Curved Ridge

Scoob and I took Andy for his first day of winter mountaineering to Curved Ridge on Buachaille Etive Mor today. The weather fulfilled its early promise of an excellent day - clear blue skies and only a chilling wind on the very summit.
There is a lot of ice on the approach to the ridge but the steep rock steps are bare and dry- ledges holding snow- quite firm in one or two places. The exit slopes around Crowberry Tower are holding a little well bonded slab. It was possible to avoid the worst of this today by either of 2 well tracked lines. Once established in the gully behind the Tower the slab is also well tracked and presented no dificulties.
The open slop around the top of Crowberry Gully was scoured and there were raised footprints several inches high showing where soft snow had been stripped off by the wind.
Descent down Coire na Tulaich was also straighforwards. as you look down it is possible to descend safely on either the left or right. Both are again well tracked. Some slab is present in the base of the main narrow gully but it is a narrow strip and seems well bonded to what is beneath. Also there are many tracks leading down through it, penetrating to older snow below.
A beautiful day today!

A Day off.... kind of

Today was programmed in as a day off. But the weather was far too nice so Scoob and I headed out to prospect a couple of potential frozen waterfalls. No luck unfortunately (although the attempt on the big hill in Scoob's Peugot 306 was more exciting/terrifying than most of the icefalls I've done recently) I'd seen this Blog on the first ascent of Culachy Falls which was our plan B.

After a stunning 40 minute walk in under perfect blue skis and on a well beaten track we arrived at the foot of the falls. There was a good stream of water flowing down the middle and the left side looked very precarious (in fact bits kept falling off as we climbed) but the right hand side was a goer. The ice at the top was covered by snow and needed a little clearing- wish I hadn't what was underneath was thin and had a lot of water beneath it! Despite the booming and hollow ice we had our fun and stretched our climbing muscles again. then it was home to a busy afternoon relaxing. Which involved baking brownies, choc chip cookies, whipping up a Thai Gren Fish Curry for dinner and picking up Sandy from childcare- hectic things these days off!

Wilder weather in the west

Today Rich came out with Gordon and I to Ben Nevis. We were heading to The CIC Hut area to climb on the ice falls that both Mike Pescod and Alan Kimber have mentioned recently in their blogs as being in condition.

A friendly robin accosted us at Torlundy and shared my second breakfast on the walk through the forest. Once out of the trees the path was well drifted in from the recent fresh snow and great waves of spindrift were blowing around Carn Dearg and down the icefalls.

Undeterred we made 2 pitches of Grade IV out of one of the larger falls with Gordon placing and removing ice screws and helping build the belay. From the top we headed up to the base of Waterfall Gully. We climbed the first pitch which was not as fat as when I've climbed it before but gave excellent climbing. After an abseil we headed down before any further exfolliation by spindrift passing large numbers of slow moving deer on the way back to the car.

Eas Anie

Today Gordon and I went to The Eas Anie on Beinn a Chuirn above Tyndrum. Gillian also came along to shadow me at work guiding. The falls are very well formed with enormous curtains of icicles on the flank of the crux pitch. We started up the route by the narrow gorge at the base behind 3 very friendly teams. They kindly agreed to let us climb parallel to them to save time. After 2 pitches of good if well stepped ice we were beneath the main wall. On the front left face a long clean pitch headed straight up. We left that for those coming up around us. To the right was a more featured wall traversing up under a fringe of icicles round onto the same wall. Gordon was keen so we jumped onto this and he made short work of his first outdoor ice climb. Above this we shared the belay ledge with Dave and Lynne and climbed next to each other on the last pitch which although easier still gave some short steep steps. As we left there were a few more teams still enjoying the route in great conditions.

More ice.......

Today Gill and Rich, and Scoob and I headed south to some more low lying icefalls near Glencoe. Scoob is an old friend who, many years ago, got me back into winter climbing. He also saved my life hauling me back onto a ledge by a rucksack strap when an abseil anchor collapsed during our descent from a first ascent in Bolivia (that's another story.... but I was younger and dumber then). So its great to have chance to climb with him again.

A half hour walk in saw us at the foot of the left hand of two icefalls. The first 2 or 3 pitches were slabby and open to variation. The last pitch was a wee treat with more of the glassy windows, brittle icicles, hollow chandeliers and bobbly ice with water flowing behind we've been getting used to recently. The wall was nicely ledged and featured and led to a handy tree belay/abseil anchor. The route was probably worth III,4- pretty much what the guidebook says.

The right hand icefall was a little different. The centre looked steep and damp so Rich and Gill tried a line on the right which got quite thin. I went up the middle finding good ice for climbing and enough bosses of fatter stuff to get 4 screws in in 50m. Scoob took the upper pitch and we found another tree to ab off of. This time I'd say the line went at IV, again as the book says.

Then off to the cafe for Hot Chocolate, Chocolate cake and medals!

An Steall Ban again

The name means 'The White Spout' and after the fun I had yesterday who was I to deny Gareth and Ed the same today. Despite a pre-dawn start we could see a dozen head torches on and below the first pitch as we approached (that'll be my fault for posting conditions reports then ;-). Fortunately I seemed to know many of them (even the paddlers more used to being on a waterfall with a boat strapped to their bum and a paddle in their hands) and everyone was being considerate and taking great care to dislodge a minimum of ice on each other. We chose a line well to the right of the other parties and despite it being their first time on ice the lads romped up. We chose an abseil tree well clear of the other descending climbers and then walked off. Although conditions on the climb seemed pretty similar today to yesterday the ice on the pool at the base showed evidence of the thaw during the morning. A second wave of climbers were on there way up as we packed and a third wave was arriving! A good freeze is forecast tonight though so I reckon the route has a few days left yet.

Steall Falls

Well my New Year's resolution is not to oversleep and forget my ice screws. Rich and I went for a morning climb of Steall falls today. The Nevis was still frozen solid under the wire bridge and although there was a lot of water running there was also plenty of ice around. As we kitted up I realised I'd been a numpty and left the screws at home... So I took the ropes for a walk up the first pitch and brought Rich up. Then we just coiled them up and soloed the rest- great fun and a real mixture of chewy and brittle ice. We abseiled down and chatted to a group of Glasgow University Moutaineering Club members starting up the Falls.
On our way down the Glen we realised that there was an awful lot of ice in the Lower Falls.... so we stopped the car, abseiled in off of the bridge and climbed up the frozen staircase providing entertainment to lots of passersby.
all the best for 2010.