Intro To Winter Climbing - Sunday

Mess of Pottage - Coire an t-Sneachda

Nick and Rich wanted to learn about how to lead themselves safely up a winter climb. We headed to a popular Grade I gully in Coire an t-Sneachda - Jabob's Ladder (I**). It was the obvious complete line of snow on any climb in the coire on Sunday, so it drew a lot of attention. Most climbers soloed up it - the snow was relatively firm, and the exit was simple. It was the perfect climb to learn to lead, with excellent rock anchors all the way, on dry and clean rock. The morning started with light winds, clear and dry. There were firey skies over the Cairngorms at sunrise. This visibility stayed until about midday, when the clouds drew in, winds rose, and a light rain started.

Aladdin's Buttress

Rich setting off on pitch 1

Nick and Rich quickly put into practice the ropework they had learnt yesterday, and built upon this by learning about placing rock gear, and switching leads.

Searching for gear

Pitch 1 of The Slant on Sunday, on Mess of Pottage - almost summer conditions

Several teams headed off to the left from the gully on the start of the Slant. I couldn't see what climb they moved onto.

Nick's turn to place gear on the lead

Nick's turn to build a belay

There was a choice of belays and belay ledges all the way up the gully, so conditions were perfect for learning. This has set them up well for consolidating these skills, before moving onto bigger adventures. We later went down and looked at bollards and stompers as a means of descent.We were definitely lucky with our weather window as today (Monday) the rain has set in again.

Nick and Rich building their bollards for an abseil

Nick abseiling

It was a really sociable day in the Coire and we bumped into Tim Mosedale, Zac Poulton and Scott Kirkhope, all seeming to run around with a single axe.

Winter Mountaineering - Saturday

Nick

On Friday night I met up with Nick and Rich for their weekend course of Mountaineering, or as it turned out to be - Intro to Winter Climbing. They were both keen to kickstart their winter climbing, so on the Saturday morning we headed into Coire an t-Sneachda. We started with boot, axe and crampon skills, and quickly moved onto anchors and rope management.

Taining manouvres

Rich testing out his bucket seat

Nick

By the end of the day they had picked up different types of belaying, several snow and rock anchor types, they were looking fairly slick with the ropes, so the next day would be to expand the climbing rack and put it all together on a climb.

The coire was busy with many skills groups, and many teams looking to do a climb. Many of the grade I and II lines were climbed - mostly soloed, but anything beyond that grade was bare dry rock. Even several of the I and II lines were patchy or broken, and you could see teams were hesitating before commiting themselves on the line. The snow was thawing, but was perfect for our snow skills - although a little more of it would be great! I had been climbing here last Monday, and walked through last Tuesday, and the thaw has stripped away any sign of ice. I could have used a rack of screws last Tuesday, but this weekend I could have climbed Pygmy Ridge or Fingers Ridge in boots.There was a report (I think from Sandy P) of a chunk of ice falling down on Saturday morning from high up - seen from Aladdin's Couloir. So be careful, rock and still pieces of ice may be falling in the thaw.

Snow lines receding