Crutches

All sympathy gratefully received!

Laid up and more votes required!

I'm not very good at being injured but it could have been worse... When I turned up in casualty in Inverness on friday morning they were talking about hip to foot casts for 8 weeks. As it is I hopped out on crutches with orders to rest for a week or two. Achilles feels stronger already but I'm still hopping around. Still its an opportunity to catch up on admin. that never seems to get done in winter and I'll get to see Jane and Sandy when they get back from a week in the Lakes.
More votes required for The Berghaus Adventure Challenge please. Vote for my geeky adventure! 4 of us are going on an exploratory ski mountaineering trip to the Geikie Plateau of Volkaarts Boons coast (gotta be worth a trip just for that name). PLEASE take 2 minutes to vote for us on the Berghaus Adventure Challenge website- tell your friends. We'll be taking a skidoo across Scoresbysund (if its frozen enough) to a camp on the coast before climbing up onto the plateau to try to bag some new peaks. I promise to put up a video of me on planks falling over lots!
Al

Yesterday's video

As promised... take a look at the weather as we top out... and that's before it got really bad!

Jacobs Left Edge from Alan Halewood on Vimeo.

Biblical!

Day 4 of the Glenmore Lodge Intro. to Winter Climbing Course and the weather began sunny with high winds higher up and lots of obvious blown snow streaming off of the Fiacaill Ridge and whirling 'snow devils' visible.
We headed for the scoured side of the Coire to the Mess of Pottage. We watched a team ascending Jacob's Ladder, out onto the Slant and to the base of Hidden Chimney with about 15ft of rope between them and no runners. On the hard snow there today the rope seemed pretty pointless. This isn't 'moving together' or 'simul climbing' - both of which involve runners. It's not short roping where the rope is used to prevent a slip turning into anything more serious on mountaineering ground (involving the use of appropriate defensive movement, braced stances and quick belays of various types). This has sometimes been dubbed 'death roping'- 2 or more people climbing simultaneously on ground where a slip could result in a fall and where one person falling would pull other attached to them off. IF climbers feel the need to move that quickly then they should either solo or place runners on serious ground. Rant over.
The guys led me up Jacob's Left Edge in 4 pitches and it was only on the last pitch that the weather turned. On the plateau we were staggering around in a whiteout so we quickly located 'windy col' and I lowered the guys over the edge. Lower down it was a bit calmer so we dug a bollard and made an abseil. On the coire floor we headed to a convenient and oft used boulder to look at placing pegs.
Now the wind and snow was getting pretty serious so we turned and headed out with all speed. It was a good job too as the weather turned 'biblical in proportion. A Lodge team coming out assisted a large group in the car park when their minibus door was torn off!
Been a bit busy around here tonight and I've sprained my ankle pretty badly in a snow covered drain on the walkout. Video of conditions tomorrow.

Vote for my Geeky Adventure!

Vote for my geeky adventure! 4 of us are going on an exploratory ski mountaineering trip to the Geikie Plateau of Volkaarts Boons coast (gotta be worth a trip just for that name). PLEASE take 2 minutes to vote for us on the Berghaus Adventure Challenge website. I promise to put up a video of me on planks falling over lots!
Al

A hard rain falling...

A wild and wet start at Glenmore Lodge this morning saw many groups starting their day around the centre. Tom, David and I made use of a couple of hours on the drytooling wall to look at mixed climbing techniques and the big tree to simulate ice climbing. We finished up with a couple of things I'd promised to show Tom about belay building before heading up the hill.

Walking in to Coire an t Sneachda it was raining but not as windy as we had expected- funnily enough there were few teams around today. Colin and I both took our teams for a quick look at Aladdin's Mirror Direct. It's still fat but at the very top there is a hole allowing the water streaming down the base of the gully above to pour over the route. My team found some ice to look at ice screw placement and abalakov threads. Meanwhile with Colin at his first runner and unable to look up into the downpour his 2 students decided that a quick trip up the Mirror itself was more appealing- very sensible. When I reached the same position David expressed a desire to give it a go and Tom just nodded apprehensively. I zipped up my hood (and, as a friend would say 'my man suit') and prepared for a short, steep soaking. The ice was chewy and accepted screws well and soon I was on top at the fixed anchor. First David and then Tom made short work of the falls and after lowering them I abseiled off retrieving my screws on the way. Conveniently Colin and co. were just abseiling out of the Mirror so together we decided we were wet enough and beat a retreat for tea and medals (and a change of underwear- mine was a bit soggy, and cake- scone day at the Lodge today, mmmmmmm). Snowing and blowing again on the way out.

Hard Rain from Alan Halewood on Vimeo.

Goat Track Gully

Woke to more winds but walking in things were more pleasant than yesterday. We wanted a shorter route to take our time over today and ended up climbing a lean but icey Goat Track Gully at a pace where David and Tom could build belays and bring each other up. We had a few snow squalls during the day but all in all a lot more pleasant a day than it might have been. We saw little windslab around gully mouths where we were and much of the snow was iron hard. It was also icey enough to make Goat Track and Red Gullys secure as they are notoriously loose after a thaw.

Goat Track Gully from Alan Halewood on Vimeo.