Outward Bound

Miss Sarah Hamilton on the 'Travelator'.

Today I was working with Al at Outward Bound Loch Eil. Today was very windy and dashed all ideas of watersports on the loch with the group. However we had an excellent morning in Glen Nevis on Scimitar ridge followed by on grounds activities in the afternoon.

Scimitar ridge was busy today and so several groups get their turn at the exciting scrambling available in Glen Nevis..

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Ridge Of The Douglas Boulder

Tim on the ridge

Jagged Globe - Snow and Ice Climbing

Today I was with Tim for a day of climbing. He's traininig at the moment for a trip to Denali shortly - so he needed to carry a heavy bag for weight training - so he wanted to carry the rope and most of the rack - hardship for me! I didn't want a difficult day of trail breaking through deep snow, so we headed for the old favourite of SW Ridge of the Douglas Boulder. Tony H was with his team shorty behind me. Sam and Andy were over on Fawlty Towers having fun so it turned out to be a really sociable day.

Tim sitting on the rock

Tony's team is shortly behind

Sam over on Fawlty Towers

Coire na Ciste

Orion Face and Observatory Ridge

Today a couple of teams climbed Vanishing Gully, Tower Ridge,  the Curtain and Ledge Route.

Skills Around The Boulder

Orion Face, Ob Ridge, Point area

Abacus Mountaineering - Winter Climbing

On Guy's second day of his weekend he wanted to learn some of the basics, so we headed up to the Douglas Boulder and Observatory Ridge snow slopes. We had a long session on slipping, sliding, stopping a slip, and stopping a slide before we moved on to the East Ridge up to the Douglas gap. There we went through the nuts and bolts of abseiling. We moved on to Observatory Gully to look at snow anchors and some of the theory of how to stay safe in and around snow.

At this altitude (up to 900m) the snow was heavy with rain, soft and sticky. This made trail breaking difficult, but the snow was good for solid snow anchors. Moving up the East Gully was secure but a little heavy going. A team had climbed the West Gully. There were many climbing teams bailing left, right and centre today, but Mike Pescod climbed one of the CIC ice falls with Waterfall Gully, and Richard and Tony and Mark climbed a new VI,5 near Green Gully.

Guy learning the ropes - or actually arresting, with a great backdrop

Guy on his way out of East Gully

Guy getting to grips with body belaying

Guy trying various abseil techniques off a bollard

Good Friday Climb

Incomplete Point 5 Gully, Observatory Buttress, Smith's Route, Tower Scoop

I teamed up with Andy Stotesbury to have a look at the Ben today. After a headtorch start we nearly made it first into Observatory Gully, but were beaten to it by Rocio and Ben. They took a look at Smith's Route but decided it was a little thin with water running behind - so they left it, as did we - off to plan b. However, Kenny, Guy and John went up Smith's on the Icicle variation.

Orion Faces, Observatory Ridge, Point 5 Gully

Point 5 is still not there - or Zero, and the lower section of Observatory ridge looks like it almost has zero snow, as does the lower section of NE Buttress.

Smith's Route

Andy Stotesbury with Tower Gap behind

We opted for Good Friday Climb, to give us something from the day, as neither of us had done it before. We found another team on it, who told us about their successful string of climbs over the last week.

The traverse of Good Friday Climb (III***). Andy about to start across the traverse - just unclipping from the in-situ nut.

The second pitch of Good Friday Climb

The whole climb had some great neve, but also a great deal of ice crusted sugar snow. The traverse in particular had that booming hollow sound for the feet, below the ice crust, and the ice was not always good for screws. The main ice after the traverse, however was on the most part good and thick in places.

The summit

Little Brenva Face in Coire Leis

We came down via the abseil posts into Coire Leis to check out the Little Brenva Face.

People were climbing Tower Scoop, Good Friday Climb, a team gearing up below Indicator Wall (climbed?), Smith's Route(?), Tower Gully, Tower Ridge.

Observatory Ridge

One of the hard initial pitches

A spectacular view whilst belaying - Tower Scoop was busy today (people on RHS - 6 people), and can you spot the 2 teams on the main face

Orion Direct was busy today. Here you can see Tamsin building a belay, and Adam higher bringing his 2 clients up.

The weather was very kind to us today. I was hot all day, and often belayed without gloves. We had rain in the morning, and a brief spell of very poor vis at the summit at the end

With poor weather just around the corner for Wednesday and Thursday, We needed to make the most of today. It was a day for Observatory Ridge. As we got to the base of the route, we worried that the crowds were all heading for our route, but not to worry, it seemed to be a very busy day on Orion Direct instead. We were the only team on the ridge. The snow was pulling badly in the first couple of pitches, making life very exciting. On one steep section there was no snow at all so I had to stow the axes and resort to hands. All in all the conditions were a little poor for the route making going tougher than the expected V,4. However the upper section had bomber neve (making up for the absence of gear).