Blog Posts in Category: Winter Climbing

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…

Another good weather forecast meant we could get another day out winter climbing, however due to the avalanche risk it was necessary to chose a route carefully. We decided to head to Lurcher’s crag to climb Central Gully as it was west-south-west facing and we knew that it had been climbed recently. After my big day yesterday I was feeling very tired this morning when I woke up and wasn’t feeling too optimistic due to cloud cover and drizzle. However, as we drove over to the Caingorms it began to clear and we had a fantastic walk in with beautiful scenery. Snow conditions under foot were great due to having refrozen, however the route through the Chalamain Gap was awkward with iced up rock and lots of wind and spindrift being funnelled through the gap. The view down the Lairig Ghru as we traversed around to Lurcher’s crag was fantastic as it was lit up in the sunlight, however it was an awkward traverse with more icy rocks. We were expecting to be following others up due to the footprints in front of us but thankfully everyone else headed up. Read the full article…

With a good weather forecast and still not much in condition for climbing due to loaded slopes I decided to have a big day out mountaineering on the Ben. My plan was to head up to the CIC hut and solo Ledge Route before heading up to the summit of Ben Nevis and then descend via the classic Carn Mor Dearg Arete. It became clear on the drive over that the weather wasn’t as nice it was was forecast to be, but I was up and driving so I carried on. On the walk up through the forest it started raining fairly heavily which soon turned to snow once I exited the forest, this made the walk up to the CIC hut a fairly damp affair. I made good time and was at the CIC hut in 1hr20mins despite headwinds and snow below the hut, there were a number of other parties out heading for objectives such as waterfall gully and one party was planning on heading to the Minus Face. I was grateful of the party heading to Waterfall gully as it meant that I could use their footprints. Read the full article…

With the snowpack still not stable on north through east facing aspects and a good day of weather forecast we decided to head over to the west face of Aonach Mor to climb Golden Oldy. It became clear in the morning that it wasn’t going to be as nice a day as forecast as the wind was pretty strong at the gondola station and it was snowing. The approach to Golden Oldy was really hard work due to deep snow with a murderous crust. By using the gps and a good set of directions we managed to find the start of Golden Oldy without any difficulty where we were met by three parties behind us and it was good to get some confirmation that we were at the base of the route. I soloed the entire ridge while Richard and David moved together alpine style. The conditions on the ridge were fantastic with mostly helpful snow however the weather was awful with lots of wind, spindrift and hill fog. As we approached the snow aretes towards the top of the ridge there was no exposed rock which made protection hard. Read the full article…

After 2 days of walking into crags with winter climbing gear, just to turn back around due to a mixture of bad weather and snow it was great to get out and actually climb something. We left the car at 8 and made quick time up to the coire as we made it up in 1hr20mins. It was a very pleasant walk in with little wind, no rain and even some frozen snow on the old footprints. We cautiously made our way up to the start of Twisting Gully however we turned back just before the gully entrance due to large accumulations of windslab. We then made a new plan, as we knew Mike Pescod climbed Raeburn’s route the day before we headed over to that and were soon at the initial chimney. The first pitch was absolutely fantastic with really interesting climbing, however the climbing was fairly insecure as there was lots of useless snow and almost no gear. It certainly got the adrenalin flowing at times as most of the 6 pieces I placed on a 50m pitch were just for my head… Andrew made quick work of. Read the full article…

I have just got back from another brilliant day out winter mountaineering in Scotland. Having left Torridon on Saturday and spent the last two days sat in Kyle of Lochalsh it was great to be out again. Our target was to climb the Saddle via the Forcan ridge and then climb Sgurr na Sgine before descending via another ridge. The weather in the morning was dry and bright with the tops just below the cloud base, the walk in was a slog but was quickly over and was made better due to the fantastic views we had. Once we got to the snow line our progress slowed due to plenty of soft wet snow, however we finally arrived at the start of the ridge. As we ascended the Forcan Ridge the snow kept improving and there was some great neve at higher altitudes, the ridge was good fun however never challenging. I was surprised to find a fixed rope at the abseil half way along the ridge, I made use of this as a handline and downclimbed which was fun before Andrew abseiled down after me. Unfortunately we we were climbing. Read the full article…

We were lucky enough to get another good weather forecast so headed out for another fantastic day in the hills. Due to having an injured shoulder I abandoned my plans to climb on Beinn Eighe and decided to go mountaineering and join some of my friends on a traverse of Beinn Alligin. In the end we were three groups of four and apart from a holdup after the first horn stayed as separate groups all day. We managed to end up being the last group out which meant a lie in which was very appreciated. On the drive over I was a tad concerned that it might not clear as it was drizzling with a low cloud base, but it started to look more optimistic as we drove down the Torridon valley with moonlight reflecting off the loch. As we were ascending up to the first horn the weather kept improving and we stayed below the cloud base for most of the day. We overtook the middle group on the ascent and just after the third horn we overtook the second group as we were making pretty good time so. Read the full article…

My alarm went off again at 4:30 which was a start of another day climbing on Liathach. The walk in was significantly easier than yesterday due to the snow being frozen so we made quick time and were in the corrie in just over 2hrs. On the walk in the weather was quite nice, however it deteriorated throughout the day. Our objective for the day was George and I was climbing with some university friends, we soloed up to the new steep step which has been generated by a rockfall. It is a very short section but was pretty steep for a grade III and certainly warrants tech 4 . After this step I ran it out up to into the cave which involved lots of digging to get into, and lots of digging to get out of. Due to rope drag and being out the wind we belayed from the cave which was a tad cramped with 3 people! The move out of the cave at the start of pitch 2 was amazing, having to back out of the cave blindly feet first onto a steep section of ice.. Read the full article…