Climbed the Organ Pipe Wall & Junior's Jaunt at Beinn Udlaidh. Three superb pitches of chewy Scottish water ice 5.
The daily thaw has not yet been severe on the ice, just made it a real pleasure to climb. The snow has consolidated well with the recent freeze-thaw cycles and we descended Central Gully in good snow conditions.
more>Despite the fine weather and conditions it felt like a quiet day on the North Face of Ben Nevis....unless you wanted to do the Orion Face or Minus Gullies that is. John and I sought relative solitude on the little know Point Five Gully!
Conditions were good with a well ploughed furrow marking the way, belay ledges and cornice exit - no route finding problems on Point Five!
All t... more>
Blair Fyffe and Andy Turner took advantage of the continuing big freeze across the Scottish Highlands with a well calculated foray into the North West and onto the Achnashellach crag of Sgurr na Feartaig. Perusing the inspiring SMC Northern Highlands Guide over yet another brew in Banff Crescent, Fort William, Fyffe spotted the thin Icicle, not marked with a red line on the crag photo topo.... more>
It was a rather driech day in the West Highlands today and a fair bit drier in the Southern Highlands.
The day started, as usual, by finding Kenny's big yellow van already parked at our chosen venue, which today was the popular Beinn Udlaidh.
The recently deposited fresh snow had stuck to the Eastern side of the corrie and all teams avoided the fresh looking snow slopes and corni... more>
North East Buttress is an all time mountaineering classic and Sam, Stu and I all hugely enjoyed the fine conditions on it today. The scale, style of climbing, open vista and weather all gave the day an alpine atmosphere and we tried to respond by keeping the momentum up. It was still a 10.5 hour round trip from the North Face car park and we made a bee-line for Fort William's latest Curry Ho... more>
Another fine arctic like day with the Southern Highlands shimmering and glistening white in the weak late winter sun.
Sam, Stu and I went to Beinn an Dothaidh and had a great day climbing the icefall finish to 'Taxus' (IV,4). Five good pitches of ice climbing with a fine mountain feel as Taxus takes the obvious big line through the face. The last pitch of climbing was a little thinner... more>
Birch, Rowan, Sphagnum, powerful running water under the route; a short delightful walk in; crampons taken off at the car....Not usually the words of Scottish Winter Climbing, but today was different. The winter of 2010 is different.
A crisp dawn start ensuring we are first on the route, but only just. Even so, the soft friendly ice ensures the atmosphere is convivial not confro... more>
Sam, Stu and I enjoyed some high quality, low grade (I-III) ice climbing on the CIC hut crags on Ben Nevis today. There was a real pristine atmosphere about the mountain. Very few people, no wind and a thick carpet of brilliant white snow coating everything that wasn't exposed to the recent strong easterly winds.
Few teams ventured high up but there was a cosmopolitan effort flying the... more>
The roof of our Fort William house avalanching and a fine cornice on the garden shed were distinct clues that a prudent safe travel strategy in the mountains was required this weekend. So despite Ronan and Toby having travelled from London and Dublin for their anual winter climbing trip, we went hill walking. As the West Highland cloud base finally rose today it revealed a stunning set of wh... more>
The Birch & Rowan trees, turf and heather of the Mamores offered an interesting contrast to yesterdays pure snow and ice day high on Ben Nevis.
The wind had gathered, bringing more snow than forecast on strong Easterly winds. Significant areas of fresh, unstable windslab accumulated during the day and in many places was deposited on the existing layer of extensive surface hoar crys... more>
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