Fingers Ridge

Fluted Buttress

Much less wind was forecast today, so I was excited to have an easy weather day of climbing after being beaten up yesterday, when I was out with Dave. I met up with Hannah Evans, and we drove to the east and made our way up to Coire an t-Sneachda. She had her eyes on Fingers Ridge (IV 4/5 ***). We were happy to find nobody else on it, but there were lots of skiers on the pistes and lots of climbers in the coire. We left our ice screws in the car, but we saw other people placing screws in the ice that was about. I was excited to find that the turf is well and truely frozen.

Hannah on the first pitch

We saw lots of people on the Fluted Buttress, Red Gully and Goat Track gully got lots of accents.

Hannah leading off on the second pitch

I enjoyed the first pitch and found the snow soft in places, but under the surface, and exposed in many places it has formed a solid neve. Hannah joined me and took the rack for a walk on the second pitch.

Hannah after the second pitch

After Hannah's rib over looking Broken Gully, we got onto the wall leading to the large right facing open groove - up to the narrow ridge. This is where I clipped an in situ hex, and later when I said to Han - did you see the insitu yellow hex, she pointed at her harness, and asked 'this one?!'

Han on the fine narrow ridge

Hannah enjoyed the ridge, but was excited about leading through the fingers.

Han dealing with the fingers traverse

The blocks on the fingers are well frozen together, and there was a lot of ice on their far side. Still Hannah managed to find some non-winterised cracks for good cam placements.

I'm on the final wall

Eventually I got what I was looking forward to - the final wall. There are brilliant deep hooks all the way up, and it finished with a horizontal axe torque. What else could you ask for.

Stunning scenery. I learnt today that there used to be 3 fingers

Han on the final wall, concentrating on footwork

Hannah showed good footwork on the way up - always looking down, and rarely at the camera!

Han using a brilliant axe shaft torque in a horizontal crack, and applying nearly full body weight

So it was a brilliant day. The weather was great and lots of people were taking good advantage of it. The climbing conditions were awesome, frozen turf, hard neve, and a day full of hooking..

Intro To Winter Mountaineering, Day 2 - Sunday

Tim on his way up the Twin Ribs

Glenmore Lodge - Introduction to Winter Mountaineering

On the second day (Sunday) of the winter mountaineering course Tim, Chris, Gareth,  Elliot and I headed off to the Twin Ribs in Coire an t-Sneachda. This was a close venue to help Gareth make a quick exit at lunchtime to catch his flight home. We looked at some simple ropework, different types of anchor and belay techniques, before we did what Chris was looking forward to - a small abseil.

For the second day in a row the thaw was making the snow soft, but still Aladdin's Mirror Direct was climbed as well as most of the usual suspect mixed climbs.

Chris climbing up to the belay

Gareth making his way off to catch a flight

Mess of Pottage

Aladdin's and Fluted Buttresses

The Slant

Glenmore Lodge - Intro to Winter Climbing

On day 1 (Saturday) I met Chris and Dave to introduce them to the delights of winter climbing. They had done the odd grade I before, but never anything harder with a rope (except being guided up Mont Blanc). We headed into a beautiful Coire an t-Sneachda and on to the Slant (II). There was a steep learning curve for Chris and Dave to take on, rope, knots, belays, belaying, organisation, exposure, 2 axes etc - but they soaked it up. We moved on to a little mixed climbing at the end of the day in preparation for tomorrow (Sunday). We finished the day looking at top roping, being lowered down a pitch and belaying as he climbed out. Back at Glenmore Lodge we looked at rope systems, tying in again, clove hitches, anchors in and out of reach - heads bursting, it was the end of day 1.

Aladdin's and Fluted Buttresses

Fiacaill Buttress

Mess of Pottage

Dave and Chris on The Slant

Dave and Chris being introduced to climbing rock on crampons

A brilliant day

Learning to belay - top roping each other down/up a pitch

Twin Ribs

Aladdin's and Fluted Buttresses

Glenmore Lodge - Winter Mountaineering

On the second day of the course Al, George, Guy and Gavin wanted some movement coaching on grade I/II scrambling and a look at some basic ropework, so we headed off to the Twin Ribs for a short climb with a lot of variety to look at. The top Cairngorm Ski Resort Car Park was full by 9am (there were cars streaming up there at 8am). When I was walking in to the coire later at 9.30am the ski slopes were already crouded with hundreds of people. There were other hundreds moving into the northern corries. It was an incredibly busy day, but we had the Twin Ribs to ourselves all day :)

I set the team different mixed climbing problems to result in different movements. The team learnt about crampon precision discipline and axe uses. We moved onto ropework and finished with abseiling off rock and bollard anchors. An amazing day at work.

Al and Guy approaching Twin Ribs

Guy about to tackle a mixed boulder problem

Tackling a slab on crampons

Getting to grips with a little ropework

George with much improved technique and confidence

On Twin Ribs

You see this .... it's a snow bollard. I think I was talking bollards ...

George loving it

Guy

Sunset on my way home :)

Winter Skills In Coire an t-Sneachda

A climbing team of 3 backing off from Aladdin's Buttress

Today I was again with the group of 6 from Edinburgh Uni Hill Walking Club (Alex, Briony, Tonje, Stuart, Douglas, Justin), working on the MC of S Winter Skills weekend at Glenmore Lodge. We headed into Coire an t-Sneachda in very blowy conditions - and about the coldest windchill I've had this winter. We met about 5 climbing teams heading out of the Coire. One team retreated from the snow slopes below the Mess of Pottage - wise! We saw another team trying to climb on Aladdin's Buttress, but eventually retreated. We heard climbing calls from somewhere on Aladdin's Buttress too, perhaps Aladdin's Mirror Direct - we saw climbers at that belay.

Aladdin's Buttress, Fluted Buttress and the Goat Track - the snow slopes all loaded with slab

We made our way to the flat ice (which was in excellent frozen exposed condition) for some crampon training. After a bit of coaching and new confidence the team started the journey up the neve towards the Fiacaill Ridge notch.

Douglas with Fiacaill Buttress behind

On the Fiacaill Buttress climbers were climbing the Couloir, and Invernookie - several teams on each.

Hard neve below Fiacaill Buttress

Climbers on Fiacaill Couloir and Invernookie

Dave Haygarth with his 2 climbing clients at the notch on the Fiacaill Ridge

Dave about to head off down into Coire an t-Sneachda

A final bumslide towards the end of the day

At the end of a great journey, we looked at ice axe arresting to complete all the objectives that the team wanted to look at this weekend. Great company - thanks for a great weekend.

The lower section of Fiacaill Ridge in the background

We found lots of patches of unconsolidated slab on our journey today, with unstable layers and easy shearing. There was a small patch of slab about 10cm thick that we couldn't avoid on the neve up towards the notch on the ridge, but a determined front point easily penetrated through to the neve below. Even the lower section of the ridge had patches of unconsolidated slab, which we were able to work around.