Cairngorm sunshine

After a weekend that was so wet that when the 90m long boat was blown aground in Corpach I told my kids it was an ark and we were moving aboard.... I'm back for 1 last week at Glenmore Lodge. I'm working with Matt on an Intro to winter climbing. Yesterday we were joined for the day by Coleen and it was pretty wild and we used the snow around the Ciste Car Park to look at basic movement skills (fortunately some collapsed emergency shelters gave some steep ground to play on :-). We popped our head out of the car park twice and got blown back in again pretty quick. By the end of the day winds atop Cairngorm were hitting 125mph and it was wet with it. We finished the day on the towers at the Lodge.
Today the prep paid off though. With a better forecast Matt and I were the second team into the Coire and headed a few metres up a poorly consolidated Runnel before breaking out up the groove on the left- beside the free standing block- and up onto the rib between it and Central. The first pitch gives an adequately section of III that is only beginning to lose its turf. Above that we had three more pitches of II to hit the plateau for lunch in a hail shower.
Wasn't long before we were dropping off windy col and traversing under the Mess of Pottage. Kev kindly let us queue jump as he headed up Jacob's Left Edge deciding Hidden Chimney looked a bit steep and boney for his team. Another pair very courteously allowed us past too (well done the chap who was on Hidden Chimney Direct for his first winter lead) seeing us moving well. So we were soon enjoying a rocky Hidden Chimney. It needed a lot of clearing of unconsolidated blown in snow but gave good fun and great protection as ever.
Next 2 days look dire.... thinking cap on...

The end of my week in the Cairngorms

For the last 3 days at Glenmore Lodge I've been part of the MIC Assessment Team. This is the highest Award overseen by Mountain Training and to complete it successfully candidates will be experienced MIAs, Winter MLs and have worked hard to learn the skills required to teach winter climbing and mountaineering to their clients.

The pictures below are of Jake who along with Jamie and Louisa passed the Assessment at Glenmore Lodge and Ali, Tom and Julie who are all friends who passed at Plas Y Brenin this week. Well down to all of them!

Here is a picture showing one of the full depth avalanches that has taken place on Creag Meaghaidh in the recent thaw (spot the glide cracks that may turn into an even bigger event). There has also been rockfall in the area of the Goat Track and Terms of Endearment in Coire an t Sneachda- take care out there folks.

Back to the Mess of Pottage

Yesterday was my second and final day of Intro Winter Climbing with Christian and Aaron. I really wanted a day where I knew they would be able to build a range of belays over a few more pitches of climbing and that would give us a safe aspect for the approach. So we went back to the Mess of Pottage which was busy (the Guides Winter test is on this week and they were making quick work of the short routes on the crag) but everyone still managed to climb without needing to queue.

We climbed Jacobs Left Edge with the guys doing much of the rope work and enjoying the steeper couple of steps on the 4 pitches. It was a little blowy again as we headed for windy col where we dug a snow bollard to abseil back into the Coire. Finally we traversed back under the ctag (lots of soft slab building) to a big boss of blue ice to build an ice screw thread to finish our day.

Sport Psychology Workshop and Cairngorms again

Yesterday I was on the receiving end of some great training from Jessica Tang of SportsPsychSolutions. along with several other climbing coaches I attended a workshop at TCA Glasgow allowing us to access some insights from a professional sports psychologist specialising in adventure sports. We looked at a number of concepts I've already been using (goal setting, imagery and self talk) but in greater depth and I was able to gain some useful insights from Jess.

Today I was back at Glenmore Lodge and working with Aaron and Christian who I'm introducing to winter climbing. We were working on the ground right of Jacob's Ladder today which gave icey mixed climbing at Grade II (icey enough for screws). The conditions also continued to ensure I don't need to pay for any exfoliation treatment as the spindrift was doing a good job of scouring our faces! 

This evening I also attended a lecture by Nadir Khan - a real visual treat as he shared some thoughts on how to capture dynamic images in the outdoors.

Nathan, Pit and John all applying their brains

 Intro. Winter Climbing

 Christian battling the spindrift

 Aaron getting a feel for it

 Exfoliation

 Topping out

 Calmer on the plateau

From this to this...

Zoe gave me a couple of pictures from last week to remind me what conditions were like.
This weekend its a change of pace as I've been at TCA Glasgow working with John Kettle Assessing candidates for the Mountain Training Development Coach Award. Congratulations to Alan Cassidy of TCA and Mike Mullins of EICA on becoming the first two holders of the Award to be Assessed in Scotland, 2 strong performances from good coaches.

Cha No-last day for the lead climbers

A breezy walk in, a breezy climb (with some soft snow building at the lip of the gullies) but another route in the bag for Zoe and Callum and a quick go on something harder too. Not an easy week for the guys but they seemed to quite enjoy the 'train hard- fight easy' approach to winter lead climbing brought on by persevering against the weather this week.