Avalanche Seminar

SAFOS is the Snow and Avalanche Foundation of Scotland, and they organised this Avalanche Seminar in Edinburgh, at EICA Ratho. There were educational, informative, sometimes mindblowing, and current thinking presentations from Mark Diggins (SAIS Co-ordinator), Ed Chard (Jagged Globe), John Allen (MBE, Scottish Mountain Rescue), Mark Williams (Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Science) , Dave Mcleod (Professional Climber) and Stefan Harvey (WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche research).

It was a great weekend and I learnt a great deal. Make sure you look at the SAIS website and keep safe with all your snow sports this winter. Make sure you've considered the avalanche risk, and done all you can to minimise any risk to you and others, before you step on snow this winter...

Buachaille Etive Mor on my way home last night. (Can you spot the rescue helicopter in the sky, after just leaving Curved Ridge - on it's way to Fort William).

Snow On Beinn a' Chaorainn

Ray with a snowy backdrop of the middle East ridge of Beinn a' Chaorainn

Today I was at the College with the Second Year students on their Hill Skills Module assessment. We wanted a good place for navigation mixed with steep ground. In the last 24 hours the colour of the hills changed from autumnal to decidedly wintry - the high tops above 700m have turned white. We headed for Beinn a' Chaorainn, not knowing how much snow we would encounter. The East ridge scramble in summer conditions would have been a great venue choice for today, but it was too wintery for the equipment we had with us so we headed up the southerly East ridge aiming for the 1049m top. The day seemed to be all about navigation, until we hit the snow at 700m, when the focus seems to shift towards throwing snowballs!

Lewis sporting his new bobble hat !

The snow line was at about 700m today

Lewis - where's that snowball going? Chris keeps out of the way.

The snow was soft and wet - perfect for a quality snowball. The ground was however also soft and decidedly unfrozen. The group did well today with their nav and are set up well to move onto their Summer ML course. Now the group are looking forward to their winter mountain biking and paddling. The most impressive lunch of the day goes again to Ray - Pepper Pasta and Chicken Kievs. The most inappropriate lunch item goes to Lewis for his Gobstoppers (although we all had one). Well done guys on a successful assessment - keep safe on those bikes and kayaks! How about taking up winter hill walking, or winter climbing?

A good day - Ray, Lewis, Lewis, Chris and Holly walking back

El Chorro

Lena looking for the next bolt

After climbing, the pool is 5 minutes away!

Now back from the Autumn sun search. El Chorro is a great place to go for fun sport climbing. Thank you to Mel and Gary at the Olive Branch, where everybody from Fort William seems to go. In the photo above form the Olive Branch you can see Las Encantadas - a five minute walk!

Summer Hol In November

Well, it's time to give work a rest and go climb somewhere... Apparently it sometimes rains here in Britain (I've never noticed) so it's time to explore Europe again - trad, sport, ice, snow, peaks, mixed - I want the lot... So let's go... (I'll try to keep out of the gear and cake shops!)

Let's hope I'm fit and strong enough - regretting all those cakes now!!!

I've got a van waiting for me in November, when I get back - the final piece of my instructor uniform (as James Thacker put it).. Yes, I've finally given in to the logic of the van, oh well, it's 'the knowledge' (as Chris would've said)...

Let's Go Climb

Caswell - the sun is going down, but there's still 2 hours of light - let's go...

Nat Not on the Great Slab is a bit bizarre, but awesome wierd climbing.. I've never seen somebody under 6ft use this right hand hold..

Catrin will have no prob bridging this.

And then the perfect slab

Look over your shoulder, the tide is coming in !!

So, Ieuan's turn, using holds I never saw!!

Inventing new moves... Almost finding a sit down rest!!

Catrin's turn, she's climbed 7a indoors, so this was no big deal!

There's the bridge... Taking a rest..

As Catrin finishes, Tanya knows she's next - time for her fun..

This was at Paviland Main Cliff

Ieuan loving it..

Catrin - always finding a way to wear the hat, and finding the smallest holds!

Tanya having an awesome time

At the last minute the Sage family (Meg - the dog, Paul, Tanya, Catrin and Ieuan) were to visit Gower again, so it was time to think of somewhere new to go for them. As usual Catrin wanted something hard, Tanya wanted a fun day out, and Meg didn't want to go over or under ANY stile! I wanted to get as many routes done with the team as poss in a single day.... Oh - and we had to find a perfect weather day between all the rain.. Wednesday didn't look too bad - Tuesday looked awful, so it was Wed then.. Yes, the sun did come out for the Sage family as usual, it was actually positively warm for most of the day - I never needed a warm jacket, awesome...

So we headed off to Gower and the Paviland Main Cliff. I had a plan in my head which invloved the through cave 2 pitch route and the unusual Shelob exiting through a 50cm wide limestone roof hole (!) , but Catrin announced that she wanted a test so we went for the steeper and overhanging stuff. I'd lined her up with the cliff HS classic, but as usual she managed to stray off route onto E2 ground (5C), later stating that yes, it was 'quite hard!'.. After a few more of these, Tanya, Ieuan and Catrin took a break form the steep stuff and enjoyed food stuff, including xmas cake - always a winner... Xmas, already, really!!!

We then relocated to Caswell for something very different! A bit cruel perhaps, knowing that you need a 6ft arm span to reach the holds on the target climb 'Nat Not'** - so let's see how Tanya, Catrin (10 years) and Ieuan (13 years) get on! Let's just say that Catrin and Ieuan enjoyed some air time - always awesome, and as ever they loved it! As daylight ran out, along with the parking ticket - we had to stop climbing - never good!! On Friday Catrin has a performance climbing test at the new Reading wall to join their performance climb elite team (she's only 10!!)...

Scottish tooling series at Transition

After a days setting on Friday the third round of the Scottish Tooling series is underway.

Keep an eye out for more pics but in the meantime here's some to wet the appetite for tooling tomnfoolery.

Site specific training at the Pickaquoy centre Kirkwall

A quick jaunt in the sky over the water saw me in Orkney for two days of training on Thursday and Friday.

The training was one of the final stages of their new wall build by Dream Climbing Walls. The group were made up of members from the local Orkney Climbing Club who were looking to help out or work at the wall with groups.

2 days later and 7 heads jammed full of information the flight back to Aberdeen was somewhat more exciting the the flight out. 1 hour delay (not bad in the grand scheme of things) and lots of snow on the way. Oh how I love flying...

Fighting with time whilst others fight the weather

Things are pretty quiet at the moment for me in terms of getting out.  Transition Extreme is keeping me busy with my job as Centre Manager.  We also have a lot of competitions and events on that require a lot of time.  Check out the TE blog for more information.

I'm off to Ratho tomorrow for a NICAS seminar and a road trip in November to various walls and skate parks sandwiching an ABC meeting in Manchester.

Things are hotting up for winter with a lot of climbing having been done last week during the cold spell.  Unfortunately a hamstring injury kept me away form the hills.  Here's hoping we get another cold spell soon for my own climbing and the folks that are asking for winter days with me already.

Hill Skills On Ben Nevis

Callum on Meall an t-Suidhe, with Ben Nevis behind

Today I was out on the side on Ben Nevis with First Year Students from UHI WHC - Freya, Alan, Vlada, Chris, Ronald and Callum. I was working alongside Ian Stewart. We started up the Mountain Track on Ben Nevis, but quickly cut off left up a rocky rib on the side on Meall an t-Suidhe, to give the group a little taste of steep ground.

Vlada moving happily up steep ground

Steep ground was new to one or two of the group, but everybody made short work of the scramble and we were soon at the top of the hill - looking over to Ben Nevis. The ground under foot was well frozen and there was a lot of frost heave in the soil. The frost heave ice crystals were 2-3cm long, showing a couple of days of growth, and a prolonged cold spell. 

Chris and Vlada

Callum, Ron and Alan

The air temperature during the day was the coldest it has been this autumn, and on our way up the hill, we got some casual large snow flakes falling. Higher on Ben Nevis we could see that it was getting a dusting of fresh snow - just a little today. The ground is so cold and firm at the moment that what does fall higher up the hill will settle. There was more snow in the East than the West today apparently. 

Watch this space for more snow this weekend!!

A Day In Glencoe

Lost Valley and Beinn Fhada behind Andrew and Sean

Today I was with the First year group from the Fort William Uni, and we headed off to Glencoe for a mountain day, in again brilliant weather. Just another day of great weather in the Highlands! We went up Lost Valley - and the autumnal colours with superb visibility were beautiful. The four, Sean, Linsay, Daniel and Andrew proved to be fit, strong and determined. Linsay and Sean proved to be carrying injuries that gave them a great deal of pain. It's rare to see people push on through such pain, and at the same time not complain or be negative. They were both inspirational today.

Andrew and Sean with Bidean nam Bian behind

It did try to snow at one point today, but it never really materialised - so just another great Autumn day.

Linsay (carefully hiding her injury) and Andrew on their way down off Stob Coire nan Lochan

Clipping Bolts

About here is where the 6a+ starts. At this point I wish I had another jacket and gloves on !

A roof! Great.. I need a jug (and a jacket!)...

I find the jug, and suddenly I don't need the jacket anymore - eventually sport always warms you up...

A tricky slab to finish the 50m pitch.. Normally I love slabs, but not today when the friction is so rubbish!

Well there we go - rain, so ends the climbing... But I'd already ab'ed off, so happy days...

Claire Sansom wanted to go climbing, I thought 'is it dry enough?', 'is it warm enough?' - I put on as many jackets as I could - time to find out... As I was driving, the tarmac on the roads was still wet, but the concrete in Swansea was drying, Hmmm, okay, so where to go... Claire is going to Kalymnos in a couple of weeks, so we agreed on a little sport in Barlands Quarry... Mistake!! Why didn't I choose some warmish south facing dry trad sea cliff? The face was in the shade, the rock freezing cold and a little damp, it made for emotional sport climbing !! But today I wasn't to be beaten, so I pushed to the top and abseiled off..... Just in time, before the rain started!!

Brecon Beacons

Here is group B with Steve Ironside. In the background is Corn Du 883m, Pen y Fan 886m, Cribyn 795m, and Fan y Big 719m

As the sun went down, the still waters reflected the clouds brilliantly

Moody clouds over the Beacons

Zoe McLean (A to Z Expeditions) on Pen y Fan

What do you think about this? Suddenly the summit of Pen y Fan has got this name plate... !!

The Team from Denmark.. Nikolaj, Josephine, Martin, Christian, Anna and Jonas

The Danish team heading off the side of the hill..

Nikolaj and Jonas deciding where they are...

Team C wild camping on their last night..

More reflections..

This was the last D of E exped for the season. Working for A to Z Expeditions, I was working with Steve and Bryony on this open gold qualifying exped. We had some interesting groups to work with. I enjoyed working with the Danish group - they definitely did things their way.. They brought all their food from Denmark and Germany. The Danish food is over twice the price of similar here !! The food included staples like tinned mackeral and tinned cheeseburgers! They were definitely well prepared, after all they had come a long way to get success.. In Denmark they told me the land is all flat and so they were looking forward to the 3 Dimensions of the Beacons. They loved it, and on the last morning they chose to get up at 4.30am to set off at 6am to walk into the sunrise in the hills... They had the longest rests of any team I've known - always getting their stoves out and cooking something lol.

The weather was mostly kind, but cold - reminding me of winter that is just around the corner now :) ... Winter, here we come... I'm thinking about ice axes already..