Scottish Winter 2007/08 Climbing and Mountaineering Reports
20/3/08 Alpward Bound.....
I'm off to Chamonix for a week or so tomorrow, where it's almost as snowy as here in the West Highlands, but not quite! With cold conditions forecast right through the Easter weekend it's looking very promising for a late season ice bonanza on The Ben....
Look out for an alpine ski touring report early April and in the meantime stay in touch with current conditions here in the West Highlands by checking the following blogs:
Well done to Dave Macleod for establishing the all free version of 'Don't Die of Ignorance" XI,11 on Ben Nevis recently (Photos and more details below). This takes over from 'The Secret' climbed by Andy Turner in December last year as the hardest winter route on the Ben and now rivals Dave's other route in the Cairngorms, The Hurting, as the hardest winter trad route in the UK. A great achievement and you can check out Dave's epic first ascent descritption on his blog.
19/3/08 Textual Beta from Nevis ABC (CIC)
Thanks to Rob Smith for this text hot off the press from the Nevis crucible of the CIC HUT.... "0.5 V good, Smith's bomber, 0 bit cruddy. Orion in but no pro, Comb top snowy, green fine." So there you go - plenty of classics to go at on the Ben, Vanishing Gully getting done too, and with tonights thaw and tomorrows re-freeze things should be getting even better. |
18/3/08 A Pot of Gold at the end of a Hidden Chimney....
But no fairytales in the Northern Cairngorms today!
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It was a considerably more unpleasant day, weather wise, than forecast in the Northern Corries today. Whilst Strathspey basked in relative calm the Mess of Pottage in Coire an-t-Sneachda seemed to be catching the worst of the strong and snow bearing North Westerlies.....and my Pataguchi pants split right down the leg halfway up Pot of Gold, which didn't help! Jonathon, Steven and I pretty much enjoyed the graft required in clearing a very snowy route and when the cloud finally lifted for the walk out - a black 'snails track' was quite evident picking out the line nicely. We also climbed the really excellent direct start to Hidden Chimney. This is a well protected long single pitch offering some great hooks and gear but not always the footholds to match. Technical climbing offering a fine introduction to Cairngorm mixed grade 5. |
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17/3/08 The Magical 3rd week of March casts it's winter spell on The Highlands, Again... It was this time last year the blogs of Lochaber were bristling with references to the Alpine conditions on offer here in the UK outdoor sports capital. Well you could practically taste the gluwein and soak up the glowing apres hill atmosphere on the bustling Fort William high street ce soir.
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Skiing steep gullies, ski touring, velvet pistes, snow clad peaks with fantastic views, rime and ice plastered crags - pick your winter sport because they are all great just now. Gaz and the Fairy Wyffe (Blair) climbed Hadrian's Wall Direct on Ben Nevis today and reported great mountain conditions but slightly cruddy ice, hard to protect. There were lots of teams enjoying a 'grand day out' on The Orion Face and with another big frost on the way things are only getting better.... |
16/3/08 Comb Gully Buttress and New Macleod Super Route on Ben Nevis??
Fiona and I thought Thompson's Route would be a good choice on the North Face of Ben Nevis today - but so did about 14 other parties and they'd got out of bed earlier than us so we went elsewhere, fair enough. One enterprising team were climbing a decent single pitch of ice at the very base of The Comb - just about the right height on the mountain at the moment to be icy but not buried. Another enterprising team were a little higher on The Comb tackling some wild new ground. Presumably it was Dave Macleod and partner, Joe French, trying Dave's Nevis winter 'project' well documented recently on his blog. Success seemed to have come - 6th time lucky to Macleod as there was a climber belaying in the deep groove above the wild traverse pitch which had caused all the previous excitement. (The traverse aided by Andy Cave and Simon Yates in 1987 to produce 'Don't Die of Ignorance' VI,6 & A2).
Macleod's partner must have found the climbing fairly tricky too as was well seen by all in Coire na Ciste hanging freely in space taking in the Nevis Nordwand atmosphere. In a sequence reminiscent of Toni Kurz in the 'The White Spider' the seconds prussiking seemed to rather run out of steam and he seemed to have slumped, sack of potatoes style onto the rope - the immortal words of Kurz sprang to mind "I'm finished!" Fortunately though this story should have a happier ending - check Dave Macleod's blog for the full report as this is all just speculation! |
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The mountain generally is superbly wintery right now with huge amounts of snow and a real winter wonderland feel in the Ciste today. The exposed ice on Comb Gully Buttress was in good shape and many of the gully lines looked heavily banked out - great steep skiing conditions and even I would not have thought twice about skiing No. 4 Gully today. Brian and Heike climbed NE Buttress in good shape and many teams climbed Tower Ridge, Orion Face, Glovers Chimney and various other things up Observatory Gully. So, the winter of 2008 is really just kicking off - whilst many of the larger institutions and providers of instruction and guiding have headed South at the 'end of the season' there are plenty of local providers around still to run courses. Highland Guides, Abacus Mountaineering, Mountain Motion, Mountain Plan and West Coast Mountain Guides. Get in touch, get up there and you may just get that dream Nevis route in the bag.... |
15/3/08 Dry, mild, snowy and sociable in The Northern Cairngorms
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Fiona and I just about had time to nip up a couple of routes in the Northern Corries between constant bouts of conversation with a seemingly endless stream of smiling faces. At last, it was calm, clear and highly pleasant hill conditions with lots of snow and lots of teams doing routes. We climbed Ewen Buttress (shared with Andy Nisbet and client) in Coire an Lochain and Hidden Chimney in Sneachda. Andy and Kirk climbed Ewen Buttress direct, Andy and Andy climbed Fallout Corner and John and Jonathon made the first ascent of a direct start to 'Ventilator'. Hannah and Des made good use of the masses of soft snow and skied The Couloir in Coire an Lochain, a steep run! Numerous routes in the No.3 and 4 Buttress area had rather large soft cornices overhanging them but these, along with the snow pack in general should continue to stabilise and get stiffer with more overnight freezes and cooler day temperatures. Many thanks to Cristel for this photo of Fiona and I descending the Goat Track. |
Teams up on the Ben today reported generally cruddy ice but ascents of many of the classics ridge and ice routes nonetheless. Zero, Orion, Hadrians, Minus 1 (with dry tooling!) all got climbed.
14/3/08 A wee bit too snowy on The Ben.... The combination of current conditions and forecast weather for Ben Nevis is certainly highly promising. But for teams on the hill today the stories this evening may be of trail breaking, soft snow and cruddy ice. Those on the ridges fared better. Rich and clients climbed Tower Ridge and beat the queues at the Great Tower by nipping around on the Western Traverse at a 'poky' IV. Tim and clients climbed NE Buttress and Manuel, John and I enjoyed the route of the month so far - The SW Ridge of the Douglas Boulder. Teams heading for the ice had more bother as for the French team who retreated from the snowy and concerning slopes beneath The Cascade. Heike and John got fed up with the Cruddy ice a pitch or 2 up Observatory Buttress Direct. |
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| So, whilst there is ice aplenty high on the Ben it is generally rather soft, snowy and could do with a good melt freeze cycle or 2! There could be a lot of 'abbing off' on the cards for this weekend! Check out Rich Bentleys photos and description below with his new winter route 'Walking Through Fire' VII,7 marked in Red and the SW Ridge III in blue. |
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groove is the great feature of the route, a lovely long pitch up
a really well defined corner groove system which you can see up
on the crag from the bottom. Probably only going at around IV/5
The sting in the tail is the pitch to get too it! One iffy move
on a tiny RP under a flake that would have probably ripped to get
established on the slabs / grooves on the 2nd pitch in particular.
If you come off your going for a big swing!! Mark, seconding, fell
off this move twice!!!!" |
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13/3/08 Good skiing and a fine winter weekend in store across The Highlands. Soft and smooth velvet pistes are the same whether you are at Nevis Range, Val d'Isere or Vail. The Piste bashers were busy today on Aonach Mor and skiers were treated to constant fresh tracks on lovely soft snow. With a decent forecast for the weekend the Scottish Ski resorts look like the place to be. A team down on Buchaille Etive Mor in Glen Coe today reported a lot of soft wet snow on North Buttress. Higher up on Aonach Mor E. Face Rich Bentley rapped down on to Central Buttress and found some excellent stiff neve on Morwind. Whilst much ice is present and building on Ben Nevis (including a fine looking Mega Route X - Mountainplan photo here) approaches are still difficult with deep instabilities in the snow pack threatening gullies and open slopes. |
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11/3/08 First Winter Ascent of "Walking Through Fire" Ben Nevis... & Excellent mixed climbing conditions in The Cairngorms.... Fort William guide Rich Bentley made the first winter ascent of 'Walking Through Fire' on the Douglas Boulder today. Taking advantage of the cold, wintery conditions and low snow line Rich gave the summer VS 4b a winter grade of route VII,7 and commented the 2nd pitch was rather committing. More words and pictures to follow....
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Martin,
Chris and I ventured East today to delay the onsett of the frontal
system approaching from the West. This worked well untill 1500 when
its premature arrival signified time to scuttle back to the Cas.
We climbed 'Fingers Ridge' in superb wintery conditions and thanks
to Stuart
Carter for excavating the gear and belays infront of us - perfick!
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10/3/08 Original Route, Stobbers. NOT Wild in the West (for a change!) Whilst the rest of the UK got battered by 'the worst storm of the winter' Martin, Chris and I stood at the top of Stob Coire Nan Lochain and chatted about whether the wind was gusting into double figures or just 'light and variable'. Mixed climbing conditions felt like a throwback to the first ascent date of 1907 (and the illustrious first ascent team of Harold Raeburn and the Inglis Clark's - of the CIC Hut fame). Lots of firm snow on the ledges, frozen turf and frosted rock. It seemed you could vaguely throw your picks in the general direction of snow, turf or rock and they just stuck - Bomber! Conditions were excellent for hard snowed up rock ascents but there were few folk about other than a large French team on Boomerang Arete and Jim Thwacker & client on the Dorsalgrat. I was working for West Coast Mountain Guides today. |
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9th March 2008 - Postscript to British Winter Climbing History Article.... (First British Winter Grade V's in Lakeland not the Scottish Highlands.....) Thanks to Colin Wells of Climb Magazine for his additional historical context to my Scottish Winter Climbing History Article. It seems that in 1906 the first ascent of Green Gully was not only NOT the the hardest ice route in the world it wasn't even the hardest route in the UK! Smith's Route (pictured left), a steep and intimidating grade V on Ben Nevis is often rightly cited as an impressive lead well ahead of it's time. Read the article and postscript however to discover that routes of the same grade had been climbed in the Lake District nearly 70 years previously!! Early March 2008 - Sunrise on the Cairngorm Plateau & Ice building in the West It's been a varied week based over at Glenmore in the East Highlands with the best mixed climbing and worst ice climbing conditions of the season so far! A group of 6 of us spent a great couple of days in the N. Cairngorms with a night in a snow hole situated high in Garbh Uisge Beag on the North side of Ben Macdui (1309m). Cold temperatures, freshly drifted snow and well frosted buttresses gave excellent conditions both for snowholing and for mixed climbing both in the Loch Avon basin and the Northern Corries. |
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| A large thaw hit the Highlands on wednesday and by thursday we had to go high on the Fiacaill Buttress in Coire an-t-Sneachda to find any mixed routes in wintery condition. John, Jim and I climbed 'Rampant', a decent IV,5 first climbed by Allen Fyffe and Tim Walker in 1979. It does not see many ascents so is seriously well endowed with turf and well worth a look when The Seam etc. are busy. Yesterday (friday) we climbed Comb Gully Buttress (IV,5) on Ben Nevis - A good choice for staying out of the worst of the mega spindrift avalanches! More substantial avalanches occurred in Observatory Gully, The Castle Gullies and, today, No 5 Gully and G and T over on the East Face of Aonach Mor. Baton down the hatches for another wild wintery week.... |
