky day in bed yesterday due to feeling ill, however the forecast was less than promising. We decided to head up Aonach Mor due to the lift allowing us to have a lie in, surprisingly due to the wind the chair lift was running which enabled us to get very high on the mountain without doing any work. Conditions on the mountain were terrible at the start of the day, with warm air, hill fog and lots of wind. We made our way up to the summit hut and were sheltering behind the hut trying to decide if it was worth going for a climb. Eventually we decided to abseil down Easy Gully and have a look, with the idea that if the conditions were bad then we would walk around to the climbers col. As we made our way down Easy Gully we met up with another pair who were heading for White Shark, which looked like it was in pretty good condition, but I don’t know how they got on. As we got to the base. Read the full article…

Green Gully

Alastair BegleyScotland, Winter Climbing Short Link

I had a brilliant first winter climb of the season today, and what a contrast to last year as the weather and conditions were fantastic. We climbed Green Gully. and the conditions were fantastic. We had first time placements all the way up, some of the gear wasn’t brilliant due to this and the top belay above the last crux step was awful. The climbing was brilliant and the route was not banked out or stepped out at all which made the climbing much more enjoyable. The walk in was beautiful as the sky was completely clear and starlit, it was a shame that there was no moon as I have fond memories of walking into a moonlit Ben Nevis. Due to a very early start it was still very dark by the time we were at the CIC hut and started the next slog up into Coire na Ciste. During this walk we met up with an SMC member who had been staying in the CIC hut, apparently Point Five was climbed yesterday and was reported to be in good condition. The snow was not ideal for walking up, but. Read the full article…

Rébuffat Route – Aiguille Du Midi

Alastair BegleyAlpinism, France Short Link

With yet another weather window of only one day we decided to head up the Aiguille du Midi cable car and climb the classic Rébuffat Route on the south face of the Aiguille du Midi. It was very bizarre being in Chamonix in the morning and an hour later rock climbing at 3800m. The descent down the arete out of the Midi was spectacular with a massive cloud inversion, with only some of the larger peaks sticking out of the cloud, during the approach to the midi and on the descent it became clear that there had been a large amount of snow in the previous days storm, this combined with the very cold air temperatures made us wonder if the route would be climbable. As we approached the climb there were two parties in front of us, but it turned out that they were backing off due to ice. We decided that it didn’t look that bad and decided to continue and have a look for ourselves, and I am so glad we did! We decided to climb the route with our boots and crampons at the bottom, with. Read the full article…

Tour Ronde North Face

Alastair BegleyAlpinism, France Short Link

We made the decision to move back to Chamonix from Saas Fee due to a better forecast combined with there being more routes in condition that we wanted to do. The first weather window we had was meant to be an afternoon and a day before a storm came in, during this weather window we decided to head to the Tour Ronde to climb it’s classic north face. We made this decision largely due to there being a strong wind forecast, so we didn’t want to be up on any exposed ridges, and the Tour Ronde was sheltered by some of the larger mountains surrounding it. During Monday afternoon the weather did not clear as expected, which meant that we were not able to take the gondola to Italy from the Aiguille du Midi. Due to this we decided to spend the night in the Cosmiques refuge and walk across the Vallée Blanche in the morning to climb the Tour Ronde, before walking back to the Aiguille du Midi cable car station (at no point did we think about driving through the tunnel to Italy). After having to wait for. Read the full article…

Panorama – Jegihorn

Alastair BegleyRock Climbing, Switzerland Short Link

After having a rest day following our ascent of the North Ridge of the Weissmies, we decided to make the most of a single day of good weather by heading to the Jegihorn to do some multi pitch sport climbing. We climbed a route called ‘Panorama’, which was a 10 pitch f5a. After a quick walk up to the crag we were pleased to find out that no one else was aiming for our route, everyone else was either heading for the classic Alpendurst or the via ferrata. From the route we had a great view of the Weissmies, including the long north ridge, and the Lagginhorn. Multipitch sport climbing with two people is very efficient and we made great time up the route, finishing the 10 pitches in under 2.5 hours. The main delay at belays was having to get our breath back as climbing at altitude is hard work! The climbing was initially fairly easy and broken with lots of easier ground, but the climbing just improved with height as the rock got steeper. There were some surprisingly tricky moves at points, which were made all the more exciting by. Read the full article…

North Ridge of the Weissmies

Alastair BegleyAlpinism, Switzerland Short Link

After an aborted attempt at the Rimpfischhorn due to conditions which were more similar to Scottish winter due to hill fog, a freezing wind and plenty of fresh snow with some dangerous windslab. We arrived back in the valley too late to start a long walk in to a hut which left our options fairly limited. In order to make the most of a brilliant weather window we decided to head up to the Hohsaas hut with the intention of having a look at the North Ridge of the Weissmies, although this was potentially a bit more optimistic due to the amount of snow around and not having any condition reports from the ridge. We woke up to a fantastic morning with cold air and a clear sky, this enabled us to make very quick progress up to the Lagginjoch. After the approaches to the Rimpfischhorn and the Aiguille d’Argentière it was great to have a short approach to a route, rather than a long slog. The sunrise over Italy was fantastic and provided some great light over the Saas mountains. It was a freezing morning and we initially started climbing. Read the full article…