News 2007
6 November 2007 - Great Trip to the Himalaya & Yeti Footprints found on Mera Peak.....
| Expedition teams heading out to Nepal in early October this year seemed to catch the end of some unpleasant late season monsoon conditions. Niels and partner, a strong young Norweigan team made the 2nd ascent of Nick Bullock and Jon Bracey's new route on Phari Lapcha. |
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| Our expedition however departing a little later and trekking through the Hinku valley in mid - late October and summiting Mera Peak later in the month experienced near perfect weather and conditions for the duration. Perhaps slightly unusually for a large group of 13 none of our team members experienced any significant health problems. We were all still happy and friendly with each other at the end of the trip and lastly, most of us even got to the summit aswell! Thereby satisfying Doug Scott's 3 criteria for a successful expedition.....in that order. Read the full report and check out those Yeti Footprint photos HERE.....no joking, these clearly are the tracks of a Yeti. |
7 October 2007 - Snowdonia Season Ends & Heading for the Himalaya....
| Cool nights and perfect clear, sunny days have given a great 'final fling' to the Snowdonia summer season. The hills and crags of Ogwen and the Llanberis Pass have been teeming with folk enjoying the warm, dry rock and superb mountain views. That wraps up a great season of guiding and instructing here on the brilliant crags of North Wales and many thanks to all the folk who have come on courses. Hopefully we'll be seeing you on the equally fine (if rather more 'windswept') Scottish Mountain crags this winter. In the meantime, I'm off to Nepal at the end of the week - leading a Mera Peak trip for Jagged Globe. Look out for the latest news on the trip here.
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29 September 2007 - Autumn in Eryri & Highland Guides Mountain Environment Page launched....
Temperatures have plummeted here in Snowdonia over the last few days. Leaving Ogwen Cottage yesterday to climb in the Glyders the temperature was 5.5C. The coldest day since early spring. Wet rock and hail made for challenging climbing conditions but the atmospheric views from the Glyderau Plateau, as ever, more than made up for a few hot aches!
As a new resource here on the Highland Guides website we have launched a 'Mountain Enviroment' Page. The long-term intention being to develop a photographic database of Mountain & Sea-Cliff flora and fauna. Check out what is there already and if you can spot any of the unidentified species please get in touch. Please also send in any good photos of upland flora and fauna.
15 September 2007 - Râs Fynydd Pedol Peris
Dry, bright and breezy conditions greeted the competitors for todays anual Peris Horseshoe Mountain Race. Leaving Llanberis just after 11am the hardy band of 63 runners headed up through the Dinorwic slate quarry inclines and onto the open slopes of Elidr Fawr, Y Garn and the Glyderau Plateau. The fairly grueling course then descends to Pen-y-Pass, a brief respite before another big ascent onto Lliwedd and Snowdon. A steep descent back into Llanberis via one final brutish pull up Moel Cynghorion completes this 'category A' course of 17.5 miles and 8500ft ascent.
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Race winner, Charlie Stead of the Northumberland fell runners club completed the course in an impressive 3hrs 24 minutes. Neck and Neck on the ascent of Cynghorion he took a a couple of minutes off 2nd placed Rob Greenwood (from the Llanberis climbers shop - 'Joe Browns') on the quick descent to Llanberis. Sarah Kleeman, who runs the Nant Peris based Snowdonia Running Guides was 8th overall and first woman home in 4.01 with handy local climber, Moel Craine, just behind her. |
1 September 2007 - Summer waits untill it's Autumn to Arrive! Great Mountain and Sea Cliff conditions in North Wales....
Mild temperatures, light breezes and consistent dry days have been giving great conditions for scrambling and rock climbing here in Snowdonia. I've been running a number of scrambling courses completing the brilliant 'alpine' outings of Cneifion Arete, The Clogwyn Y Person Arete (Parsons Nose, pictured above) and various routes on the E. Face of Tryfan and NW Face of Glyder Fach. All on Fine dry rock for a change!k
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Equally good sea cliff
conditions and slightly cooler late summer temperatures has seen
South Stack at Gogarth relatively 'busy' (Still no queues
here though!) Lee Roberts and Dave Evans climbed the brilliant Mick
Fowler route on Left-Hand Red Wall 'Heart of Gold' (E5). Nick and
I enjoyed the easier South Stack classic 'Mousetrap'. A fine outing
on better rock than expected but with nearly all the in-situ peg
runners totally worthless it's a fairly bold affair and E2 5a would
not seem an unreasonable grade.August 2007 - Summer in Snowdonia, Dinas Cromlech chalked ready for your bank holiday weekend!
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At last, lovely warm and breezy conditions have continued for several days here in Northern Snowdonia. Many of the mountain crags have dried rapidly and there were a good deal of teams out enjoying warm, dry Welsh Rock in the Llanberis Pass today. At one point on Dinas Cromlech there were teams on Right Wall, Lord of the Flies, Cenotaph Corner, Resurrection, Left Wall and Foil - Who said every one had turned to bouldering! It could be super busy up there this weekend so it might be worth heading up for the popular routes early or late. If Lord of the Flies is on your list though you may be able to stay in bed a bit longer as there is unlikely to be a que on this one.... |
| ....Congratulations to Blair Fyffe for his stylish ascent of this route today - with very sustained british 6a climbing and fiddly and spaced gear it is a hell of a pitch and an impressive and lonely lead. It's the scene of Ron Fawcett's famous quote "Come on arms - do your stuff!" on the first ascent in 1979. Five years earlier in another iconic moment in British Rock Climbing history Pete Livesey first breached this magnificent piece of rock with his original 'Right Wall' route. Those seeking routes on this slower drying side of the Cromlech this summer have either been highly opportunistic or, more likely, disappointed. So, having waited for the day - it was with some sense of satisfaction that Blair and I climbed both of these brilliant Cromlech routes on warm dry rock. A grand day on the crag! If it's looking packed at the Cromlech and you are after some quality long single pitch mountain routes from E1 - E7 why not wander a bit further up the Pass and check out the superb Scimitar Ridge. Be warned though - the grades are a little 'stiffer' than at the Cromlech! |
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Bon Weekend and send us a conditions report if you get up to Cloggy....
18 August 2007 - Highland Guides New Associate Staff....
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Highland Guides are pleased to announce the arrival of two new associate staff both of whom are qualified mountaineering instructors who excel in their own very different disciplines within mountaineering. Click the links to find out more about these, and the other associate staff members.... Silvia Fitzpatrick is one of the most accomplished female climbers in the UK. From the first female ascent of Fitzroy in Patagonia to Gogarth E6's to Red-pointing 8b sport routes....to the North Face of the Eiger! Andy (The Turnermater) Turner is an MIC well known for his super keen and tough apprch to Scottish winter mixed climbing. This has led to numerous impressive first ascents such as Sioux Wall on Ben Nevis (VIII,8) as well as an enviable tick list of hard winter classics like Unicorn (VIII,8) and Cornucopia (VII,9). |
17 August 2007 - Highland Guides Busy on Classic and Hard Welsh Rock....
The continuing showery summer weather has not stopped almost constant rock climbing courses here in Snowdonia. In the last few weeks we have been instructing multi-pitch techniques in the Moelwyns, teaching leading at Tremadog and guiding some of the Welsh rock classics at Gogarth and in the Llanberis Pass, including the Joe Brown / Don Whillans special - 'Cemetery Gates'.
If you were inspired by the BBC 'Ultimate Rock Climb' programme and fancy a go, please get in touch as we still have some availability for the odd day in august and september. I was particularly impressed how presenter Julia Bradbury stressed, several times, what a fantastic variety of quality rock we have for climbing here in the UK.
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Last week Tim Blakemore and I ran an intro rock course in fairly mixed weather. With careful choice of venues we climbed on dry rock 4 out of 5 days and had the students seconding multi-pitch VS 5a routes and leading their own multi-pitch V.Diff on the last day - in the Sun! Tim and I were able to get out cragging in the evenings too, clocking up quite a few 'air miles!' in the process at Tremadog, Gogarth and on the mighty Dinas Cromlech (city of stone).
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1 August 2007 - The Glorious First at Gogarth....
The 1st of August is the day the access restrictions to climbers at South Stack, Gogarth, North Wales are lifted. The Puffins, Razorbill's and other sea birds that nest here from February have reared their chicks and are off to pursue a tough summer feeding out at Sea - leaving the climbers to pursue a different kind of challenge on these brilliant but far from friendly sea cliffs. The access agreement is not legally binding but is well respected by climbers allowing both the birds a peaceful nesting season and the climbers time to re-gather their 'psyche' for the 'exciting' experiences associated with the Red Walls and Mousetrap Zawn. Loose, soft, sandy and friable rock, guano, intricate route finding and long, steep and sustained pitches. Not for the faint hearted and Clogwyn Peryglus indeed!
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Blair and I celebrated the glorious first with an ascent of Fantasia on Red Wall. A superb long pitch on relatively solid rock, once the initial horrors of 'Red Wall' original route are completed!
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24 July 2007 - Good conditions on Gogarths Main Cliff
Bright and breezy weather throughout Snowdonia rapidly brought the quick drying Gogarth classics into good condition and, in a summer of wetness and frustration, it was great to see many teams out enjoying the warm, dry quartzite. We climbed on perfect dry rock on North Stack Wall then moved over for the afternoon sun trap on the main cliff. Teams were on Gogarth, Pentathol, Hunger, The Big Sleep and Tim Emmet was trying again for a ground-up ascent of the Steve Mayers test-piece, 'Extinction', E8 6b,(filmed by the Slackjaw team for their forthcoming new climbing film - Hard XS).
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Good conditions on the main cliff are not always easy to come by and it seems yesterdays combination of bright and breezy weather with an early afternoon low tide give the best chance of a succesful outing....from a conditions point of view anyway!
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20 July 2007 - "Never Mind the Puffins" - It's the Gogarth Festival....
Despite, or perhaps because of, the terrible early summer weather in North Wales many climbers remain super keen to get out on to the mountain and sea cliffs of North Wales. Fingers crossed for good weather on the weekend of the 4th and 5th of August - it's the Gogarth Climbing Festival.
| A weekend of climbing and socialising celebrating the end of the bird ban season and sport 'for all' at South Stack and across all the brilliant cliffs of Gogarth on Anglesey. John Redhead, first ascentionist of numerous Gogarth chop routes including the infamous 'The Bells, The Bells' has designed a 'SexPistolsEsque' poster promoting the festival (view it here) and take a closer second look for the unique Redhead stamp!! Low water will be at 9am ish on the saturday, perfect for a morning on the main cliff and afternoon at South Stack. Saturday night food, beer and craic at Y Fricsan, near Llanberis....so sunday could be a little quiter but Gogarth tradition still dictates doing a route or two. See you there!
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5 July 2007 - Snowy and Sunny in the Alps....
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Some very cool and snowy early summer weather in the Alps has left many peaks and faces much snowier than usual for early July. Check out the current state of the Matterhorn's North Face on the webcam - it's plastered! For good quality and reliable information about current alpine mountaineering conditions, including reports from the Chamonix valley, check out the Alpine Guides Blog. For some great inspiration on the brilliant alpine traverses of the Miage - Bionassay - Blanc, Monte Rosa - Breithorn and Weisshorn check out Jo Prince's article for the New Zealand Alpine Journal. |
29 June 2007 - Interesting developments on Welsh Rock - Keep up to date with a WWW Wet Paint Wiki!....
Despite a cold and wet end to June the summer welsh rock climbing scene is as lively as ever. The frequent and heavy showers have sent most teams scuttling off to traditional 'wet weather in the mountains' venues. Gogarth, Pen Trwyn, Tremadog and the Llanberis slate quarries now all have their own on-line and up to date databases.... Click on the links above to find out about the latest information on route conditions, the state of in-situ protection, vegetation, gradings etc, - You can even add to the database yourself making for a dynamic and constantly evolving information resource. |
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Of particular note are the 'new' routes that have emerged from the undergrowth at Tremadog since the sterling clearance work at the Tremadog Festival. Check out Mike Raine's excellent lists of suggested itineraries that will give you a new insight into these brilliant cliffs, help you beat the weekend ques and keep these good routes clean in the process. So get on-line then get out-there!
21 June 2007 - Get 'Committed' this October....
Coming to a DVD player near you this Autumn....
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Hot Aches Productions, The Edinburgh based film company responsible for the excellent 'E11' have another DVD on the way. 'Committed' promises to be a celebration of some of the brilliant & HARD, trad rock we have here in the UK. There's plenty of seriously inspiring footage already 'in the can'. Check the Hot Aches site for more details. It was certainly an inspiring evening to be in the Llanberis Pass the other night. We watched Jude Spanken beautifully smoothly onsighting Lord of the Flies (Fawcetts classic Cromlech E6 6a) followed by, across the valley, Dave Macleod on Trauma E9 7a. As it turned out my subsequent ascent of Resurrection left hand finish may have been more 'entertaining' as it was rather less smooth! |
June 2007 - CONGRATULATIONS!....Bernard and Jean Complete The Munros and Steve McClure Climbs hardest Sport Route in the UK....
Congratulations to Jean Crowson and Bernard Jarvis (my dad!) who recently climbed their 284th and final Scottish Munro (Mountain over 3000ft). It's been a long journey - over 40 years for Bernard! Read their Munrosits interview here. |
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The Seriously 'on-form' and brilliant Brit, Steve McClure, redpointed his project at Malham Cove, North Yorkshire on the 28th May. Steve has called the route 'Overshadow' and graded it 9a+ making it the hardest sport route in the UK and up there on the world stage with the likes of Chris Sharma's Ceuse Uber-route, 'Realization', 9a+ (inspiring short video) and Ramon Julians 'La Rambla', 9a+ at Siurana, Spain. Click here to read the discussion of how Steve's route fits in to the world context of hard sport routes on UKclimbing.com.
I'd watched an unsuccessful but utterly inspiring previous redpoint attempt of Steve's a week or so before. That had reminded me of the sheer focus, talent and commitment evident on the faces of Olympic sprinters in the blocks!
Steve's successful attempt was received by a very British round of applause from a packed catwalk at Malham encouraging suggestions of a recent revival in sport climbing. There were certainly plenty of teams at Lower Pen Trwyn here in North Wales last night - click here to see a redpoint attempt on Mark Pretty's late 80's classic - 'I've Been a Bad Bad Boy' (7c)
1 June 2007 - Summer Returns to the Highlands & Team Nike Adventure Race World Champions....
Here in Lochaber May went out like a Lion with sleet and snow in the hills and difficult rock climbing conditions in the Glens. Thankfully, June came in like a lamb and rock climbing conditions have been near perfect - warm, sunny and breezy (midge-free!). Steve, Duncan and I enjoyed the Highlands classic, Ardverike Wall today (video footage here) and yesterday enjoyed equally warm dry rock at Creag Dubh (including the Dougal Haston special - Inbred) and Glen Nevis. Congratulations to 'Team Nike', winners of this years Adventure Race World Championships based here in Fort William. Finishing at 0706 this morning after a seriously grueling 6 solid days - and nights - on the go....Good effort! More details here. |
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26 May 2007 - World Adventure Race Championship Starts in Fort William....
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The Wilderness Arc 2007 Race, based in Fort William, has been chosen as the event to host the World Adventure Racing Championship. The course, which will take some teams up to 7 continuous days to complete, presents a superb, creative and highly challenging journey through the hills and lochs of the West Highlands. From the Hebrides to Loch Ness, Knoydart, Rannoch Moor, Glen Coe and Nevis. Starting today on Rhum the teams will be sea kayaking, via Eigg to the mainland to start their epic week long journey. More details, including the maps of the courses and tracking of the individual teams (via their GPS trackers) on the sleepmonsters website.....Bon Courage to all and Good luck especially to the Cam Racers. |
iMeanwhile here in Lochaber we have been getting some spring snow and hail flurries high on the hill with difficult rock climbing conditions in the cool and showery weather. I found excellent dry rock for bouldering on the superb, overhanging Sky Pilot Wall at the end of the 'John Muir Sheep Trail', Glen Nevis.
20 May 2007 - Cool and Showery West Coast Scrambling Weather....
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May has been a busy time for Lochaber and Skye scrambling courses and I've been enjoying some fine days on the mountaineering classics from Curved Ridge in Glen Coe to Ledge Route, Ben Nevis and Pinnacle Ridge, Sgur Nan Gilean. After the heatwave in April and early May however the weather has been distinctly cool and showery with numerous snow flurries on the tops....still, at least it's kept the midges at bay!
Scrambling and rock climbing courses are now full until mid-June but we have availability after that for Snowdonia rock climbing and mountaineering instruction and guiding.
8 May 2007 - New Movies at The Highland Guides Cinema
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Get the popcorn out, It's time to visit the Movies again as there are a number of New Releases on the Highland Guides website - all U rated! Whilst the films may not be winning any cinematography awards they give an idea of a range of climbing activities from sport rock at Ceuse to new routing on Ben Nevis (Es Tressider on the International winter meet). There's also some Alpine ski touring action (Grande Casse / Vanoise) and a bit of Winter Alpine climbing footage on Pinnochio, Mont Blanc du Tacul, Chamonix.
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5 May 2007 - Es Tressider Smashes Cuillin Ridge Record....
Well done to Es Tressider for breaking Andy Hyslop's long standing Cuillin Ridge Traverse record of 3hrs 32mins. Es's new record time of 3 hrs 17 mins takes a whopping 15 minutes off the record and really throws down the gauntlet to a few other folk who are contemplating record attempts this summer. Well done Es - a great effort done in fine style - including hitching home! More details on Es's own site here.
27 April - BMC Winter Lecture Series - Dates and Venues Announced....
Dave Hollinger and myself will be giving the BMC winter mountaineering lecture series this autumn on the following dates. The lectures will be a combination of information and inspiration on all things wintery in the Highlands. Pop down and discuss your course requirements for the Winter 07/08 season.
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12 November - St Bees (Cumbria)
Tuesday 13 November - Leeds
Monday 19 November - Southampton or Plymouth
Tuesday 20 November - Hereford
Wednesday 21 November - Birmingham
Thursday 22 November - Chelmsford
22 April 2007 - Good Spring Ski Touring Conditions in the Southern French Alps and Austrian Silvretta
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and sunny early spring weather in the Alps left most of the lower
ski resorts with a slightly early finish to the season. However,
high in the mountains large dumps of snow in early April left fine,
snowy but stable spring conditions. We enjoyed some great descents
in the Vanoise including the long and steep ski off the Grande Casse.
For a more detailed report, photos and video go to the ski
reports page. |
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12 April 2007 - Perfect Early Season Rock Climbing Conditions in Glen Coe....and Highland Guides Going on Holiday!
It was 15.5 degrees at the head of Glen Coe today. The remaining snow pack is very lean although the easy gully lines in Stob Coire Nan Lochain were still complete.
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Rock climbing conditions up on Tunnel Wall were pretty much perfect. However, in my case, good friction and a bit of sun still don't compensate for unrelenting steep fingery climbing with early season winter mountaineers arms! Blair faired better and narrowly missed out on an early season redpoint of the huge, fingery 7C+ pitch of 'Tribeswoman'. I'm off for some 'staff training' (holiday!) in the French Alps - Ski Touring and perhaps a little sport rock so they'll be no more reports, or replies to emails untill early May.You can call me if necessary to discuss a course etc. In the meantime - Enjoy the spring rock! |
11th April 2007 - www.highlandguides.com visited in 54 countries!
It's been a busy season on the Highland Guides website with the winter reports page seeing most of the traffic and receiving over 50000 visits throughout the season. We have had folk from 54 different countries visiting the site with the U.S. being the most popular after the UK. Spain, Japan, France and the Netherlands were not far behind with thousands of visits from each country. We have also been visited from less traditional 'climbing nations' such as Kuwait (8!), a highly respectable 19 folk in Mongolia and a whopping 52 from Libya! Thanks for visiting folks and keep coming back for more!
Ski Reports and Book Reviews...We now have an independent ski reports page and keep your eye out for the new book reviews section where I will shortly be reviewing Steve McClure and Adrian Berry's new 'Sportclimbing+' book.
10th April 2007 - Winters End - Thoughts turning to warm, dry rock....
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Warm
and slightly wet weather here on the West Coast is sending a lot
of the remaining snow and ice high on Ben Nevis flowing down the
burns. But, as always, this coincides with growing enthusiasm to
get out onto the rock...It was a successful and enjoyable winter
season for Highland Guides. We introduced a number of new clients
to the 'delights' of the demands of Scottish winter mountaineering
and taught them the skills to cope with these. We also guided some
superb ice climbs, up to grade V,5 mainly on Ben Nevis. Check out
our winter 2007 page for a summary
and our testimonials page to see
how some of the Highland Guides clients reported back about their
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2007 BMC Winter Lecture Series....keep an eye out for the BMC winter lecture series - coming to a town near you this november. They will be given by Dave Hollinger and myself.
| 9th April 2007 - Richo, Jarred, Andy and I had some good rock climbing over Easter in Glen Coe, Glen Nevis and the mighty Creag Dubh, Newtonmore. Turn your thoughts to this summer on the rock and get in touch for details of instructing and guiding in the Highlands and Snowdonia. Also check out the BMC 2007 Nesting restrictions to access for climbers. For those heading out sport climbing or folk wanting to know more about bolts check out the BMC's useful draft users guide to bolts.
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2nd April 2007 - Superb 'Alpine' Conditions in Lochaber. Perfect early spring weather in the form of frosty nights and sunny days is giving something for everyone keen to be on the hill in Lochaber just now. Superb ice climbing high on Ben Nevis is being complimented by dry rock and great friction in the Glens. Even the skiing up at Nevis Range is pretty good just now too. Click here for more details. |
19 March 2007 - Highland Guides Equipment Hire We now have a small range of high quality climbing and mountaineering gear to hire to clients at rates far cheaper than High Street hire costs. Check it out here. |
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12 March 2007 - Highland Guides Feature Articles on U.S. Giant climbing Mag, Alpinists website....
'Newswire', Alpinists on-line and up to date climbing news site has featured the Highland Guides articles on both the BMC international winter meet and Blair Fyffe and Steve Shworth's major new route on Ben Nevis, Knuckleduster (VIII,9). To check the winter meet article out click here and for Blair's account of his own new route click here.
6 March 2007 - Ueli Steck 'flys' up the Eiger Nordwand....
Super Swiss Alpinist Ueli Steck has recently soloed the classic 1938 route on the North Face of the Eiger in an astonishing, and record breaking, time of 3 hours 54 minutes. Read Lindsay Griffin's excellent informative article on the Alpinist website here.
28th
Feb 2007 - Summer Availability
and course programme details now available here.
Discounts of 10% available to student groups and UKC registered
users.
27th Feb 2007 - BMC International Winter meet has great day on Ben Nevis. Read more here. |
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Febuary 2007 - Wall to wall sunshine and perfect Nevis ice in Lochaber, Winter and Summer course booking discounts....
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9/2/07 Highland Guides clients have been enjoying the superb Lochaber weather and excellent ice conditions high on Ben Nevis and Aonach Mor. Click here to find out more and here to find out what folk have had to say about their courses.... Shortly the Highland Guides spring and summer programme will be available, based in Lochaber and Skye and, later in the summer, Snowdonia. Clients booking a winter and spring / summer course at the same time are entitled to a 10% discount on the total course fees. |
January 2007 - Avalanche Training, Winter Quiz winner, Snow arrives in the Alps...
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21/1/07 Highland Guides associate Tim Blakemore and myself have just completed the European Avalanche School Professional Course based in La Grave in the French Alps. Lean snow and ice conditions did not detract from a great week spent learning more about snow structure and travelling in avalanche terrain. The highlight of the week was a highly realistic simulated avalanche rescue where several young Swedish aspirant guides had been buried up to 2m deep in the snow pack - adding a fine sense of urgency to the rescue proceedings! |
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03/1/07 Congratulations to Sam Loveday for an impressive 20/20 correct answers in our recent winter climbing quiz.. Well done and the Black Diamond Ice Screw is in the post.... Close runners up were James Edwards, Steve Ashworth, Tim Neil and Luca Signorelli (alpine section only). Quiz Answers here. Skiers have finally been enjoying decent amounts of snow here in the Chamonix valley. Up to 50cms of fresh powder snow has fallen in the mountains and given the valley a much needed winter feel and some excellent powder skiing. |
News 2006 has been archived and is available here.
