Gower - Boiler Slab

Abseiling, being lowered off and still climbing up Boiler Salb, on Gower

Smile for the camera

OMG - it's me, this is just before the hood went up, and the heavy rain arrived.

One of the weather forecasts today suggested that it may not rain too hard (the others said definitely rain most of the afternoon - heavy and continual ! ). Optimistically (and wanting to go to Gower) we read the good forecast and left Sennybridge for sunny Gower - and Boiler Slab, rather than going indoors. Even more optimistically I left my waterproof trousers off initially - okay they went on after lunch for the rest of the day.

Working for the Soldier Development Wing we took to SUT's abseiling and climbing to challenge their core values.

It was good to be on Gower again - but no snow :( or need for crampons, ice axes or ice screws :( - there's only 1 winter each year...

South Gully

Lena hiding behind a massive sun wheel

Lena's day to lead. Her first winter lead, grade III - South Gully

The corner pitch

We managed to find a way past the threatening cornice

Can you see somebody on the top section of Tower Ridge - past the Gap

Lena wanted to start leading in winter, so we walked up the Ben. Grade I - no, Grade II - no, she wanted to start at grade III. We found South Gully empty, and a perfect grade III to get started on. She led 3 pitches, including the steepest section. She let me top out :). Awesome.

Aonach Mor, East Face, Left Twin?

I was last on the East Face of Aonach Mor on the 7th March - the snow has changed a lot since then. It is much deeper, and there are huge fragile cornices which have started to fall or sag over the last few days

Morwind and Left Twin have been climbed popularly this season due to the commonly safe exits, so today I wanted to climb Left Twin. I investigated the exit to make a decision and found enormous unstable cornices. The one above is above Morwind and has already sagged, and was visibly dripping. There were also large cornices above Tunnel Vision making it unsafe to climb.

This is behind the sagging cornice. The cornice exactly below my abseil post had already fallen

This is the cornice exactly above the Left Twin gully. It was soft, and dripping

Cornices further over above Right Twin and other climbs to the RHS

What can you do on a warm windy day. The wind was forecast to be SW 30-40 gusting 65mph, and it definitely felt it on the walk up to the top of the East Face. I wanted to climb Left Twin, and knew it was climbed by several teams yesterday - even though the ice was reported to be in poor shape, cruddy and unable to support many ice screws. The temperatures had risen today with freezing levels well above the summits. The huge cornices above the climbs looked unstable, soft, and were visibly dripping. Looking down to the East towards the Lochan there was debris from at least 3 recent avalanches (one massive one reaching the Lochan), probably triggered by cornice collapse. Perhaps some of the remaining unstable cornices will fall off today and tomorrow. A hasty retreat was called for today - although the only other climbing team around reached a different decision and was about to venture down into East Gully!

Observatory Ridge

One of the hard initial pitches

A spectacular view whilst belaying - Tower Scoop was busy today (people on RHS - 6 people), and can you spot the 2 teams on the main face

Orion Direct was busy today. Here you can see Tamsin building a belay, and Adam higher bringing his 2 clients up.

The weather was very kind to us today. I was hot all day, and often belayed without gloves. We had rain in the morning, and a brief spell of very poor vis at the summit at the end

With poor weather just around the corner for Wednesday and Thursday, We needed to make the most of today. It was a day for Observatory Ridge. As we got to the base of the route, we worried that the crowds were all heading for our route, but not to worry, it seemed to be a very busy day on Orion Direct instead. We were the only team on the ridge. The snow was pulling badly in the first couple of pitches, making life very exciting. On one steep section there was no snow at all so I had to stow the axes and resort to hands. All in all the conditions were a little poor for the route making going tougher than the expected V,4. However the upper section had bomber neve (making up for the absence of gear).

SC Gully

Ben on his way up pitch 1

Ben abseiling down to the start of the route

I met Ben at the Jagged Globe Scottish base, and he wanted to climb something about grade 3, but also learn about rope management, the technical side of climbing, and if possible how to retreat off a climb - so off to Stob Coire Nan Lochan we went. We found SC Gully in reasonable condition, and not too busy, so we jumped on it and spent the day playing with ropes, belays, and finally multiple stacked abseils. A great day considering the weather forecast wasn't too inspiring.

Curved Ridge

The initial ice pitch just about still exists. I had to be delicate with it

After the 2 initial ice pitches, Dani and Paul took over the lead

I took the lead again for the fun fun crux pitches, the rock was dry and perfect today for excellent hand holds

Here's the great corner. A little dry today, no need for an axe in these conditions

Over the top onto grade I/II ground again. Time for the team to take the lead again

Paul learning about direct belaying, bringing Dani up

Great conditions today for curved ridge. We only saw one other team on the ridge. Dani and Paul, learnt about fast pitching and later moving together to cover the easy ground quickly.

On the way down we took the buttress west of Coire na Tulaich from the 902m top.

Aonach Mor

Paul practicing his ice axe arresting

Paul and Dani working out the navigation

Micro nav on Aonach an Nid

Dani finds the way

Dani and Paul wanted to learn ice axe arresting, fine navigation and avalanche awarenesss, so we headed to Aonach Mor. We got out of the westerly wind for our arresting, then headed for the strong westerly wind and near white out to practice navigation in slightly testing conditions. We also found all sorts of interesting snow types, including the new soft slab developing on the lee slopes.

Tower Ridge

Paul and Dani on a belay high up on Tower Ridge

Approaching a couple of teams on the ridge, a busy day

The Eastern Traverse. Here is Roger bringing his second up. You can see Paul and Dani on the right, waiting to start the traverse. You can see the route for the traverse.

Paul and Dani on the knife edged ridge leading to the Tower Gap

Paul loving it. Paul and Dani in the Tower Gap

Looking back at the top of the Great Tower

Paul and Dani on one of the last sections of the route. Great Tower behind

An excellent day for weather so we had to do something great before the Thursday rain arrived. Paul and Dani are on a Mountaineering week but had asked for Tower Ridge if possible, and it was - so off we went.

The route turned out to be a little busy with groups beginning to overlap in the upper difficulties. We managed to get ahead of the crowds to avoid the bottle neck of the Tower Gap. Paul and Dani did well with only 1 axe and they loved the route. This contrasted to their Tuesday when the led NC Gully under supervision.
We visited the Summit of Ben Nevis before our trip back to the car. The mountain was incredibly bust today with ascents on the Minus Face, Orion Face, Point 5, Smith's Route, Ledge Route and more.

Lost Valley, Mountaineering Day 1

Dani testing out the bucket seat

Paul trying more traditional abseiling

Paul teaching Dani to abseil


Posing for the camera

I met Paul and Dani, who have booked on a Mountaineering course for the week with Abacus Mountaineering. We headed for the Lost Valley in Glencoe for a great venue for learning the basics. We covered safe travel with and without crampons, use of axe, self belay, step cutting, moving over steep ground, dynamic belaying, bucket seats, buried axes, snow bollards, abseiling, short roping, short pitching, up and down - all set up for a week of adventure...

Morwind

Pitch 1 of Morwind - in excellent condition with ice and hero neve

Plenty of gear, all the cracks uniced

I had time to look at some of the local cornices

Morwind is in terrific condition at the moment. I did pitch 1 years ago, when there was no ice in the back corner of the first steepening. Today the back corner had terrific ice with hooks making it a standard tech 4. The neve was to dream for, and the cracks were all open and dry. Pitch 2 had great ice and an insitu cam in the right place. Pitch 3 was mixed again with ice to help the awkward step.

There were queues on lots of climbs - Morwind, Left Twin, Tunnel Vision and a few others.

Steall Falls - Melted

Clearly not an ice climb any more - a water fall once again

Little ice left. Some sheets of ice falling off as I watched

Having a rest day, I wondered what was going on with Steall Falls in this thaw. Well, it's thawed out - melting visibly in front of me! Hopefully everybody got a climb on it before it melted. The last ascents were yesterday (Friday), although lots of hopefulls turned up today.

Friday 5th March, Winter Skills And Coaching

The west face of Aonach Dubh avalanched last week (perhaps Monday night). The thousands of tonnes that flew down the face and the gullies are still evident. Some debris can be seen above

The debris caused a lot of damage. There are pieces of tree and a big piece of fence in the debris, which have all been ripped away from higher up

Here is a team on their way to climb Number 6 gully

Jack and I moved away to safer ground to cover bucket seats, burried axes and snow bollards

Jack wanted a day of winter skills and ice climbing coaching. So after the winter skills near Aonach Dubh we headed to the Ice Facter. We covered energy conservation and technique for ice climbing, building belays and prussiking up a rope. A useful day to end his course.