Minus Three Gully

Alastair BegleyScotland, Winter Climbing Short Link

Another early start this morning to head back to Ben Nevis in order to make the most of the brilliant ice conditions. I was pretty unhappy this morning with yet another early start, and when it was raining as we were in the car park my psyche levels were pretty low. By the time we were at the hut the weather had cleared but it was very cold in the wind. We headed up into Observatory Gully with an open mind, but having seen the minus gullies looking great we decided to go and have a look at Minus One Gully. I lead up the first pitch which was straightforward to start with, but I was soon stopped by vertical snow below the first belay which meant that I couldn’t get to the belay. The crux pitch looked thin but maybe climbable, but with only a rusty peg 10m below me I wasn’t willing to try and swim up vertical snow (never seen anything like it, in the photo look at the icicles hanging down for reference of angle). After a quick abseil back down the gully we came up with. Read the full article…

Fingers Ridge, Coire an t-Sneachda

Alastair BegleyScotland, Winter Climbing Short Link

After a few days of bad weather we set off into Coire an t-Sneachda with an open mind, but really aiming to climb fingers ridge. As we approached the coire there was hill fog shrouding the crags, but the  walk in was pretty quick and easy due to there being a small layer of soft snow on top of good neve. As we approached the crag the hill fog started to lift and soon we had good visibility of the entire crag. An hour later all that was left above us was blue sky and sun shining down into the coire which was fantastic. There was another team of three ahead of us on the route, which was a trainee guide on his assessment. Due to this we made the assumption that the team would be quick up the route so decided to follow them up. Unfortunately it turned out that they were not quick and took a very long time on the first pitch, but by this time we felt like we had committed to the route as we had been waiting for a while, and my psyche had. Read the full article…

Mullach Clach a’Bhlair & Sgor Gaoith

Alastair BegleyMountaineering, Scotland, Walking Short Link

Having had an excellent day on Sunday traversing Liathach in unusually nice Scottish weather, today we were treated with a more usual day out. We spent the day munroe bagging above Glen Feshie where we completed a 25km loop which included Mullach Clach a’ Bhlair & Sgor Gaoith. We set off from the car hoping that we would be able to cross all of the rivers which on the east bank of Glen Feshie, thankfully we were just about able to with some fairly committing jumps over the first river we came to. The ascent up Mullach Clach a’ Bhlair was very painless after the long walk down the valley due to the estate track which runs all the way up to the plateau, as we joined the plateau we ascended into the white room. Unfortunately the rest of the day was spent in the white room staring at a compass. Having read stories online of people not being able to find the summit of Mullach Clach a’ Bhlair in the summer even with the help of GPS due to the summit being very indistinct and having a tiny cairn. Due to this. Read the full article…

An Alpine Traverse of Liathach

Alastair BegleyScotland, Winter Climbing Short Link

Over the past few years I have completed three (An Teallach, Aonach Eagach and the Cuillin Ridge) out of the four classic mountaineering ridges in Scotland in winter. This just left Liathach left to complete, unfortunately for the past two years the weather and conditions didn’t align while I was in the area. Thankfully this year it was very different as we were blessed with a stunning weather forecast during the time we had planned on being in Torridon. Our walk up from the Beinn Eighe carpark was wonderful as the sun was rising which was plastering the mountains in a wonderful orange glow, as we ascended the mountain we started to see some of the wonderful scenary which Torridon has to offer. The ascent up to the start of the ridge was pretty hard work and we took a very long time to get up to the ridge, thankfully yesterday someone else had broken trail which made the approach somewhat easier. When we got up to to the first top we were greeted by a spectacular panorama of the Torridon hills which instantly made all of the hard work. Read the full article…

Sunny Schiehallion

Alastair BegleyScotland, Walking Short Link

Today was the start of this years Scotland trip, last year we were constantly battling with frankly terrible weather. The start of this year’s trip could not have been more different as we were greeted with wall-to-wall sunshine, I even got sunburnt! We have plans in Torridon tomorrow so had a short day en-route today. We climbed Schiehallion, which is a Munroe which Becky had been saving for a perfect winter day, and it certainly could not have been much more perfect than today. On the ascent we were too hot in our baselayers as there was no wind, although we did get a sharp reminder of how cold it was in the slight breeze on the summit. The conditions underfoot were relatively easy going on the well trodden path which enabled us to make a quick ascent in under 2 hours. The views from the top were absolutely fantastic due to the cold crystal clear air which meant that we could see over to Rannoch Mor and Ben Nevis to the west, Ben Lawers to the south and the Cairngorms to the North East. The snow was softening slightly. Read the full article…

Rjukan Day 6: Nedre Svingfoss

Alastair BegleyWinter Climbing Short Link

Having had a long day out on Trappfoss yesterday we both felt a bit achy this morning when we woke up so we decided to have a shorter day out in the upper gorge so that Becky could do some more leading. We had a sociable walk down to the climb as there were numerous teams from our club heading down into the upper gorge. The walk in was as atmospheric as ever, and it was great to walk in with the great view of Trappfoss having climbed it yesterday. Our plans were to head to the single pitch WI3 of Nedre Svingfoss so that Becky could get some more experience on lead. Becky did a good job leading the route which was a bit steeper than it looked from the ground, which probably made it about WI3. Lucy ventured further up upper gorge with James and David who were setting off up Juvsøyla and after they had set off from the first belay came back and joined us for the climb. As the temperature was only just below freezing the ice remains a mix of decent ice and useless rotten ice,. Read the full article…

Rjukan Day 5: Trappfoss

Alastair BegleyWinter Climbing Short Link

With another good forecast Becky and I  climbed the classic WI4 of Trappfoss, partly because it is visible from our accommodation and looked brilliant from a distance. It was pretty windy this morning as we left the house, but we soon descended down into the bottom of upper gorge and out of the worst of the wind. The going underfoot was easy until we got past Sabotørfossen, when the good track vanished and left us trail braking in up to thigh deep powder which was hard work. As we got further up the gorge the wind started to pick up again and we soon had to start making our way up a steep snow slope to the start of Trappfoss. There was a fantastic ice formation which we had to climb past; I have no idea how it formed as it seemed to be a frozen waterfall with a horizontal roof sticking out from it before it had started to form another vertical ice fall. While we were gearing up to climb the edge of this feature another team turned up who were heading for the classic ice pillar of Juvsøyla. We. Read the full article…

Rjukan Day 4: Upper Gorge & Vemork Bridge

Alastair BegleyWinter Climbing Short Link

With a great weather forecast combined with cold air temperatures David and I planned a big day out in Rjukan’s Upper Gorge today. Initially we had planned to do Sabotørfossen and then Nye Vemorkfoss which are both multi pitch WI5s. On the walk in it became clear that it wasn’t as cold as it was forecast to be, but that didn’t seem to be too much of a problem as nothing seemed to be dripping too much. The walk up through the upper gorge was fantastic as it is such an atmospheric place with the steep sided walls, covering of snow and steep lines of ice towering out of the gorge. We headed to Sabotørfossen first as it was the classic and looked like a stunning route, I elected to take the middle pitch which left David with the easy first pitch and crux final pitch. The first pitch is an easy angled slab up the start of a hidden chimney with a number of steep icy steps, which leads up to the final crux headwall. David had to clear a lot of snow off the first pitch as it was. Read the full article…