Rob high on Ledge Route ***, on Carn Dearg Buttress
Today I ws working for Abacus Mountaineering with Rob on Ledge Route. He said it was a life time ambition to do the route. It was his last hard scramble to do, and the last big tick on his list. He's already done all the peaks in the Lakes and over half of the Munros. We had a great day for it - not too hot, no rain, and I only saw a few midges (and they were in Fort William!). Rob's mountaineering hobby contrasts with his other passion, which is chess - he's been the British Chess Champion twice.
Rob clearly loving the climb, even though the views stayed obscured
The hardest part of my day was cutting all those steps in the snow at the beginning of Number 5 gully (I did wish we had crampons on!). The snow was too hard to kick steps into - even with my old evos. The best bit of my day was seeing how happy Rob was to have done Ledge Route.
2 climbers who must have started fairly early on Torro
I got a little sidetracked watching the team on Torro.
Alison Culshaw was free for a spot of climbing, so after catching up in a cafe, we got to Etive Slabs, wondering weather we would get a shower during the climb, or a horrific midge experience. We started off on The Long Reach. At the end of the first pitch, we thought maybe we didn't have time to finish the full climb, so we moved onto Spartan Slab - which is always great.
Alison on pitch 3 of Spartan Slab ****
Alison leading up pitch 4 of Spartan Slab
Alison coming up pitch 1 of Raspberry Ripple **
After getting off Spartan Slab, back at the bags, we realised we did still have some time, so we went off to find Raspberry Ripple. We found it in one guide book - and we think that's what we climbed! This is when the midges came out - and we pretty much ran back to the car to escape - midges always seem to win, and send everybody home. When we left, 2 other teams left at the same time - just leaving one team to enjoy the midges as they finished The Pause.
A great day on the slabs - although I was climbing with a midge net on at one point!!
This morning regular client Ben and I spent our time working on setting up abseils and bottom roping systems.
Having spent a lot of our previous sessions working through personal climbing with a view of leading and seconding Ben was keen to get to grips with the slightly different approach of being able to head out to the crag and safely set up bottom rope systems for himself and friends.
To allow for descents into inaccessible crags, checking out routes and generally for fun we also looked at setting up and using abseils as well as some ascending. After some pottering about half way up the crag Ben put his newly learnt skills to the test to set up a bottom rope on an E2 he liked the look of.
Ben's mum (Anne) joined us at midday to get a taste of outdoor climbing. Being an experienced walker and veteran scrambler she also climbs indoors regularly with Ben and Sarah. They all attended an introductory course i was running at RGU: Sport when i was employed there around three years ago.
Again Ben got to use his new skills as well as getting on the lead again for Anne to second.
Another fantastic day; its a shame I'm away indoors to work now!
Yesterday was a mixture of cloud and warm sunshine in the Northern Cairngorms. Stuart and I headed into Coire an t'Sneachda from the Cairngorm Ski Centre car park just before 9am. After a brisk 40 minute walk we arrived at the foot of the coire.
As the clouds were brushing the top of the buttresses and the rock was very wet we made for Fingers Ridge (Diff) a nice easy option in the wet.
Walkers on the Fiaclle Ridge
After three pitches i topped out and belayed Stuart through the two large 'fingers' that are commonly photographed and obviously give the climb its name. Care should be taken on approach to the Fingers as there are a lot of loose rocks to pass.
A bite to eat and some H2O at the top helped us decide what we were to head for next. The sun was the deciding factor! The hope of dry rock in Lochan or Sneachda was only helped but the top pitch of Fingers Ridge being dry due to the winds hitting it. The crags facing more to the south in the Loch Avon basin were the best bet as the sun was shining over them most of the day.
Stags Rock it was! We descended down the main path leading towards the Shelterstone but cut off the path to skirt the base of the Stag Rocks until we reached Diagonal Gully. Unfortunately we wasted some time on a couple of routes on which we found ourselves confronted with very wet patches low down therefore forcing us onto something out of the shade.
The chosen climb after the faf was Groove and Rib (Hard Severe) as it would pose few issues even if wet sections.
With a mix of sheltered sections low down and more exposed but certainly not anything to be concerned about (merely airy) this route was a nice alternative to Fingers Ridge as it allowed us to enjoy a nice easy ascent on our rock boots. Three long pitches later again it was me to top out after Stuart climbed the middle section.
Onward again; the time being 5.30 6ish we headed for the Coire cas ridge to descend down into the Ski area and back to the car. There was even enough energy to jog the last few hundred metres to get the blood pumping once again!
Overall an excellent day with a mix of conditions. Long may the fantastic weather continue.
I was out with Ross and Patrick on Friday for a days climbing at Glen Clova. The focus of the day was the introduction of multipitch climbing and stance management to their existing experience.
Patrick climbing Beanstalk (VS 4b*).
We started on Beanstalk (VS 4b*) for the guys to second moving onto Twenty Minute Route (Moderate *). This gave some nice and easy terrain to introduce setting up and working with stances and changeovers.
Ross threading a block on Twenty Minute Route (Mod*).
"That way!"; stance two on Twenty Minute Route.
With the weather holding we carried on optimistically and ventured up to the Upper North West crag to get on Alder VS**. This was split into two pitches; Patrick leading the first and Ross the second pitch. With more difficult terrain to climb this proved to be a little tricky.
The hand!
Arm jam on Alder (VS**).
Patrick climbing the second pitch of Alder.
A winding descent back to the bags and a bite to eat provided a little breather before moving over to the South East crag. By combining the short Parapet Route Direct (HS) and the longer Central Crack (HS***) the pair ascended the crag in three pitches.
Two distant climbers at the bottom of South East crag.
Pitch one of Central Crack (HS***) but pitch two of our chosen route.
After the traverse and before the steepening.
Belaying at the stance.
Ross found the second pitch (the main crack on Central crack) quite challenging and later discovered that Patrick managed to get the two slightly easier pitches! For Patrick's last pitch his added hurdle to overcome was the rain that was now coming down quite frequent making the rock a little slippery. Nonetheless he breezed on through topping out on pleasant rock.
This morning regular client Ben and I spent our time working on setting up abseils and bottom roping systems.
Again Ben got to use his new skills as well as getting on the lead again for Anne to second. 
