Scabbard Chimney in SCNL

Neil working hard to get to the base of Scabbard Chimney (V,6***)

After abseiling down Scabbard Chimney (V,6***) the other day, I was well keen to get up to it and have a go. Neil Pope was free and up for a climb, so we set off. We got to the SCNL car park to find 3 other teams already 40 mins up the path with headtorhes - little did we know at this point that they were about to be breaking trail for us - thanks guys! We got to the snow to discover just how deep it was - consistently up to knee level and often up to waist level. In the coire we found the teams fighting/swimming up to Central Grooves and Raeburn's Route. Our route up to Scabbard Chimney was a little less challenging.

Teams working incredibly hard to get to the base of Central Grooves (VII,7****) and Raeburn's Route (IV,4***)

The first pitch started with the short chimney and was a little awkward. The offwidth crack to follow was rejecting my initial attempts so I brought Neil up to give me time to think. My next effort was a little more determined and I found a brilliant hook, which led to finding the nuts on the left wall, which took me to the proper first belay - awesome - that was the pitch I was worried about, hearing that the thin slab, had caused some leaders to fall off!

Neil coming up towards the first belay - finishing the first awkward chimney

After the first short chimney on pitch 1 is this offwidth crack. I was a bit nervous of it, so I belayed at it's base, splitting the pitch into 2. It worked out well after finding a couple of bits of gear and great hooks on the left wall.

Neil arriving at the first belay

The team on the first belay of Central Grooves - 3 people on the hanging stance I think, in the centre of the photo

This is the view up the third pitch (our 4th pitch) from the sentry box belay.

The next pitch to the sentry box was brilliant too, with excellent climbing - a little less technical than the previous pitch.This led to the main event - the pitch in the photo above. The last pitch was initially a little thin, but the many pegs were helpful, and the hooks were deep. Still I found this less technical than the offwidth crack/slab pitch earlier - but all pitches were ***. A fantastic route. Cheers for a great day Neil.

Neil doing the awkward moves to get up this crack to the sentry box belay

Welcome to the sentry box

Neil exiting the difficulties of Scabbard Chimney

Colours are beginning to change on the Aonach Eagach Ridge

2 quick abseils off

Time to pack away, now that it's in the bag. The team on Central Grooves were on pitch 3 with about an hour of daylight left - behind Neil on the cliff in the photo.

Raeburn's Route - In The Wind

Raeburn's Route from NC

 Abacus Mountain Guides - Winter Climbing

This morning I met up with Dale and Lewis and we made a plan to go climbing - what else! They've just got to Scotland for a few days of climbing and they wanted to start it with a refresher on about III/IV. They like the full on Scottish experience so they are also camping - last night they slept in their down jackets! We went to the SCNL car park which was full - so we may not make our plan A climb - Twisting Gully. Eventually we got up to T Gully and found 3 teams on it - 1 climbing and 2 waiting! So we moved onto SC Gully - here 1 team had just started and 1 waiting (and 1 arriving behind us), so we moved on. We found Raeburn's from the NC start free of people - brilliant. There were 2 teams on Central Grooves, making good progress. However it was a bit windy, but the route was in amazing condition - the neve was hero and the rime ice was everywhere - what else can you ask for... More days of the same.

Lewis

Lewis and Dale

Lewis finishing the crux pitch

Dale getting rime in his face

Dale climbing on the final pitch of Raeburn's Route from Max Hunter on Vimeo.

Looking at SC Gully, Climbing NC Gully

This is SC Gully (III ***). I hope to do this finally next week. There are 3 climbing teams (of 2) climbing it here (you can see 5 of them). There was a team on the top snow slope pitch too - but this is not visible in this photo. On the right hand side, the guys in blue and yellow jackets are on Central Grooves (VII 7 ****).
Can you see the 4 climbers in this photo climbing Raeburn's Route (IV 4 ***), top climber in yellow jacket.

Photo taken from NC Gully. Climbers belayed on Raeburn's Route. Stunning scenery for first half of the day.

I'm working this weekend on a beginners climbers course. I took my 2 climbers into Stob Coire Nan Lochan. I wanted to check out SC Gully that I quickly got to know last March. It's climbable at the moment and had queues on it for the entire morning. I hope to climb it finally this week, can't wait. . .

We headed further over to NC Gully, also with queues, but we timed our approach to take a good position and have no queueing. The climb was in good form. Even though they're beginners they're dead keen, so I had to spice it up with a steep left finish. I think they'll be bored of this grade tomorrow, and they want to learn about ice screws so we'll be looking for ice excitement. Isn't work fun...