Teaching lead climbing day 2

Day 2 of our Glenmore Lodge Introduction to Lead Climbing and we went to sample the sandstone of Cummingston. Cool, a gentle breeze and typically a little sandy but more lead climbs including first time leads for some.

 Follow me

 Hannah on the stack

 An attentive belayer

 A good Dragon

 On the sharp end

 A tyrolean traverse

 The fun way off the stack

 Hmmm.... which wire?

Cornflake Wall- first ever trad. lead

Learning to lead climb Day 1

I'm working a 5 day learn to lead course at Glenmore Lodge this week and today we were at Kingussie Crag. The sun shone, the rock was dry, the gear was fine and we climbed half a dozen routes from Diff to VS. Happy days!

 Comfy shoes today

 Series climbing

 Whoops. check that krab

 Hard not to enjoy

 Bringing up his partner

 Kingussie looking good

On the sharp end

Ropework in the Cairngorms

Day 2 of the Mountain Training Association CPD weekend based at Glenmore Lodge and I was working in the area of the Twin Ribs looking a Mountain Leader rope work. We had a dry sunny morning and then it was a shock to the system after the recent sunny weather when we walked out in heavy rain!

 Walking in

 Party Management in the boulder field

 Route selection

 Steep ground

 Belaying

 Come on up 

 Direct belay

 'What goes up...'

'...must come down!'

Warm and dry nav in the Cairngorms

This weekend I'm been working for Glenmore Lodge on refreshers for Summer Mountain Leaders on behalf of the Mountain Training Association.
Today I had a group of 4 folk and we headed up the north ridge of Cairngorm looking at relating the map and contour features to the ground. We also visited the El Alamein Refuge and had a chat about the plants and geology of the Cairngorms.

 Cloudberry in bloom in many places on the north slopes of Cairngorm

 A wee break

 Trying out the Sherpa Lithang jacket

 Where have I been... where am I... where am I going?

 The El Alamein Refuge

 Outside

Inside

Aonach Eagach

Today I had a great day working on the Aonach Eagach with Martin for Steve Fallon. We also had MIA Trainee Jess along who is working towards her Assessment later in the summer. With 6 fit scramblers and a great forecast I knew we were in for a good day. After a bit of a breeze on the pull up to the first summit it went still and calm ('fail' from the weather forecasters who predicted 20-30mph winds) and we sweated our way along the ridge with plenty of stops to drink in the view and some fluids too.
The Aonach Eagach is a cruise scramble for some and a little more challenging for others. Today we were flexible and with perfect conditions 4 of the team chose to follow Martin without a rope whilst 2 were happier with the security of a rope with Jess and I. Great views and a fun day. The descent is always quite full on on the knees though!

 After the flog uphill

 Amazing view of the Highlands

 Equally great view of Glencoe mountains

 Ready to go!

 Lorne and the view

 Jess on the move

 Jess getting some friction

 Through the pinnacles

 Up the steepest bit at the end

 Looking back along the pinnacles

 Sam savouring the exposure

 Lunch!

 Still snow on Bidean nam Bian

 Looking back along the ridge

 Heading for the second Munro summit

What are you little fellow?

Gneiss sunny slabs

Holly Tree Slab is so clearly visible as a gleaming sheet of rock close to the road from Corran to Strontian that I've been promising myself a wander up it for years. Today the sunshine, inclination and a likeminded partner coincided so Cameron and I headed across the ferry to Meall a' Braighaid. Its less than 15 minutes walk to the base of Holly Tree Slab which was as it appeared: a sheet of cleanest gneiss at an easy angle. We soloed it and then came down its left side, back up a rib there, down again, round to the right and up a slightly harder slab and then wandered up and right searching for its companion routes. We struggled a little with the descriptions but certainly found clean sheets of gneiss that were a lot harder than Holly Tree Slab and gave 60+m lines (including a couple of cracks that would have taken gear). Then we rambled back down to the bags (and I squeezed one more solo of HTS in) before sun induced lassitude caused us to call it a day. Very relaxing...