York Alpine Club Blog

Archive for the ‘Extended trips’ Category

Sun, Rock and Stanage Girls (Sun Rock trip 1 of 2)

Monday, April 14th, 2014

The YAC sun rock trip (1 of 2) took six of us to the sunny locale of El Chorro. Home to the most gigantic selection of limestone I have ever seen. Pete, Rob, and Myself opted to head out a few days earlier than the others, arriving at Malaga airport around 9:00 after a 4:00 am start (thanks to Karl for driving us to the airport).

From Malaga we wasted no time getting on the rock, the first stop was Valle de Abdalajis, a sun trap just east of El Chorro, and the first big crag you come to on the drive in. Here we started on Un Pobre Infeliz, which was optimistically graded as 4+ (turns out that is was 5/5+ according to the Rockfax update – that'll teach us not to read the update). Not only was the grade incorrect but the lower off wasn't in the right place on the topo, or even a convenient place! Anyway, having freaked ourselves out with a route we fully expected to romp up with ease, we turned our attention to other routes, El Olvillo del Osilllo (5+) amongst others, an entertaining climb into a runnel with a very traditional feel about it – highly recommended.

Day two was wet (as was day three but more on that in a moment) so we headed off to look at the Camino del Ray, which from most reports had become impassable due to the removal of the via ferrata wires. This turned out to be mostly untrue and we were able to access the walkway from the climbers via ferrata, although the wire is missing on the initial traverse you can clip into the staples which seem safe enough. The cable was there for the walkway proper and we have an enjoyable time getting to the end of the gorge – interesting in places where the walkway has clearly seen better days! Reports from later in the week say the cable protecting the climbing just after the initial walkway has now been removed. So it sounds like places to remove the cables are taking place, just slowly. Back to the bunkhouse for pasta and sausage for dinner.

Day three started out wet-ish so we tried our luck further out from El Chorro and headed to Turon. Here we had to valiantly fend off giant rats, who tried to nick our lunch, but also managed two nice routes before the heavens opened and we had to retreat to overhanging shelter of Desplomilandia, via a small spanish bar for some coffee. We had just enough time to get a coffee and pickup a hitch hiker (Neils from Germany) who was looking for a lift back to El Chorro. Unfortunately, for Neils, we weren't going to El Chorro straight away but gave him a lift halfway back, he was very grateful and as payment told us we'd only completed half the Camino Del Ray, the other half being at the far end of the gorge, opps. Desplomilandia was steep enough to keep us dry but as a consequence offered limited climbing options save two polished and slightly bold 5+'s. It did however give us ideas for later that week, a bunch of 6a/6b climbs that were too wet for today provided some fun later in the week. Then back to the bunkhouse for pasta and sausage for dinner.

The weather was picking up by day 4 and we set off to Frontalas Bajas to climb in the sun! A disembodied hello was heard as we passed the train tunnels on the way to the crag, it was Neils, our hitchhiker. He joined us while his friend was sleeping of a hangover, Rob paired up with him and climbed what looked like some lovely rock but at 6c it was too much for me so Pete and I headed off together. Amongst the best were Zulu Express (6a+) and Stanage Girls (6a). Stanage girls gets a star in the guide but in my opinion deserves at least two, superb climbing and quite sustained at the grade! One to lookout for if you're in the area. Then back to the bunkhouse for pasta and sausage for dinner.

The rest of the party joined us this day, Karl, Catherine, and Gav. The later two set off for harder stuff (or perhaps just went back to bed). Karl, however, joined Rob, Pete and myself on the 10 pitch Rogelio (6a+ – really just 9 pitches of 4/5 and one 6a+ move on the last pitch but this doesn't sound as awesome as 10 pitches of 6a+ so you should ignore this comment and imagine us battling away to the final bolt) at Escalera Arabe. And a battle it was, at least for Rob, our rope got stuck on the first abseil and Rob had to prussic back up. Thankfully a handy pair of German girls saved Rob from having to go the whole way on his own. Anyway, this gave us time to meet the local mountain goats as we sat on the belay stance. Then back to the bunkhouse for pasta and sausage for dinner.

And onto my final day in Spain, we headed for Desplomilandia to try the nice 6a/6a+ routes we'd seen some days earlier. Top choice for the day has to be Sin mantenimiento (6a) with a nice overhang made easier by some fortuitously located jugs. Also the adjacent (+1) route Kung fu Panda (6a+ ???) is worth a punt, and not only for the name. Then back to the bunkhouse for pasta and sausage for dinner.

Day eight was stared with a full english then many many talk on Nuclear Physics. Opps, wrong blog, this is where I leave the Spanish crowd to head back to work. Of course the rest of the trip must have been awful but you'll have to wait for one of those who stayed to tell you in part two of the scintillating stories from Spain.

Posted in Climbing, Extended trips | No Comments »

Crianlarich Christmas Meet

Tuesday, January 8th, 2013

27-31 December 2012, Ochils Mountaineering Club Hut, Crianlarich.

Members present: N Naylor, R Stone, P Stracchino, A Kitchener, S Perry, S Caldwell, C Elphick, A Gostling, P Evans.

The club enjoyed good weather during the previous three visits to this hut and unfortunately this good run came to an end in what was a wet and windy week.

Thursday

Rob and I set off from York very early and met up with Peri around midday at the Loch Lomond Visitor Centre. Our objective was to climb Ben Vane and we set off in reasonable weather with the summit in full view as we walked west up the Glen.

As we approached the summit it started to snow a little and the wind also increased making walking conditions quite difficult. On reaching the summit we decided to return by a different route and Rob, using his Winter ML training skills, led us safely off the mountain.

Friday
Very little activity on this day due to the cold and very wet weather. Anne , Peter, Carmen, Alan and Simeon ventured out for low level walks and returned very wet, the rest of us enjoyed the warmth and comfort of the recently built kitchen extension.

Saturday
Weather wise this was one of the best days of the meet and all of us with the exception of Anne and Peter headed of to the Ben Lawers range to climb Meall Corranaich and Meall a’ Choire Leith. Both summits were below cloud level and freezing level making it an enjoyable walk across the ridges between the summits, the strong winds however made it feel very cold. On one of the gentle snow covered slopes we had the added enjoyment of doing some glissading.

Peter and Annie did a MB circuit of the Ardgartan Peninsular. The route takes an anti clockwise circuit of the peninsular following forest tracks to a Coire Lochan, NNW on superb singletrack down into Lochgoilhead. From Lochgoilhead it was road, the B839, for a short distance then 5km plus of uphill in Gleann Mor then a similar distance down Glen Croe back to the car. 24 mile route.

Sunday
It was raining again in the morning and Rob, Alan, Simeon and me decided to have a short day climbing Meall Ghaordaidh. The rain turned to snow on reaching higher ground and the strength of the wind also increased. We battled our way through the head-on snow and wind to within 150m of the summit where the strength of the wind made it very difficult to progress further. At this point we decided the only option was to turn around and head back to the car and leave the summit for another day.
Peter and Annie did a MB tour of Glen Finglass, near Callandar. The route starts from the village of Brig o Turk. From the village hall take the road up to the reservoir, where the road forks it is important to go right and steeply uphill. The ride follows the east shore of the reservoir until part way along they turned right to follow Allt Gleann Meann on a track which circuits a hill call Moine nan Each. When they reached the snowline it became impossible to cycle, the snow was 6 inches deep in places. As they began a high level traverse a snow storm turned into a blizzard and Annie was drawn to ask Peter several times whether they were being sensible, Peters response, through frozen extremities, was to continue on only allowing Annie a brief moment to have a sandwich. Once at the top and a view, after some initial sliding downhill through snow they were rewarded with an excellent long downhill bumpy track. Once at the bottom of the down it was possible to fight the hot aches and warm up a bit before retracing our steps back to Brig o Turk. 15 mile route.
Simon and Carmen – Strong winds led to the cancellation of their Munro plans and instead they headed for Lochearnhead, intending to climb either or both of the two Corbetts Creag Mac Ranaich and Meall an t-Seallaidh. After a couple of abortive attempts to leave the village (the start of the route is off the edge of the map), we battled up Glen Kendrum through deep snow and strengthening winds, before admitting defeat when we reached the pass (600m). It was hard to stay upright, and cliffs downwind would have made it too dangerous to continue.

Monday (New Year’s Eve)
We awoke to torrential rain again. Alan and Simeon returned home on this day, and Rob and I decided to do so as well.
Peter and Annie did a scenic drive via the spectacular Falls of Dochart and the southern shore of Loch Tay to Aberfeldy. Whilst in the Bookshop in Aberfeldy, Annie found a leaflet about the Birks of Aberfeldy (Waterfalls) so in improving weather they went on a walk to look at them and given the recent rainfall they were spectacular.

Simon and Carmen remained at the hut and the forecast rain overnight took longer than predicted to subside. Trying to stay optimistic they headed for Ben Lawers anyway, and after sitting in the car for 15 minutes watching the rain, it eventually stopped and they set off at 11.15. The stream crossing on the nature trail was a raging torrent (the dam just upstream was overflowing) so they had a lengthy detour up the glen before they could cross. But their optimism paid off for once, and apart from a brief snow shower at the col, it stayed dry all day and they got to the summits of Bheinn Ghlas (twice) and Ben Lawers. Strong winds made going difficult between the two, but nowhere near as bad as the day before. On the return leg between Ben Lawers and Bhein Ghlas, the clouds lifted slightly, and they were treated to an hour of sunshine, the only sight of the sun during the whole trip.

That evening, the three Scots who were also staying helped make up for Simon Fox's absence, by going to bed before 10pm. The rest stayed the course by eating, drinking, and playing cards. Carmen proved to be pathologically incapable of cheating, even when playing Cheat, and Annie did some strange things with fruit.

Posted in Extended trips, Mountaineering, Walking, Winter | 1 Comment »

The pain in spain stays mainly on the plane

Saturday, April 21st, 2012

This years sun rock trip was organised by Dave D and CourtnAy who sent us to Calpe

The tourist hell hole of Calpe

on the Costa Blanca. The weather slot machine was paying out, coming up with 9 big yellow suns in a row, so our main issue became finding crags with enough shade for a mid day siesta. We even had a poolside barbeque one night, eating the ridiculously cheap and fresh langoustines from the local supermarket – we were almost drooling over the fish counter. And did I mention that instead of ducks on the local pond there were flamingos?

With a bit of pre trip research, we managed to completely avoid polished or crowded crags. Simon and Carmen appeared to have a mission to seek out anything which involved squirming through limestone tubes,

Carmen in a tube, Morro Falqui

Cef in a tube...

surely not...another tube

and Cef did an interesting impression of a cork being squeezed out of a bottle at one point, ripping his T shirt to shreds in the process. Another group of us fell in love with the climbing at Montessa, which had a great range of grades on strong natural lines among Brimham like pinnacles overlooking a castle. Did I mention the friction was fabulous and the bolting faultless? We also loved the climbing at Pena Rubra, delicate, technical and well bolted.

Sang trait (6a) Guadalest

Speaking of castles, we soon discovered we had historians among us. The area we were climbing in was fought over by Romans, Visigoths (wore black and moped a bit), Moors and Spaniards, and each lot left mosaics and castles behind. These had a magical effect on CourtnAy and Dave, who only had to spot a crumbling wall to come over all Time Team, and one afternoon after mixed opinions on the crags at Guadalest the non-fans among us gave up on climbing to scramble up to a castle on top of a crag which I would guess nobody had visited in decades.

Scrambling up to the castle

Looking through the Moorish ruins

The view from the top of the castle crag

Meanwhile, Father Jack was in full fledged Twitcher mode, heading off each day in search of exotic birdlife and returning with tales of driving axle deep through swamps whilst everything feathered hid and laughed at him. I think there may also have been a day or two of mountain biking (I bet you can tell how excited I am…).

We finally came to the end of our stay almost climbed out, and gleefully checked our mail to see how our weather had compared to back home. I know schadenfreude is a terrible thing, but I think we were all anticipating (I wont say hoping for) mist and murk, turned out it had been a heatwave in Yorkshire too. Ah well.

The last day - climbing at Toix Placa

Other photos

me
simon and carmen:
CourtnAy

Team:
Andrew (Father Jack)
Pete the Pie
Cef
Peri
Simon
Carmen
Graham
Claire G
Dave D
CourtnAy

Posted in Climbing, Extended trips | 5 Comments »

New Year in Elphin

Wednesday, January 11th, 2012

For the New Year meet this year, we headed to Elphin, north of Ullapool – a long way away, but one of the best parts of Scotland. If the weather played ball there are fantastic walks to be had, and fantastic winter climbing.

Of course the weather wasn't cooperative, but we all had a great time anyway.

On what turned out to be the clearest weather of the week, Ben, Carmen and I walked up the trio of Corbetts that make up Quinag. Carmen had been waiting for years to do this hill, rain always previously stopping play. Despite being snow-free and cloudy, the summits were clear, and it stayed dry. Simon & Debra meanwhile went up Cul Mor, another Corbett near the hut.

Peri, Peter, and Annie now arrived, and with them came storms. The next day was so bad that apart from a few short forays to view some waterfalls being blown upward near the hut, the farthest we got was to the excellent Lochinver Pie Shop.

The forecast for the following day wasn't promising, but Ben, Peri, Carmen and I got out anyway, and had an exciting day in the snow on the Corbett Glas Bheinn. On the col which followed the wind was so strong we were struggling to move, but we persevered in the hope that the wind was being funnelled through the gap and would be better higher up – and so it proved, so we continued to traverse over Beinn Uidhe before descending to the car we'd left at Inchnadamph.

Ben Mor Coigach was our objective the next day, with more snow due before a thaw, but crucially with light winds at first which we hoped would allow us to get across the narrow ridge before conditions worsened. It worked out quite well, with good views (and even – very briefly – some sun). The traverse continued around to Sgurr an Fhidleir, with views of the classic HVS rock climb (and grade-silly winter climb) of the Fiddler's Nose following the main arete. The threatend thaw duly arrived on the last hill, and the snow turned quickly to rain, so we fled back to the cars.

Another wet day saw some on a coastal walk to the Old Man of Stoer sea stack, and others walking/cycling to Sandwood Bay.

On the final day, we did another fine walk, traversing the Corbett of Breabag near Inchnadamph. The snow had all gone, but new snow arrived during the day. A fine trackless hill, there'd be a well-worn path if it were just 100m higher!

Not the best week's weather we've had, but far from the worst, and a trip to the far north west is always good. No Munros, but 6 Corbetts and a Graham (whatever one of those is). We still need to go back to do some of the winter routes!

More photos here
Debra's photos here
Peri's photos here

Tags: corbetts, pie shop, snow, thaw
Posted in Extended trips, Scrambling, Walking, Winter | 1 Comment »

Lundays

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

Behold - the kraken wakes!

Suntan lotion – check. Ab ropes – check. Ferry tickets – check. Yup, York Alpine Club plus friends are off on our summer holidays to Lundy.

Gannet Buttress

Lundy (norse for puffin) Island is a 2 1/2 by 3/4 mile granite plateau in the middle of the Bristol Channel. It's reached by a two hour ferry crossing, and it's a sea cliff climbers paradise.

We stayed in The Barn, which is like a climbing hut only posher, and sleeps 14 in separate beds – no cramped sleeping platforms here. With a shower and decent kitchen its ideal for self catering – except you are also two minutes away from The Marisco Tavern which does good cheap meals.

Some goats for Debra

Lundy has fantastic wildlife and is also a marine conservation area, so along with the soay sheep, goats, Lundy ponies and sika deer, seals were also a regular presence, popping up to watch our antics and offer beta (I assume thats what the sealy honks and barks were). At one point me and Crofty counted 14 seals below us, basking on the rocks and swimming in conga lines through the clear water.

Rob cruises Satan's Slip, Simon discovers The Shark is not VS!

The quality of the rock and climbs was fantastic, and lots of personal targets were ticked, too many to mention but a particular highlight was Simon C's accidental onsight of an E1 -quote- "I thought it felt a bit hard for VS". Since you managed it cleanly, Simon, we'll be expecting to see a few more logged soon… SWS (shallow water solo) queen was Courtney, who got a soaking three days in a row. Courtney enjoyed the ferry trip so much she did it four times, as she had an interview half way through the week.

Teflon Pete coming round the final corner of Albion

With so much quality climbing on the island, and 14 climbers it would be tedious to list all the routes done, so I won't, but at some point almost everyone made it onto the Devil's Slide, and I think we all went away with just as many new targets on our wish lists as targets we had ticked during our stay.

I suspect we will be going back but be warned – the barn is popular, and gets booked up around two years in advance.

Who went:

YAC: Peri, Rob, Simon C, Carmen, Courtney, Cef, Simon F, Debra, Annie, Pete E, Pete B
UKC: Teflon Pete
York Climbers: Graham Booth, Rachel, Crofty (and family)

Logistics

Travel: six hours from York, then two hours on the M.S. Oldenburg from Ilfracombe (£58 return)
Accomodation: The camping barn costs about £1300 in total for a week in August, but sleeps 14 so is pretty good value. There is other, more luxurious, accommodation on the island that is much more expensive, and also a decent campsite which can be booked at quite short notice (cost about £11 per night).
Lundy Island website for more details: http://www.lundyisland.co.uk/

Pics:

Tags: lundy, seals, soakings, sun
Posted in Climbing, Extended trips | 1 Comment »

The Cabin

Friday, June 10th, 2011

This year's late May meet was to Balgowan (near Laggan), and a new hut for the club – The Cabin.

As usual, Carmen and I went up a week early, to take advantage of the good weather that's guaranteed in May. Unfortunately they'd used up all the good weather in April, so we were left with a week of rain and gales.

There looked to be a brief weather window on Sunday and Monday, so we decided to take advantage of it. Setting off on Sunday morning from Old Atholl, we cycled up Glen Tilt to Forest Lodge. From here we walked up the glen to Tarf Falls, and took in the remote Munros of An Sgarsoch and Carn an Fhidhleir before descending to the Tarf Hotel bothy. It was mostly sunny but with gale force winds making progress difficult; showers late in the day gave some good rainbows. A final wade across a knee-deep river took us to the bothy. Somehow, over 25 years of walking in Scotland, I'd managed to avoid staying in a bothy before – I hope they're all as good as the Tarf Hotel!

The forecast was for a dry start the next day, with rain and hurricane-force winds arriving in the afternoon. So we set the alarm for 6am, intending to walk back out over Carn a' Chlamain to Forest Lodge before the weather broke. Unfortunately it broke early and the rain was torrential and horizontal, so we went back to sleep until lunchtime. The bothy had acquired its own moat overnight, which at least meant we could collect water without leaving the hut. Then the rain stopped and the sun came out so we made a break for it. The eye of the storm lasted for less than an hour, and we were soon wet and struggling to make progress in the wind, despite some shelter from the hill. We admitted defeat at 800m and contoured round the summit to pick up the stalkers track back down. The cycle back down the glen was straight into the wind, and several times we had to get off and push the bikes downhill in order to make any progress.

We now abandoned all plans of camping, and headed for the hut, which fortunately was empty so we stayed for the week.

The best weather was usually to the north and east, so we planned accordingly. A walk up the Corbett of Corryhabbie Hill north of Grantown was followed by climbing at Logie Head – good climbing, and good for the ego as almost everything is grossly overgraded. We made the most of a slight brief improvement in the weather with a walk up the four Strathfarrar Munros – cloudy but mostly dry.

The rest of the club now arrived (Peter, Rob, Annie, Simon, Debra, Mike and Sharon), but sadly didn't bring any better weather.

Rob and Peter provided Annie with her traditional near-death epic, by taking her up an easy scramble in the rain on the east ridge of Beinn a' Chaorainn, while Simon and Debra did some Corbetting near Aviemore, and Mike and Sharon went mountain biking in a tea shop.

Fortunately we've already done everything near the hut so were able to head north east again, for a sunny (but very windy) walk up Ben Rinnes. This hill is a bit like Simon's Seat, in that there's a massive path to the top, which has lots of granite tors – perfect for scrambling and climbing, but with no recorded routes and no sign of any ascents. We did a bit of scrambling below the main summit, but the chief challenge was not being blown over so we mostly just looked. A number of isolated blocks looked like fun, but none had any easy way off so any route up would need to be down-climbed, and the easiest looked a bit too hard! The much larger face of the Scurran of Well looked to have promise – and probably does, but the cracks were wet (and vertical) and the faces protectionless.

On Sunday, Rob continued to break in his new fell shoes with a long very wet traverse of the Monadhliath hills in moderately foul weather (for some reason there was nobody else on the hill). Most of the others opted for something a little lower, and even fouind some sun on Druim an Aird. Meanwhile, we went climbing at Cummingston – a bit like Scugdale by the sea, and again with some very flattering grades. And also with a knee-wrecking VS chimney called Kneewrecker Chimney which duly wrecked my knees before I retreated.

Finally, as is becoming the norm, the sun came out on the day we were due to head home. Peter and Annie did some climbing between showers at Kingussie Crag while Rob got sunburnt ticking some of the Munros east of the Drumochter Pass. Carmen and I climbed at Polney Crag just outside Dunkeld – reminiscent of Tremadog with several 1- and 2-pitch routes and lots of trees. A really good crag, pick of the routes was Carmen's lead of The Groove (VS 5a ***), a rare example of a route that is easier for the short.

More of our photos here .
And Debra's here.

Tags: eye of the storm, gale force winds, hurricane force winds, rainbows, wet Munros
Posted in Climbing, Crags, Extended trips, Scrambling, Walking | No Comments »

Easter 2011

Thursday, May 5th, 2011

After a few weeks of constant sunshine, a rainy blip was forecast to coincide with our Easter trip to Torridon, so a few of us decided to break the long drive up to camp near Glen Lyon on Thursday night and do some Munro bagging the next day. The group of 4 to the north of the glen was chosen, and turned out to be a short easy day, despite adding on all the Tops as well (as I missed them out on my previous visit and am a sad completist – not sure what everyone else's excuse is!). Map here.

Arriving at the Ling Hut later that evening the weather was still kind. But the next morning, it wasn't, with strong winds and persistent light rain. It seemed brighter towards the coast though, so we all headed for Alligin Shuas, near Diabaig. A pleasant walk round the coast included some bouldering from Rob and some rock-pool-gazing from Carmen and Debra, with signs of (probably) an otter's holt by the sea. We'd thought about including a grade 3 scramble at Diabaig, but had left the guidebook in the hut and weren't sure where it went. I had a play on the rocks right of the crag, which weren't the described scramble but quite fun anyway, before catching the others up on the way through the complex landscape of the route back (would make a good location for a mountain marathon!). Map here.

The next day the rain was heavier and more persistent. But by mid afternoon it seemed to be easing off slightly, so Peter, Rob, Carmen and I set off for Ben Alligin, and were rewarded by a lovely dry afternoon/evening. I've done Ben Alligin several times before but it never fails to impress. Map.

Monday was drive-home day, so of course the sun came out. Despite the long drive ahead, most of us opted for a day's climbing. Carmen and I headed for the south face of Sgurr a'Chaorachain, a massive 5 minute walk from the road, where we climbed Bumbly One (HS 4a) – some good climbing in 4 pitches but lots of scrambling too, worthwhile but not a patch on Sword of Gideon on the next buttress (which we climbed last year). We were finished by 2.30 so managed to get home at a reasonable hour.

Which is more than can be said for Peri, Peter and Rob, who went for a look at the Cioch Nose. This classic VDiff (now Severe) was part of Rob's quest to tick the whole of Classic Rock, and after being rained off with Luke last year he was keen for a rematch. After getting slightly lost on the walk in, and taking much longer than expected on the finishing scramble, they eventually got back to York at around 3am!

Even though the weather wasn't the best we've had, it was far from the worst too. The Ling Hut has had a generator installed since our last visit in 2004, so you no longer have to pump water by hand – luxury! There are still no showers (or hot water), but there are public showers available in Torridon village if required (we made do with the cold stream outside the hut!). Hopefully it won't be another 7 years before we go back.

Lots more photos here.
Debra's pictures here.

Tags: bumbly, Classic Rock, Munros, rain
Posted in Climbing, Crags, Extended trips, Scrambling, Walking | 1 Comment »

Sun, Rock and Owls

Saturday, April 16th, 2011

Julie on the steep initial scramble of the Caval Bernat Ridge

This years sun rock trip to majorca belied Simon's dire predictions of rain and snow. The sun shone all week and bt the end of the holiday with temperatures in the high twenties we were seeking out shady crags.

Our flights went without a hitch – well, almost, unless you count Cef's panicked realisation that he had left his keys in his front door. Back in York Fliss and Tom went to the rescue – problem solved. As we approached the island I got my first taste of the landscape – a sheer knife edge ridge guarding the north west corner. Wow, I thought, this is going to be good.

Arrived at our villa and another wow – a beautifully converted former mine nbuilding on four storeys, complete with swimming pool. And it turns out, complete with in situ owl. This owl hooted every 3 seconds all night, and team Twitcher Andrew told us it was a Scops Owl. This is not what we heard him call it later in the week, as it turns out it was Andrews room it liked to hoot outside.

Los Perxes

Anyway, a quick unpack and we were off to Los Perxes, the local crag for an evenings climbing – not bad after a 5.30am start.

Over the next week we visited various crags in various orders. My personal favourites were:

La Creveta– pristine grey frictiony limestone slabs high above a coastal valley. The approach to this feels quite adventurous, especially if, like Tracy and Pete B, you go over the wrong col and end up abseiling in down the routes…

Looking down from the second pitch of the Gubia Normale

Sa Gubia was another highlight. It is the biggest climbing area on the island with big multipitch routes. Most of us visited at some point, either to do the 7 pitch trad route, the Gubia Normale (4+) or one of the various multipitch sport routes. Even the scramble up to the top of the crags from the end of the routes is long, exposed and exciting. Several people also did The Sharks Fin, a trad route on a formation shaped like-guess what – in the Boquet Valley, and another favourite was Cala Magraner aka the Bay of Pigs – apparently YAC visited this on a previous trip and were molested by rogue piggies. The climbing here was good, but the main attraction was the beach location – when too hot to climb we just went for a swim.

Puig San Marti

Other crags visited included Sestre (which I thought was very polished in places and a bit scruffy), Puig y Garafa, Puig San Marti (met some nice germans here who helped out with gear where the bolt had been removed from the crux), La Victoria, and on the last day we visited a small crag, Can Ortigues, chiefly because Rockfax reccomended it as an easy access crag for an airport day. Unfortunately it turned out quite a few people had also bought the rockfax, and with quite a few shared starts and lower offs there was a bit of waiting for routes, although a spanish team very kindly allowed us to climb on their lower gear.

Puig y Garafa

Non climbing days included a mass gorge descent of the Torrent De Pareis, during which Carmen accidentally (she claims) punched Annie, and Annie crawled inside a pebble.

The Caval Bernat Ridge (scramble)

For me, the highlight was possibly not a climbing day, but the day we spent scrambling the ridge we saw from the plane. This looked steep and intimidating in places, but as we approached each desperate looking section hold magically appeared. I have never done a scramble so continuously exposed and sheer – at one point Rob dropped a pebble from the ridge and we counted 7 seconds till it hit the sea. As we finished the steep sections mountain goats appeared and made us look clumsy by skipping effortlessly over the slabs. A stunning and memorable day.

rest of my pics here

Tags: majorca, owls, sun
Posted in Climbing, Extended trips, Scrambling | 3 Comments »

New Year 2010

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

This year we stayed at Blackrock Cottage, Glencoe – a new hut for the club. A few people were put off by the lack of running water (apart from a stream behind the hut), but 7 hardy souls made the trip north – me, Carmen, Simon F, Debra, Peter, Ben, and Peri.

Unlike last year, when we had superb conditions throughout our trip, the 2010/11 meet began with a major thaw. We arrived on Monday 27th, and it rained for most of the night.

Not to be deterred, Carmen and I went searching for ice the next day, and surprised ourselves by finding some in the form of The Weep (II/III), over 1000 feet of ice on the flanks of Creise. Just when we thought it was all over, having climbed everything that can be seen from the bottom, we turned the corner and found that the ice continued. This provided us with another two long pitches making 8 in all, probably about 350m or more. Mostly easy, but with a couple of grade 3 pitches just above half height, it would make a good route for beginners as for most of the way it is easy to escape and many of the steeper sections can be avoided. We finished with an "interesting" descent as we slowly picked a way through steep crags in fast-disappearing light.

Meanwhile the others opted for an ascent of Beinn a' Chrulaiste, a Corbett above the King's House Hotel. Despite limited views they took in the lower summits of Meall Bhalach, and finished in the King's House with some well-deserved beer.

The next day being Peri's last chance for some climbing before heading back to feed her iguanadon, she, Ben, and Peter also took a look at The Weep. Continuing mild temperatures meant that it was getting wetter all the time, but even so it was still in good condition. Being a three they were a bit slower, but managed to finish the first half of the route before heading back. Simon, Debra, Carmen and I drove south to tick one of the duller Munros, Meall Ghaordie near Killin, being the closest that Carmen hadn't yet done. A bit of a slog in wet snow, but at least we managed a few long bumslides on the way back down.

Thursday's weather was more of the same, mild and cloudy with the permanent threat of rain. Simon. Debra, Peter and Ben headed for the Bridge of Orchy for some more Munro bagging, while Carmen and I decided to see if there was any climbable ice left on Aonach Dubh. There wasn't. So we went shopping for the New Year's Eve haggis instead, and took the opportunity for the first showers of the week courtesy of the Ice Factor.

On Friday you've guessed it, it rained. It looked vaguely like it might clear up, so I decided to walk up Bidean while the others went to the climbing wall. Having sat in the car park watching the rain for half an hour, I gave in and joined them at the wall. As is becoming traditional, nobody managed to stay up until midnight.

Saturday at last was colder (though not as cold as forecast) and clearer (though not the predicted blue sunny skies). Peter and Ben headed for the two Munros above Allachadair Farm, but had to turn back as Ben wasn't well. The rest of us were booked on an avalanche awareness course with the MCoS, so headed for Aonach Mo where we spent an excellent and very useful on the hill. I'd done a similar course almost 20 years ago, and many of the things I'd been taught then are now rejected as being a waste of time!

Conditions were fast improving again, just in time to go home, but we had one more day in which to get something done. Peter went back to Achalladair Farm and successfully bagged the two Munros in good weather, while Carmen and I returned to Aonach Mor, this time for some climbing. It's supposed to be easy to access, but I'm not sure where it gets this reputation as the approach consists of a gondola ride, followed by a 90 minute slog up hill through the ski slopes, and finally a downclimb of a grade I gully to reach the routes. It wouldn't take much longer to get to Ben Nevis!

Our first choice route, Left Twin, had a group of 3 just starting (typical, only half a dozen teams on the hill and one of them was on 'our' route), so instead we opted for Tunnel Vision (III *). This turned out to be an excellent choice, much better than it looked from below. I got the 55m middle pitch, up ice and steep neve with worryingly spaced protection (almost all the cracks in the rocks were choked with ice and unusable). We topped out at 2pm and briefly considered another route, but this would have meant missing the last gondola and hence a long walk out in the dark, so since the clouds were rolling in we headed back.

The next day it snowed at last, but we were all on our way home.

An excellent little hut with bags of character, and I'm sure we'll go back – though given the lack of facilities, maybe not for a whole week!

More photos here and Debra's here.

Tags: drizzle, haggis, ice, mild, neve, thaw
Posted in Climbing, Extended trips, Walking, Walls, Winter | No Comments »

Sicilian Adventures

Monday, May 10th, 2010

Employing the sheep technique we decided on Sicily for this years sun rock trip, a new place for all 12 of us. Managing to make the trip to Stansted as complex as possible we all got the plane (just), picked up hire cars at Palermo and drove to our base San Vito Lo Capo. Motorways and wiggly roads led us to the 3 apartments that Tracy has booked over t'interweb.

Our base was well chosen as there is a Stanage sized limestone edge about a mile away and a huge cliff in hobbling distance, visible from the rooftop terrace. Back at Palermo (about an hour and a half away) there is a collection of single pitch crags and multi pitch monsters. In between many areas offering more adventurous opportunities as well as some hard bolted lines. In short, tons of rock, sport and trad, much of it still being developed, at all grades and a variety of styles of climbing – slabs, crack, corners, caves and overhangs.

Andrew had hired a tiny car and set off in various directions driving about checking out the salt pans, some local villages, a couple of walks in the national parks and a few encounters with some fences, didn't put him off though! A cake trip with Paula, Tracy and Jules to Palermo provided the other distraction.

We made a good use of the local edge climbing at either end (encountering bees at one end and snakes at the other) with tiny walk-ins and a great collection of routes to head for. Indeed we spent quite a few days here, just in different areas and were never crowded out by other people. Inevitably there were German teams and a few other Brits.

The trip was fairly incident-packed, starting with Pete E's encounter with a bees' nest – which turned out to be more worrying with a few stings the price to pay. Pete and Tracy bailed off the multi-pitch route in Palermo, which was fine until the rope got stuck and Pete had to prussic 30m back up the rope, and it got dark – and no head torches. For Jules and me waiting at the car watching the shenanigans it was all a bit concerning. A handy hint from Pete is that your camera works as a backup torch!

Then it all got a tad more serious with yours truly having to jump off a route whilst down climbing and encountering a very loose huge flake. Bruised heel, thumb and a cut finger put paid to our attempt on the trad multi-pitch on Pizzo Monaco – visible from the apartments – that two teams had done the day before (start uphill from the bedsteads!). Peri, Pete, Simon and Carmen had enjoyed their day

…nice route scary abseil, felt quite lonely up there in deepening twilight after everyone else had gone down waiting for the rope to come free, could hear nightjars calling on the opposite cliff and thought of Andrew Peri

Simon said

Guidebook description left much to be desired, especially pitch lengths.

Which perhaps we should have taken some notice of! After hobbling back – we found Steve V on all fours in agony from a pulled back. Not a great day.

Steve spent the rest of the week working his way through the pharmacy and dragging Paula around the Drs and hospitals but never recovered enough to be able to get back on rock. I was much luckier, with the tiny walk-ins I could still manage to climb but not walk far so the local crags were ideal.

I never ventured to the single and short multi-pitch venue in Palermo, but those that did seemed to agree the grades were stiffer but with some good routes, and one designed with Simon in mind

Clessidre a 3 pitch 5b,5b,5b . Pitch 2 was hard 5c and superb, best pitch of the holiday, winding a way through improbably steep terrain. Pitch 3 was about 5b for one move, and involved climbing up through a hole in the cliff and emerging from the top for a Peak Scar-style finish up a floral grassy ramp.

The other highlights of the holiday seem to invove a large amount of ice cream –
which was rather good, though the eating out possibilities were very limited being a bit early in the season and so many of us. I think smaller parties could have foraged better in the little local cafes.

The return journey was made loads more interesting by the roadworks on the M11 – meaning people arriving back in York at 6am – not great.

I think I echo most peoples views that it was a fantastic venue with some really high quality, non polished routes, well worth seeking out and some great trad to have a go at. It's not as cheap as the Costas (flight around 140 each, car hire similar and apartments quite pricey – but there are cheaper places if you can find them locally) but definitely a different, less busy, less polished destination – as we only only went to one corner of the island so plenty more to explore with all the culture and ruins there as well.

Posted in Climbing, Crags, Extended trips | 2 Comments »