Through The Pearly Gates

Julia and Phil on pitch 1 of Pearly Gates

Jagged Globe - Winter Mountaineering

Today I met Julia and Phil on day 2 of their course. They had never climbed with 2 axes before but were up for adventure. We got up to the basin of the SCNL coire and we could just about choose any climb we fancied. People were heading up towards Boomerang Gully, Dorsal Arete, Langsam, NC Gully, Twisting Gully, SC Gully etc - so we went for Pearly Gates (II**) on the summit buttress, slightly up from Langsam. I started pitch 1 just to the left of the true Pearly Gates start because the ice looked good for an ice belay, and it would make the climb a little longer. The 2 screw belay was good, and I headed off to find the 'gates'. We made it to the top in 4 pitches. As I topped out into the sun, I suddenly overheated - the priorities were to make the belay fast, then get the 2 jackets, hat and gloves off - phew! Well done to Julia and Phil for their first winter climb - it was a pretty special day - good company, amazing neve, ice, a new climb for me and the weather !!!

Ice belay - end of pitch 1

Belay at the entrance to the gates

Andy and 2 clients on Dorsal Arete

The start of the last pitch

Phil topping out on the SCNL summit ridge with Ben Nevis behind

Of course we had to go to the summit and get all the normal photos - Buachaille Etive Mor behind

Vicky makes it to the summit and joins the party

SUN !!!!

Pearly Gates in the centre of the photo, on the flank of SCNL

A second climbing up SC Gully on the last pitch

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...

Stob Coire Nan Lochan

The queue at the beginning of Dorsal Arete, in early afternoon (8 people here)

Stob Coire Nan Lochan. A relatively quiet moment of the day. How many people can you see?

Day 2 of the Winter Mountaineering course. Both teams headed to Stob Coire Nan Lochan for our adventures today. The good weather and stable snow brought the crowds out onto the hills this weekend. All of the popular venues were crowded, car parks full and queues on the most popular climbs. I was with Andrew and Nicola, and we did a journey all over grade 1 ground. I could see queues on other climbs, but I was surprised to see the quantitiy of people on Dorsal Arete, and queueing at a first belay. Lots of them will have been using headtorches today! At Andrew and Nicola's adventures' end, I hope it made for a great honeymoon - they're off to Inverness next.

NC Gully - Adventure Peaks Meets Jagged Globe

Again with Radim and James, working for Adventure Peaks, we head into Stob Coire nan Lochan. The intention is to build on the teaching from yesterday when they were learinng to lead. NC gully is a great II** route but already lots of the classic lines have people on. James sets off leading the first pitch and belays shown in the first photo. Radim is super keen to lead the next. James gets the steep central section and pulls it out of the bag. The gully gets busy, Rob Wills (also Adventure Peaks) has his team there and Adele Pennington (Jagged Globe) has her team. Wow, it seems to be the most sociable place on the West coast.

At the top James describes the climb as 'epic'. Well done everybody, unfortunately most people have to drive home, just as the snow and weather improve.

Tomorrow I'll be off to Jagged Globe.