Happy New Year

Well, in 2011 I've skied off of an iceberg and for a week flat out to make a plane with less than an hour to spare. I've guided a 6 and a half thousand metre peak and I've done less rock climbing but jumped onto harder routes on the days I've had on trad. I've been spanked on Spanish bolts and sunk my hands into Caifornian heucos bouldering. I've almost drowned mountaineering as I've seen the wettest year in Lochaber in the 8 years I've lived here. I've met a new nephew and seen my wee boy pedal off down the street on his bike and swim and ski. Come on 2012.... top that!

Thanks to those who have tied on with me this year or shared time on the hills, old friends and new. Here's hoping anyone who reads this has a safe, happy, prosperous and successful new year.

Curved Ridge with Andy

Out with returning client Andy today and Plan A was North Buttress on Buachaille Etive Mor. However as we neared Great Gully we could see 2 pairs already heading up to the route so we pressed on round to the base of Curved Ridge. We could have cut across to North Buttress from there but the prospect of possibly standing cold and damp waiting for other people (and of standing beneath people on a steep route with plenty of loose rock) didn't appeal so we carried on up. The first sections of the ridge were just snowed up rock and climbed with gloved hands and axe tucked away. Beneath the wall and corner pitch though we hit the first of some quite good snow ice.... and 5 other ropes of climbers. With a little creative route finding and thanks to some polite other climbers we were allowed to pass all 5 over the next hour- thanks folks! There was plenty more good snow above before the cairn marking the top of the ridge.

The basin beneath Crowberry Tower looked very scarey.... a large expanse of luminous fresh wind blown snow. Surprisingly though away from the edges it turned out to be bone hard neve with only a small amount of unconsolidated powder on top.

We pressed on to the summit and down to the lip of Coire na Tullaich in strong winds and falling snow. Here I was again concerned about fresh loading but as with earlier, when we were there, the headwall of the Coire turned out to be firm hard snow with only an inch of powder on top making for a quick descent.

Warm, wet n wild tomorrow, hopefully better in the New Year. Have a good one!

Surveying the damage

Well after 3 days of torrential rain and mild gales I went with Adam and Anne to see what damage the weather had wreaked on winter conditions on Ben Nevis.

Much of the low lying snow patches are gone. Those left are above the CIC hut level (see SMC update here) and were firm today. We walked in under starlight and had a short lived blue sky over head as we walked past the wreckage of the hut roof and up into Coire na Ciste. The snowfield beneath No.5 Gully was firm refrozen snow and there is now only a little evidence of the avalanche debris from the 23rd is less evident after being smoothed over by the thaw.

From the lip of the Coire it was obvious that whilst the main easy gullys are complete (and the cornices were a little less than Friday) anything harder is not (Green, South, North, Glover's Garadh, Comb all have large rocky gaps). The ridges had only a small amount of old snow on them but what is there is very firm. Plenty of verglas topped with a dusting of fresh snow about too. Kenny did Tower Ridge today.

We plumped for No 2 Gully (as did another soloist) which is complete with a couple of simple steps where there the thaw has led to the formation of holes in the snowpack. There was a coating of ice on the walls but it was dripping almost all the way to the plateau. Topping out past an easily outflanked cornice we wandered past the top of No. 3 (steep at the top but no cornice today on the right as you looked up) to No. 4. The cornice is much smaller than a few days ago but still a steep exposed awkward downclimb so we abseiled again off of the frozen cairn.

Now having said all this we are due more rain and snow on strong winds so it will all change again. Gullys are expected to load with windblown snow and sudden rises in temperatures may lead to instabilities. Keep a close eye on the SAIS website (their pics of Aonach Mor today look promising but it depends on the next few days.... aah Mike was there today... news not so good).

For those who have access to a key to the track please not the culvert in the last hollow before you leave the trees has partially collapsed (during hurricane bawbag) and the last few days rain has worsened the road a little (its beginning to weaken on the opposite side to). More rain may cause things to get worse without remedial work so approach with caution... especially with a van or wide 4wd.

Merry Christmas

A great day out with Lucy and a manic day of Christmas preparations with Sandy and Jane today in rain lashed Locbaber. Have a cool yule!

Raeburns Easy... winter lives.

After a couple of days of heavy rain and mild weather in Lochaber I was keen to take a quick peak at Ben Nevis to see what had survived. Lucy and I took a very light rack and a short rope and wandered up.

The evidence of the thaw at the hut level is obvious; big creep lines and lots of deep thawing snow drifts beside the river. The paths have taken a bit of a beating too with at least on of the huge stepping stones newly placed this year having shifted and tilted to an awkward angle. The ice is all gone from the Carn Dearg Cascades and there is a lot of debris below the hut (ply, tarps etc.) after the recent storm damage.

Above the hut the snow heading into Coire na Ciste would best be described as variable. There was some very firm but a lot of softer wet stuff that let you plunge calf or knee deep. Passing No.5 we saw plenty of avalanche debris but not as much as I'd expected to be honest. I'd heard of truely enormous cornices at the top and expected to see debris everywhere but there were only 3 large tips of debris. I reckon there is still plenty up there. We could see a little ice on the steepest part of The Curtain but it would take a lot to make it climbable. Garadh was broken by several waterfalls.

In Coire na Ciste there is avalanche debris beneath each of the main gully lines and the start of No. 3 Gully Buttress but still lots of snow. It was still very variable in quality but things like Glover's, Green, South and the Central Gullys all had a line of something white down them.

There was plenty of spindrift around and we had no real idea of how cold things were above us or how deep accumulations were so we carefully felt our way round the base of the Comb (big curtain of ice as the foot of Comb Gully Buttress) and beneath the Upper Cascade (only a little ice, not climbable at anything like V).

So far we'd found quite a lot of good neve, a little hollow ice and that the fresh deposits of soft slab were very thin (only an inch at most). We carried on up Raeburn's Easy which was however pouring with water beneath the ice (and the uppermost corner beneath the block belay was unfortunately slush). The traverse across to the plateau was good on firm snow with only a little buildup of soft snow at the lip of the plateau.

We'd seen Gary heading for No. 4 Gully so we braved the wind to head round the coire rim to the marker post (still there at present) to see if he had topped out. There were obvious fresh cornices everywhere and the top of No. 4 was no exception. The cairn was partly buried so we popped the rope round it and I headed to the edge for a look. 4 feet below the fresh cornice was a much larger one which has slumped in the that leaving a great deal of overhanging snow. It had fortunately refrozen and the Gully below looked to have little fresh snow in it so we abed over and headed down the gully arriving back at the van before dark.

Plenty of white stuff up there... all it has to do is survive the next few days thaw.

The video shows some larger shots of conditions around the Coire.

Raeburns Easy... winter lives.

After a couple of days of heavy rain and mild weather in Lochaber I was keen to take a quick peak at Ben Nevis to see what had survived. Lucy and I took a very light rack and a short rope and wandered up.

The evidence of the thaw at the hut level is obvious; big creep lines and lots of deep thawing snow drifts beside the river. The paths have taken a bit of a beating too with at least on of the huge stepping stones newly placed this year having shifted and tilted to an awkward angle. The ice is all gone from the Carn Dearg Cascades and there is a lot of debris below the hut (ply, tarps etc.) after the recent storm damage.

Above the hut the snow heading into Coire na Ciste would best be described as variable. There was some very firm but a lot of softer wet stuff that let you plunge calf or knee deep. Passing No.5 we saw plenty of avalanche debris but not as much as I'd expected to be honest. I'd heard of truely enormous cornices at the top and expected to see debris everywhere but there were only 3 large tips of debris. I reckon there is still plenty up there. We could see a little ice on the steepest part of The Curtain but it would take a lot to make it climbable.

In Coire na Ciste there is avalanche debris beneath each of the main gully lines and the start of No. 3 Gully Buttress but still lots of snow. It was still very variable in quality but things like Glover's Green, South and the Central Gullys all had a line of something white down them.

There was plenty of spindrift around and we had no real idea of how cold things were above us or how deep accumulations were so we carefully felt our way round the base of the Comb (big curtain of ice as the foot of Comb Gully Buttress) and beneath the Upper Cascade (only a little ice, not climbable at anything like V).

So far it we'd found quite a lot of good neve, a little hollow ice and that the fresh deposits of soft slab were very thin (only an inch at most). We carried on up Raeburn's Easy which was however pouring with water beneath the ice (and the uppermost corner beneath the block belay was unfortunately slush). The traverse across to the plateau was good on firm snow with only a little buildup of soft snow at the lip of the plateau.

We'd seen Gary heading for No. 4 Gully so we braved the wind to head round the coire rim to the marker post (still there at present) to see if he had topped out. There were obvious fresh cornices everywhere and the top of No. 4 was no exception. The cairn was partly buried so we popped the rope round it and I headed to the edge for a look. 4 feet below the fresh cornice was a much larger one which has slumped in the that leaving a great deal of overhanging snow. It had fortunately refrozen and the Gully below looked to have little fresh snow in it so we abed over and headed down the gully arriving back at the van before dark.

Plenty of white stuff up there... all it has to do is survive the next few days thaw.

FUN on the FUNdas

Dynamic stretching using the traverse wall

Understanding balance and the centre of gravity

Exercises

Flags and markers

Practise

Yesterday I was at Transition Extreme in Aberdeen running a FUNdamentals of Climbing workshop for the Mountaineering Council of Scotland.

These workshops look at both what and how to coach young people at the first stage of their long term participant development in climbing. The workshops have been run for staff at EICA before but this was the first one to be run for the general public and was a wee personal milestone for me. I remember the epiphany of going to one of the early FUNdas workshops run by their creator Dave Binney (then coach for the British Climbing team) at Alien Rock and to be running one now shows me how far I have come but also how far coaching in climbing has progressed in recent years.

I was ably assisted by Robbie Phillips and we had parents from the Granite City Rock Stars and staff from TE for the day.

Although a lot has changed since I did the workshop first and some of the knowledge available on the workshop is also learnt on Climbing Wall Award however everyone was picking up new points and sharing their own ideas throughout the day- particularly since the MCofS have decided to include an element of Coaching Processes in the workshop (the 'how' to coach rather than just the 'what').

At the end of the day the GCRS parents invited me to run a warmup session for their group and for pizza after their session (thanks guys).

There are more FUNdas dates on the MCofS website (I'm doing one at Glasgow Climbing Centre on March 3rd) or if you have a large team one can be run specifically for you or your organisation. The workshop is of benefit to anyone who introduces people to climbing (young or older, basic or performance level) as both a refresher and an opportunity to share ideas. It may also be accredited prior learning for those hoping to work towards the new MLT Coaching in Climbing Awards when they arrive.

Nevis Range today

Sandy got on his skis today... another thing he is better than me at at age 3!

Also good to see Mr. Boswell isn't the only one 'having it' early in this season: http://nickbullock-climber.co.uk/

Fawlty Towers

Will and Connor on Jacknife

looking down Fawlty Towers

Belayer on SW Ridge of the Douglas Boulder

Relief having just pulled over another steep bulge

The crest of Tower Ridge

I had a last minute unexpected free day today so I went up to the North Face of Ben Nevis alone. Mike's blog post from yesterday gives a good appreciation of the conditions on the North Face. Today Will and Connor were on and another team did the left hand start to the SW Ridge of the Douglas Boulder (joins the normal route at the top of the crux pitch of Jacknife). I also saw a few teams on Ledge Route (which some locals skinned up on skis yesterday!).

The snow on the walk in to the CIC is very well consolidated and it is similar up to the base of the Douglas Boulder. Above that however the chances are that anything white could be pretty rotten and uncolnsolidated. There is some good ice around adhering to steeper rock surfaces and it tempted me onto the line of Fawlty Towers.

I could see good ice on the right wall of the initial steep section but the snow in the bed of the gully was completely rotten! After some swimming and thrutching up the gully walls I got my axes in the good ice and was able to pull up past the bulge. This theme continued the whole way up. I spotted several more bulges of ice, approaching each of them left me at the bottom of a deep drift of unconsolidated snow with an overhung bulge just out of reach, delicate bridging on thinly iced walls until an axe could be sunk into the ice followed by a sigh of relief and big pull past lumps of ice more at home on a IV than a III. If you are contemplating the route (it did give good sport) be aware that the protection seemed poor (iced up or buried cracks) but the belays good... and my trench is obvious!

I topped out on the crest of Tower Ridges first arete... a perfect knife edge of snow... and climbed down the other side. Then I popped back up the East Gully of the Douglas Boulder Gap and down the West Gully as the snow slopes leading towards Observatory Gully were deep and soft (and the big crown wall at the base of the Minus face wasn't encouraging me).

It was cold and sunny all day... still enough for 1 thermal, a softshell and an insulated gillet.. the gloves I chose were too thin though and the big pulls on the tools led to the inevitable hot aches... undoubtably the worst thing about Scottish winter climbing!

The gullies and easier routes on the Ben are buried in this soft snow but the steeper, lower mixed routes are accessible and in good nick. Whoever wants to get on the classic ridges like Tower or NEB had probably best take a shovel!

Enjoy the weekend!

More staff training in the East

A second day of staff training at Glenmore Lodge and after a discussion about the Centre's Quality Assurance scheme we were out on the hill in the wee Coire just East of Coire an Lochain (several ropes out) looking. Different groups were workshopping thoughts on shortroping as it applies to their work as an MIC or how to teach it at MIC level. A great day with about 16 active MICs all out enjoying the good weather and the exchange of information. The snowpack is firming up and quite stable andthere was some good if thin ice on the surface of rocks.

Home to the snow

Reading the load cell

Digging anchors on the west wall

Tested to destruction

After an epic journey of planes, coaches and vans we made it to a friends' house at Boat of Garten early this morning so that I could attend some staff training at Glenmore Lodge today.

The bulk of today's time was spent testing a variety of snow anchors including burying some of the modern leashless climbing tools with their radical shapes in the same way as a more conventional mountaineering axe. We had a load cell out today to make the testing a little more quantifiable. It was quite a team with almost 20 MICs and Guides in Coire na Ciste today. Although the east hasn't had the copious amounts of snow that the west has strong winds have led to scouring and deposition on lee slopes.

The Long Hope

Whilst I was at the Kendal Film Festival I was lucky enough to see Hot Aches “The Long Hope”. I’ve now got a copy of the DVD and if you are looking for a Christmas present for a climber it would make a great choice. Unlike many of the ‘high 5ing’, ‘Xtreme’ films around at the moment it has a bit of soul about it whilst still showcasing some seriously hard climbing.

Dave Macleod’s fascination with the original 1970 aid route climbed by Ed Drummond led to many visit’s to this huge and remote crag on Hoy in the Orkneys before the final successful ascent filmed by the Hot Aches team. To make things even more special they also record the return visit of Ed Drummond to the crag and the climbing is interspersed with Ed’s readings from his atmospheric essay on their first ascent.

Andy Turner makes a great foil to Dave- appearing slightly bemused at what he has allowed himself to be talked into! His description of Dave’s rack is particularly succinct.

Some of the footage is really world class… one shot where Dave is pulling past an overhang with almost the full height of the crag beneath was one of the few pieces of film I have seen that truly captures the exposure of an enormous crag. The crux pitch, E10 in itself is climbed with steely control after the hundreds of metres of E Grade climbing below.

The added extras on the DVD include: an ascent of an E5 on the nearby Mucklehouse wall, an ascent of The Old man of Hoy (good beta for would be ascentionists), Mountain Equipment’s inspiring historical retrospective of 50 years of Mountaineering and “Return to the Indian Face”- the story of Macleod’s successful ascent in 2010 of Johnny Dawes iconic route. This last I though was a great film in itself with comment from both Dawes and Nick Dixon.

Many climbing DVDs I’ve seen are ‘one watch wonders’ with little to go back to but The Long Hope is worth more than that- one to keep and return to.

You can get a copy on Dave's website here.

Still in the sun.

I'm still in California and from the sounds of it I'm glad to be missing the 'hurricane' at home. 165mph on Cairngorm and over 100mph around Fort William, derailed gondolas at Nevis Range?

Thought I saw a cloud here yesterday... nope... my mistake its all blue sky!

California Dreamin'

Painted cave, perfect sandstone and crouching tiger, leaping daddy!

Send it son!

Huecos, huecos everywhere!

Whilst the Scottish winter action all kicks off at home I'm in California limping a little with an injured knee. However its great to be out here enjoying the sunshine and family time- particularly since the west highland summer this year hasn't felt unlike an extension of winter from last season!

Managed a little bouldering on some good sandstone today in the hills above Santa Barbara. Some great problems at Painted Cave and Lizard's Mouth. I just have to remember to keep checking those huecos for black widows!

Spain vid, Kenton Cool and a little work

Back from sunny El Chorro see the short video) to a wet and strike bound Glasgow. I went to TCA Glasgow to burst the arms a bit and whilst there got a text from a pal to invite me to a Kenton Cool Lecture at Tisos. Because of the strike I then had to hike from Shields Road to north of the City Centre with 20kg plus of luggage in the rain... welcome home! The lecture was worth it though. A little catch up with work tomorrow (sorry those waiting booking forms... copies of NGBs.... etc.....its my only holiday of the year) then California on Friday!

My last full day in El Chorro

My last day with Sal, Liz and Meeps and we went to Amtrax. My knee is a bit broken after running in the mornings so I was limping up the route today. We came back to the Olive Branch via the ice cream shop and there were a few comedy moments with people daring each other to go into a rather cold pool.... see Sally's face!