No such thing as bad weather....

...only the wrong clothing.... Its a popular cliche but I'm here to say that the weather today was bad, just not as bad as it might have been. I was working with Helen, Johnston and Will for Steve Fallon today and the objective was Tower Ridge with Trainee MIA Mehmet along to get some practise and feedback on his shortroping. Watching the forecast carefully yesterday I watched it change from showers, to heavy rain, gales, hail and thunder, back to showers and settle on heavy rain and gales. BUT it looked like the morning wasn't going to be too bad AND the wind direction made me hope for shelter on the way up.
It was wet, it was a bit grey, it was a little chilly, the water got in at your wrist and ran down your sleeve... and they seemed to love it! Well done for zipping up the man and woman suits today and getting on with it. I enjoyed it too and we didn't feel the wind until the way down. Johnston kept throwing compliments at my advice on the way up but that may just have been because I was holding the rope he was attached to, Will's face getting up the 'will' to make the step at Tower Gap was one of deep concentration and Helen was a hero at the back end of our two ropes where it can feel a little lonely but I could always see a smile. Challenging conditions accepted and route completed. Enjoy the afterglow guys :-)
Photo captions on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/climbwhenyoureready/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1565830486785095

BIG Wednesday on Garbh Bheinn

Its so good to get someone to take out like Lisa. She's done the classics and now brings a connoisseur's eye to her mountain days but is keen to get off the beaten track a little. She also goes all day long with no complaints and views faff as 'the enemy'. A Mountain Instructors dream!!
Lisa has always wanted to do The Great Ridge on Garbh Bheinn and we had some time together booked for this week. Today looked to be about the best day and conveniently I returned from Namibia to find my copy of the new SMC Highland Scrambles South waiting for me.... complete with a 400m 3* Grade 3 Scramble recommended as an approach to The Great Ridge- a little synergy here methinks!
Lisa was game so we set off around 9 from the Van and other than me overshooting the start of the scramble (its closer to the car park than you think) we were soon eating up the metres of ascent on Eagles Nest Slabs immaculate gneiss. After the initial slabs we did find it a little less sustained and you were linking crag to crag but the line was pretty direct and the rock good. 2* rather than 3* maybe? Also if you plan to use a rope on this then be prepared for no belays and gear as is typical of Argour gneiss slabs!
Midday and we were at the top of the scramble looking around the coire at the main event. The Great Ridge is an undersold mountain classic... perhaps due to the fact that the walk in is longer and the fact its not on a munro or Ben Nevis.... elsewhere without the local competition of the Buachaille's accessibility and the cachet of the Ben Ridges it would be mobbed! Its graded Diff but feels steeper and more sustained than Tower Ridge and that's only once you have accessed it by the steep grass slopes of doom!
Once up there you are faced with walls, aretes and chimneys giving climbing that is 'pushing V Diff' in places but can be kept a little easier with a weavier line (shame!) on superbly grippy rock.
After our loooooooong traverse of the Coire we accessed the Ridge by the South East Chimney (grass, grass and a little more steep grass) before enjoying dry and ever sunnier mountaineering to the summit.
After a second lunch all that remained was the long and knee punishing (I'm not as young as I use to be ;-) ) descent down the ridge to the van- this is compensated for by great views to Appin, Lorn and Glencoe!
More pics and some captions at: https://www.facebook.com/pg/climbwhenyoureready/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1560865730614904

Back to Scotland

After an exciting and varied trip to Namibia, more in another post on that, I was straight back to work at home with 2 days mountaineering skills work for Mountaineering Scotland.
On Sunday I was out with Pete and David on Curved Ridge. As well as the crucial areas of route finding and movement skills they both got a chance to lead some short sections as part of their introduction to rope work for steeper mountaineering. Other than a few showers it was pretty dry. This was different to Tuesday where I was working to much the same agenda with Chef Jan but in constant rain. We made the best of our day cruising the Zig Zags on Gear Aonach but using the ascent and descent to look at a little rope work too. Good to be back!

Sunny days working

After some time off at the beginning of the week I spent a hot sunny day at Abernethy Trust's Ardour Centre fulfilling part of my role as their Technical Advisor. After a morning observing Staff running a session on their treetop trail I went with the group to a local crag to watch a session there. Good staff running interesting and fun sessions!
The same evening I was at Three Wise Monkeys climbing wall to start and SPA Training course working with Dave for West Highland College. On thursday we were baked at Kingussie Crag focussing on personal climbing and on friday we looked at running creative and effective sessions at Polldubh. Fried again!