Stob Ban 27 Feb 2008

Today Will and I climbed the East Ridge of the North top of Stob Ban on the Mamores. We were dropped off at the Lower Falls Car Park, in Glen Nevis, and walked up into the East coire before traversing to the base of our route. The lower half was lightly covered in snow and a bit soggy but was a fun scramble. The upper half merited axe and crampons and gave great climb up ledges and grooves to the upper pinnacle. It is possible to go around this and keep the route to II but we were enjoying ourselves enough to climb the slightly steeper fin directly to make it just a touch harder. The final arete looked amazing set against the deep green of the glen below. We carried on over Stob Ban watching soft slab and cornices building in gullys on the east face. We finally dropped down onto the West Highland Way to drop back into Kinlochleven in the sun.

Glencoe 25 Feb

Visibility was surprisingly good as Alan and I headed into Stob Coire Nan Lochan. We headed for an unusually quiet Dorsal Arete for Alan's 50th birthday present day of winter mountaineering as increasing amounts of fresh snow fell around us. We took the opportunity to look at assessing the stability of the layers in the snow pack on the approach and introduced Alan to a series of different mountaineering belays during the climb. There was still plenty of old refrozen snow around and we enjoyed taking the interesting route straight up the dorsal fin near the top.

We were able to stick on a lot of the firm hard old snow on one side of Broad gully in descent although the centre of the gully was filling with lots of fresh loose powder. Other parties were out on Boomerang Gully, Ordinary Route, NC Gully (Mike from Abacus) and good luck to the guys on their Winter Mountain Leader Assessment with Plas Y Brenin.

Another wild weekend but at least there is snow

On Friday with winds gusting up to 100 mph on the tops we decided on a low level day to prepare my clients for a trip to Cho Oyu. Indoors at The Ice Factor and on some of the slopes around Kinlochleven we looked at prussiking, jumaring and ascending and descending fixed ropes. Even near sea level the winds were strong enough to push us around! Respect to Jamie B for his ascent of NC and even more so to the guys who climbed Darth Vader! Saturday was a 'make and mend day'. Its amazing how much abuse kit takes in a winter season and by the end of this winter I'll need new waterproofs, boots, harness, picks, frontpoints and a replacement for my Montane Prism jacket - definitely one of my favourite ever bits of gear. None of these has seen more than 2 seasons (includi ng this one) except the harness!

Today was cold with plenty of fresh snow. Over the next few days the winds will stay hih and the temperatures will oscillate back and forward around freezing at the summits. Glencoe mountaineering tomorrow.

Boomerang Gully 20 Feb

Richard and I went to Glencoe todday to climb Boomerang Gully. It felt like a return to winter with a nice dusting of fresh snow on the still firm stuff thats been there for a while now. We walked in with 3 teams from Plas Y Brenin who variously did NC, Forked and NC and top pitch of Dorsal. Boomerang was great ein almost complete at the narrows. We took a line starting 10m lower or left which gave a nice mixed pitch with ice and some firm turf. Wild one tomorrow, the ice wall at work is booked solid.

Central Gully Bidean Nam Bian

Today Clare, Adrian and I went to Bidean Nam Bian and climbed Central Gully by the left hand start. The rocky step there was icey, there was a very light dusting of fresh snow and a little rime on the top half of Diamond and Church Door Butresses. The snow was firm and the left step was about III, the right start looked like and easier icey II. We didnt see a sole until we hit the ridge to Bidean where we stopped briefly before heading back to the Clachaig for a beer.

No2 Gully

Yesterday Clare and Adrian led me up No.2 Gully on the Ben which gave us an opportunity to look at snow anchors and ice screws in addition to rock anchors which they're well familiar with from their rock climbing. There were lots of people out again including the leader who fell off of the top of the Cascade testing his ice screw and the mountaineers who were wandering up the base of the gully without hlemets on dodging ice from above (braver or dafter than me!). The stable weather is still hanging in there but what will come next? Rain or Snow??

Ice and sunglasses on Aonach Mor

It was a sociable day today and as we arrived at the top of Easy Gully on Aonach Mor we were chatting with parties from Plas Y Brenin, Rob from Highland Guides and Ed and Adele from Jagged Globe. Adrian, Clare and I hung back and looked at some snow anchors until the gully was a little quieter. We slowly made our way across to Nausea giving the team ahead plenty of time to clear the icey step at the bottom. The first pitch was brittle and glassy and a little hollow and despite Adrian placing himself well to one side of the fall line a large chunk of ice bounced off of a ledge as Clare climbed past and homed in on him fortunately doing no damage. Topping out into the sun again was a real pleasure and only the call of the gondola took us down from the plateau where we were looking at the variety of belays around the rim of the coire.