Honeypot

Mess of Pottage

So last night, despite the forecast of winds gusting to 85mph Dave Buckett and I planned to meet and go to Coire an t-Sneachda - it was supposed to ease a little in the afternoon. We arrived at the Cairngorm Mountain bottom gate to find that it was closed and all snow sports were cancelled for the day! There was a lot of black ice of the road to the top car park apparently and it would take an hour or more to clear... What to do, we waited.... At about 9.40am the gate opened and we were allowed up - today waiting paid off. Today there were only a few teams of climbers setting off (less than 10 teams), and there was nobody heading for the Honeypot (IV,6**) on the Mess of Pottage. Dave had unfinished business with the crux of this climb form last year, so he wanted a rematch. The wind had other ideas, and there was a ferocious wind on our backs as we walked in, and the gusts accelerated through the coire and spectacularly shifting snow up the faces. We decided to go for it.

Aladdin's Buttress today

Dave coming up to the end of pitch 2 (a stance below the capped roof pitch)

I had the climb up to the crux. I read the guidebook - 'the start of the climb is V,6 with no build-up' - brilliant, let's go. ... It probably wasn't that hard at the start though! So, in 2 pitches, I got us to the stance just below the capped roof, and it was over to Dave.

Dave setting off on pitch 3

The wind was still awful, and as I watched Dave I thought, is it wise to be standing directly beneath him, when stuff flies down at me - but on this occasion everything was rushing up the face in the wind - fast. Whenever Dave released some snow or ice, it shot up and out of sight.

Dave about to start the crux sequence

Finding a good hook

Find more hooks

The awkward crux moves

Dave dispatched the crux and disappeared from sight. I climbed up to the crux and seemed to feel a lack of gravity, the wind seemed to be actually helping me - until I tried to look around and got punished for not wearing goggles - so I placed axes and feet with eyes open, and pulled with them closed to protect my eyes form the blasts of snow and ice - great. I got to Dave who was sat in the full force of the wind, I stepped past him and the wind threw me to the ground. Okay, goggles on and let's got out of here. We stood shoulder to shoulder trying to talk, but had to shout and still I didn't know what he was saying.

A great day, a great climb.

Winter At Last

Approaching North Gully. We were glad to be here before lunch time after messing around on the icy track for what felt like a couple of hours... A 4 x 4 with winter tyres and chains would be nice.... Okay, that's what I'll buy next time..

Lena finishing the first pitch, before leading the 2nd

Lena leading the 2nd pitch

Lena leading the 4th and final pitch to the top

We were met by a fantastic sunset and awesome view

Winter really has started ... (back in November - but I had to wait until December to see it) ...

Aladdin's Mirror Direct

Having been very busy at Transition lately including Boulder competitions and the like I've only managed out to the hills a couple of times in the last few weeks.  To add to this; not having a great camera at the moment i find myself reluctant to post reports with either no photo or what tends to turn out as low quality photo's from my phone camera (regardless of how good they claim to be).

Sam and I made the most of a day to ourselves and headed off to the Northern Corries for a day out on Sunday.  The weather looked good with very light winds and a reasonable cloud level.  Fortunately MWIS were right (as the are most of the time) and with the recent thaw passed the temperatures have dropped again.  The snowpack is nice and firm giving excellent climbing conditions with plenty of ice where you want it but not much in the cracks so gear is good.

Fed and watered after the walk in!

Aladdin's Mirror Direct (IV) was the plan as it has a nice ice pitch that setting up a bottom rope for Sam to have a play was easy enough.  After a while spent looking at technique and getting the muscles working hard on the steeper sections we grabbed the bags and continued up the rest of the route.  Given that the conditions were so good and a lack of wind we moved together for the most part and made things a little more exciting to finish off the route by taking on the steepest exit from the route.

Sam getting ready for action.

Sam having a play on Aladdin's Mirror Direct (IV)

There's always time to pose for the camera.

The ice was variable but for the most part either thick and chewy or just the right consistency for the axes.  Having said that the ominous dripping around us held true to the inversion that was forecast giving higher temperatures in the corrie than down at loch Morlich.  I reckon after a day or so the ice will really start to form nice and fat again!

The final moves of the ice pitch.

On the upper slopes.

A brief stop and bite to eat on the plateau and we headed round the corrie rim to 1141 and through the Ciste bowl amidst the skiers and boarders.

Finished!

A brilliant day in brilliant conditions made all the easer by the pleasant walking conditions!  Well done Sam for fighting those hot aches on the vertical ice!

Nav Assessment

Stob Dearg - Buachaille Etive Mor

Today was the last navigation assessment day for the first year students at the University in Fort William - WHC, UHI. I was with Ellen and Freya. The weather was cold and clear, and the views away from the low lying fog in Fort William were brilliant. It took a long while to de-ice the van this morning, and everything I saw during the day looked frozen!! I've not seen as much roadside ice in Scotland as this since 2010.

Ellen and Freya busy with their navigation, with Stob Coire Raineach behind

All the views were breathtaking

Congratulations to Ellen and Freya for passing their assessment today.

Blackwater Reservoir

Ben Nevis in the centre - hopefully there were some people on it today to take advantage of the conditions

Wavelength

Lena climbing and Hannah belaying

With a good forecast on the Saturday, Hannah, Lena and I drove over to the N'orries. We got to the barrier which was closed, so we ended up driving up the hill in a convoy and so seemed to walk up the hill in a convoy too. Busy again, lots of climbers out again with such good conditions. We looked for a climb with nobody on, and opted for 'Wavelength' on the Fluted Buttresses, left of Fluted Buttress direct.

Lena leading up pitch 1

As usual the area was busy, with crouds on most of the starred routes. The ice was better than I was expecting, so I was enjoying my sharp picks.

Hannah belaying with Fiacaill Buttress behind

Lena and Hannah made quick work of their pitches, placing good gear and leading confidently.

Hannah making light work of the ice

Hannah coming up to the belay

Hannah about to leave the belay

A good route on a good day with good company. Another 4 months of this please. We happily strolled down the Goat Track to the car park - this time not in a convoy for once...

Lyon PPE Training

Whilst I was in the Lakes for an AMI committee meeting I had the chance to take part in a training day run by Lyon Equipment for AMI members.  The day looked at PPE inspection and maintenance highlights and moved onto equipment use Sports vs. Industrial in areas such as route setting on climbing walls and setting up tensioned lines (eg. Tyroleans and Zip wires).

MMM gear heaven!

 

Looking at Industrial equivalents of Sport set ups.

Within these topics there was a host of information on offer and it was all rounded off niceley by the chance to break some gear.  Items destroyed included various scenarios (cross loading, gate open etc.) with good kit and failure tests with old used and abused kit (providing some interesting results for some).

Breaking kit is always fun (as long as its not in use)!

A great day with loads of information for us to take away and digest.

Raeburn's Route In SCNL

Lena approaching Raeburn's Route (IV,4***) - we can see that there are 2 teams already on it.

The forecast was a little poor today but Lena and I wanted to finish the weekend off with a climb, so we headed back to Stob Coire nan Lochan to take a look. At the carpark, we could see headtorches just disappearing from sight up the valley - good news for us - we could follow their track in through the deep snow. We got to the Coire and could see that there were 2 teams on Raeburn's Route (IV,4***) - which was our plan too. The snow up to the route was still hard work to wade through - up to our knees and waist. We eventually got to the route, and decided to go round the corner and up NC Gully, to skip ahead of the 2 teams on the initial pitch. This did get us ahead of the crowd, but I was rewarded by a big job of working my way through the deep snow on the crux pitch which made it incredibly awkward, both to find the gear and to find rock to pull on! The turf was frozen on the upper section of the climb, but apparently not completely so, on the lower section. The snow was more consolidated than the other day - people were happily climbing NC Gully today. I felt pretty lucky to get a route done today - the weather felt against us, and the snow was deep and hard work. The leader of the next team to the top after us had come from Edinburgh for the day, and his partner and the other team were from Leeds - driving back tonight!

Lena belayed at the 'Tower'

Lena climbing through the poor visibility

Lena leading to the top

Occasionally there were stunnig views

On my way to the top

The top of Raeburn's Route on 9th Dec 2012 from Max Hunter on Vimeo.