York Alpine Club Blog

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Not over till it's over

Friday, April 30th, 2010

20 degrees in the valleys, hottest weekend of the year so far – plan for the weekend after Easter? Go ice climbing on the Ben of course! Me and Matt left York at about 1pm on the Friday, with a stop at Tescos for food and Fort William for fish and chips. Got to the north face car park for 8.30, by which time Simon and Carmen were already sitting back with a cup of tea in the hut. It was still light enough to walk through the woods without torches, getting overtaken on the way by several other climbers with disconcertingly smaller packs than us. The rest of the walk up the Allt A Mhuilinn was somewhat soul destroying as the lights of the CIC hut floated in front of me, never getting any closer. Walking up hill with a heavy sack immediately after eating fish, chips and mushy peas is also not to be recommended.

Despite the summer-like temperatures, the signs of a good winter were evident around the hut – some huge snow drifts from around 600m and the north face glistening white in the star light. Reports in the hut mainly involved people backing off routes because of dodgy conditions – not too encouraging. A relatively early start the next morning saw Simon and Carmen heading for Observatory Gully to climb the classic combination of Tower Scoop (III *) and Good Friday Climb (III ***). They found good ice conditions with old snow banking out much of the route. After topping out near the trig point in the sun, they descended Coire Leis to spend a leisurely afternoon sitting in the sun.

Meanwhile, with no real plan in mind, me and Matt headed straight for the nearest snow in Coire na Ciste, a hundred yards from the hut. This led up a nice little mini-canyon with a stream running underneath where our way was blocked by a crevasse (yes, really). We decided to escape via a rock scramble which turned out to be rather worrying on loose, wet rock. Unperturbed, we wandered past an impressive icefall which had fractured and buried itself in the snow towards the base of Garadh Gully (II *). This route can give anything from grade I to grade IV difficulty, depending on conditions. We found it in easy grade I condition, banked out with old snow apart from one detour onto rock to avoid another crevasse. This turned out to be a brilliant approach to the routes in the upper left corner of Coire na Ciste, which spread out before us in the sun.

Comb gully was discounted as too scary in the conditions, Raeburns looked too easy and Matt had done Glover's Chimney. We therefore chose Number 2 Gully Buttress (III ***) which still looked plastered with an obvious ice pitch low down. This turned out to be an excellent choice. Never technically difficult, but all of the belays were buried which kept our concentration up! The first pitch gave the best ice, while the supposed crux ice pitch was actually on steep, soggy snow ice which would not take any screws. The finish on deep powder with the sun sparkling off it was unnerving but at least there was no cornice.

Not satisfied yet, we headed (rapidly) down number 4 gully and saw the sun just starting to catch Douglas Gap West Gully (I **). We marched over there in scorching sun with little avalanches going off to add to the Alpine atmosphere. A quick sunbathe in the Douglas Gap and down Douglas Gap East Gully (I) got us back down to the hut for about 6. Pleased with our haul of 5 routes for the day, we all devoured Carmen's curry and hit the bunks.

After more reports of dodgy conditions, no sign of a frost and with aching limbs, we were sorely tempted to walk back down and go skiing for the day at Nevis Range. Thankfully, we chanced it and headed back up into Coire na Ciste behind Simon and Carmen. They headed off for an adventure on Italian Climb – Right-hand (IV **), one of the few lower routes with obvious ice still remaining. They found it in excellent nick with thick chewy ice, but got a bit lost trying to descend and ended up abbing back down the route – a 3 hour endeavour!

Meanwhile, we'd plodded up to the base of Number 3 Gully Buttress (III ***), once again having the whole of Coire na Ciste almost to ourselves. From beneath, the diagonal snow ramps at the start of the route look really easy so I set off soloing without getting the rope out. This proved a mistake as the snow was bullet hard neve and the exposure very quickly kicks in with the long snow slopes below. After a bit of faff, we got the ropes out and a couple more easy pitches got us to the foot of the hard step (the belays along the snow shelf are excellent and very comfortable). The step to exit the snow slopes looks really hard from below but there is a devious traverse at the top which, although extremely exposed, reduces it to just a couple of moves on rock. Matt led this and was somewhat relieved to find easy snow and a belay round the corner.

I led off up an icy groove on what we thought would be an easy plod to the top. Instead, after 20m I was confronted with an outrageously exposed rock move to get between two snow terraces. It was only about a 3m traverse of probably vdiff, but with a 200m+ vertical drop beneath your feet it was exciting to say the least. All that remained was steep and crazily exposed snow to the summit. Quick check on the radio: 20m of rope left, my guess just over 20m of the route to go. I started along the snow to find the sun had turned it to mush. Axes ripping and feet slipping I ran out 10m, letting out a wail of fear every so often. Thankfully I found a bomber hex and nut to protect the last 10m. More rubbish snow and the final rock wall was in reach – rope goes tight. Argh! Don't want to hang around here! Matt takes down the belay and starts moving together, a belly flop and I'm on the top in the sun with a monster boulder to belay off. What a route! 60m ropes advisable though.

With our adrenalin reserves well and truly used up, we headed back down number 4 to the hut, packed up and walked back down to the car. Only a 6 hour drive back to york to go and in bed for 1.30am. Another brilliant weekend in the CIC hut which now sports luxurious indoor toilets and a functioning drying room. Just got to work out how to pack a bit lighter next time.

Posted in Climbing, Mountaineering, Winter | 1 Comment »

The winter continues…

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Our February meet in Scotland has traditionally been immediately preceded by a massive thaw. Not so this year, as the cold weather continued. 🙂

We were staying at the Ochils MC hut in Crianlarich – an old favourite, especially now the mice have gone! The good conditions meant a big turn out for all three nights of the extended weekend.

Nigel and Clare set off from York well before the crack of dawn on Thursday, so had time to bag Ben Challum when they arrived. The rest of us appeared in drabs and drabs until well into the early hours.

On Friday, Carmen, Clare and I headed for Beinn an Dothaidh with the intention of climbing Taxus (III 3 ***) with the possibility of taking in the Icefall Finish (IV 4) if I was feeling brave enough. A not-quite-early-enough start saw us leave the car park shortly after 8am, just after another group of 3. A route march up the hill saw us overtake 2 other pairs, but the other team got there first. Several other teams could be seen approaching in the distance. Obviously lots of people had the same idea of getting this popular route done on the Friday, before the crowds descended at the weekend!

A couple of short ice pitches alternated with snow, and it wasn't long before we were at the decision point, where the normal finish turned left up more snow, while the grade 4 alternative carried straight on up nice looking blue ice. The decision was easy – the normal finish would have been a bit of an anti climax, and the ice was just too inviting to ignore. It turned out much easier than expected, and a couple of short pitches saw us with just one pitch left, presumably relatively straightforward. Of course this turned out to be the crux, up steep and a very exposed wall with just enough ice for some well-placed hooks, but not enough for protection!

We topped out into glorious sunshine at about 3pm, so had enough time to take in the summit and follow the SE ridge before descending to the col and back to the car.

Rob and Will also did the same route, but started an hour later – which meant they spent much of the day queuing at belays. 🙁 The last pitch had been beaten to death by the time they arrived, all the ice was gone leaving rock with a little battered turf, so probably a bit harder than earlier – as well as darker, as the sun was about to set!

Meanwhile, Tom Fliss and Nick headed for Beinn Eunaich and Beinn a Chochuil. Nigel, Peter and Annie climbed up Ben Vorlich, and then continued to Stuc a Chroin via the NE ridge (a grade I climb, though they didn't realise it until it was too late!). Some well-gritted teeth from Nigel and a copious amount of swearage from Annie led them to safety though. 🙂

Due to Rob Soupmeister's late finish we went without a starter for the evening meal, but Carmen's veg curry and Mr Sainsbury's fruit pies and custard meant no-one went too hungry!

The next day, Nigel continued his Munro quest with an ascent of Beinn Chabhair. Most of the others did a traverse of the Ben Lui hills starting in Glen Lochy and taking in Beinn a' Cleidh, Ben Lui, Ben Oss and Beinn Dubhchraig. Rivers had to be forded to begin and end the day, which finished well after dark.

Rob, Will, Carmen and I returned to Beinn an Dothaidh to climb whatever didn't have a queue! Of course the place was practically deserted, even Taxus – obviously everyone had done it the day before! Will and Rob went for West Buttress (III 4 ***), a mixed route in 5 pitches, while Carmen and I took a fancy to Cirrus (IV 4 ***), up a narrow chimney/gully to the right, despite the guidebook referring to its difficulty in thin conditions.

The ice on the first pitch, a steep chimney, was certainly thin! I faffed for ages trying to work out how to get up, eventually leaving my rucksack in the cave at the bottom, wriggling up the back of the chimney to place a nice ice screw in fat ice, before traversing back to the light and thrutching/back-and-footing up the chimney with a couple of axe hooks round fragile looking icicles, with a final swing into the upper groove and welcome thick ice and snow. The second pitch was up a splendid looking icefall, which started up a narrow undercut ice ramp – good ice for the axes, but very little for the feet, and off-balance until a hidden ledge appeared on the right allowing a bridging exit.

The last pitch looked much easier, but wasn't. After some more faffing trying to set up a better belay and retreating to the original, I led up steep cruddy snow and ice into the upper gully, and eventually emerged at the top, completely exhausted. It had taken us something like 6 hours for a 135m route! One step too far for me out of my comfort zone, it was all a bit too worrying (though with a few days hindsight for the bad bits to fade from memory I've now begun to have enjoyed it!).

To make up for the night before, Rob made 2 soups, followed by Peri's splendid sweetcorn and bean gunk with chilli sauce (sorry Peri you'll have to make it again) and then the traditional cake and custard from Mr S.

A thaw was forecast on Sunday afternoon, so Will, Rob, Peri, Carmen and I were up at 6am. Rob was so surprised at this, that he went back to bed for half an hour. The destination was the fabled icefalls of Beinn Udlaidh, which we were assured were up there somewhere in the clag. Just one pair in front of us, and of course they headed directly for the route we'd planned on doing, West Gully (III *). So a bit of faffery later we switched to White Caterpillar (III *), which starts in the same place but head left up an icy ramp.

A fine route it was too. Will and Rob went first, heading up the direct variant (IV 4) as it looked too inviting to ignore. Peri was going to head right on the original version, but the gully was not in condition, so I led through up the direct instead. The thaw had well and truly arrived by now, and the icicles were all dripping, but the ice quality was improved by the slightly milder temperatures. Steep but well protected climbing up superb ice, well worth it. Unfortunately this was followed by steep cruddy snow, and a traverse left with good axe placements but feet slipping all over the place – Peri bravely led this without placing any protection! No time for anything else, a quick descent and some hut-tidying and we were off home.

Meanwhile, after a couple of false starts – forgetting gaiters, and parking in the wrong place – Tom, Fliss and Nick climbed Ben Vorlich – the Loch Lomond one. The top was covered in mist, and it looked very like many other Scottish Mountains – white with a few rocks lying around. Inattention meant that they came down the wrong valley from the summit, sounds familiar.

Photos:
Carmen and me
Rob
Peri

Tags: epic, ford, ice, queue, soup, swearing
Posted in Climbing, Mountaineering, Scrambling, Walking, Weekend Meets, Winter | 3 Comments »

Welsh Winter Wonderland

Monday, February 1st, 2010

… and then we were 8 brave souls heading for a hut with no leccy, no gas, potentially no water, a 10 min walk in uphill and temperatures predicted to be minus a few overnight! After some frantic lift sorting we met up in Betws pub (after a burger stop at the OK diner) just in time to meet Simon and Carmen returning from the hut (oops). The Wessex Club's hut is in the woods above ByC and parking is in the hotel car park with a reasonable path leading to the small but well formed hut in the process of renovation. With only 8 of us we had plenty of space but a few people were ruing their choice of sleeping bags!

Bright and early passed, then we got up and all made out way to the Pass (D via Joe Browns at Capel open at 8.30am) and the long trudge up to Clogwyn y Ddysgl above Cyrn Las. A slog with some awkward bits – still not sure the easiest route up there. Hoards of people were headed up Parsley Fern Gully (I,***) but S+C and Clare and I geared up for Sinister Gully (III, 4 but very soft) with another team just ahead of us. We all soloed up to the crux a short 10m or so ice fall and a queue. Simon went first followed by Carmen, and I followed failing to get any screws in but feeling ok on the reasonable ice. Clare followed easily enough. We then pitched out the next two pitches of snow slope and a bit of soloing up perfect never to join S&C on the Cryb-y-Ddysgl ridge in glorious sunshine.

approaching the ridge

Ticking the trig point in honour of Charles we traversed back across Crib Goch – fantastic views, light and solitude. The descent down to the path to Pen y Pass proved awkward and the walk out longer than I remember, but we were rewarded with a huge red moon. Soon we were pub-bound after some cunning hitching from Simon to retrieve the car.

Pete on Parsley Fern Gully

In the pub we met the others and Matt who dropped in but turned down the offer of a freezing bunk. They had enjoyed a similarly great day out on PFG, Liz tackling the left branch (II **) before heading to Snowdon summit and descent down the PYG track and a bus back to the car. Fantastic day out for all.

Towards Llyn Crafnant

Sunday was more overcast and S,C and I headed for Clogwyn Du above Idwal slabs and the big team went for a little walk (having rejected Bristley Ridge due to conditions). Turned out a tad further than anticipated but rewarded with good views and a good stretch of the legs. Meanwhile we had flogged our way up into Cwm Cneifion with hundreds of other people.

carmen tackles the ice fall

Our initial plan was Hidden Gully (II **) but we spied a frozen stream that led that way. I led the main pitch – well most of it, some it fell down. I managed to get a few comedy ice screws, including highlights of a stubby tied-off screw in rubbish ice, and one which was still in the ice when the ices fell off! Felt quite exciting at about III,3. A few little play steps led us into the upper Cwm and Clogwyn Du, where we headed up Easy Route before branching right up Hidden Gully. Some excellent funky ice on a lovely but way-too-short route.

We headed down Easy Routeb (I *) and home – past Tower Slabs that look an excellent playground worth exploring at about III.

Best winter weather I've had in Wales, echo'd by Simon

Check all the pictures out

Posted in Climbing, Mountaineering, Walking, Weekend Meets, Winter | 1 Comment »

Sod It!

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

A week after the thaw and all the low level ice has gone. But it's been mainly cold up high, and there have been some reports of good conditions in the usual places (Great End, Helvellyn, etc), so we thought we'd go for a look. We didn't fancy the stupidly early start that would be needed for a day trip to those crags (which we'd guessed, perhaps wrongly, would be heaving anyway), so decided to try Foule Crag on Blencathra – less than 2 hours' drive from York, and only an hour's walk in.

The knee deep powder of my previous visit last month was gone, which made for a quick walk. Unfortunately, the blue skies of the earlier trip were also missing, and when we reached the crag the whole thing was hidden. Fortunately I could remember enough to know roughly where to go, or we'd probably have failed to find anything!

Our intended route was Traverse of the Sods (II/III), because
(a) it was the longest there (180m);
(b) it follows a natural line; and
(c) a route with a name like that just has to be climbed!

As the name sort-of implies, it relies on frozen turf rather than snow or ice – just as well, as the snow we had to cross to get there was all soft and deep.

The first pitch, to reach the traverse line, was steep, rocky, vegetated, and throughly horrible. There may have been turf, but the shrubbery was so thick that the axes failed to reach it. 50m with no protection didn't do my nerves a lot of good either! If there'd been an easy walk-off from the top then we'd probably have taken it.

Luckily there wasn't, as the remaining 3 pitches were all good fun, following a narrow grassy ledge in a rising traverse up the face. Quite easy climbing (no more than II) but hardly any protection other than our single warthog, and belays were on axes with the picks buried optimistically in the frozen turf, plus a sling wrapped even more optimistically round a 2 inch thick icicle. The whole thing was nicely exposed, with continuing clag throughout adding to the atmosphere (and also occasionally to the confusion – on one pitch, a steep snow-covered overhanging corner loomed out of the mist, it was only as I got closer looking for a way round that it revealed itself to be a nice 30 degree neve slope).

A short icefall near the end took a screw, though the ice turned out to be only a couple of inches thick with air behind so no more than psychological value! But a second icefall at the final belay was several inches thick so provided the first (and last) reassuring belay of the day 🙂

We topped out at the summit of the crag. The way off was obvious, down a corniced ridge, so we didn't waste time getting the compass out. Luckily, a few minutes later we stopped to take crampons off and took the opportunity to check our bearings; a 90 degree turn to the right took us back to the right valley 😉

A good day out, and not too long (about 12.5 hours house-to-house). Not a classic route by any means, but worth doing, and certainly better than sitting at home watching TV!

More photos here.

Tags: clag, turf, warthog
Posted in Climbing, Mountaineering, Winter | 1 Comment »

New Year Meet 2009

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

This year's new year trip was to the Alex Macintyre Hut, near Glencoe. A dozen of us made the journey north, and for once the snow didn't all melt the day before we arrived. Carmen and I drove up on Boxing Day, everyone else turned up a day or two later.

December 27. Sron na Lairig, grade II. Supposed to be an easy warm up day, but the deep snow put paid to that! The 4km walk in took a couple of hours, under grey skies with occasional snow flurries. The climb itself was trickier than expected, with no ice but loads of powder over rock with a little mostly frozen turf. A great mountaineering route, with some mildly terrifying pinnacles and an a cheval snow arete near the top, for which we roped up. The continuation to the summit took an age, as it was knee-deep snow all the way with little sign of any recent visitors, but also because the skies had cleared so we had to keep stopping to take photos. The summit too was deserted, nobody else had been that way all day despite its being a Munro. The descent was down the NE ridge, with its notorious bad step. Again, harder than expected – all possibilities looked too scary so in the end we abbed down the last section just as the last of the daylight disappeared. Luckily the full moon was bright enough to throw shadows as we continued along the ridge. We opted for an early descent into the valley, at a point where we could see there were no major crags to find a way round. It still took a good hour to cover the 1/2km to the bottom!

December 28. Definitely a short day this time, a walk up the twin Munros of Buachaille Etive Beag. We'd both done them before but not on as glorious day as this. Plenty of other people about (though most only did the main summit) so the paths were well trodden. Spectacular views in all directions, but especially of Bidean nam Bian and our previous day's route. Meanwhile, Alan and Nigel went for a long walk up Gulvain (near Glenfinnan), finishing long after dark.

December 29. Aonach Eagach (grade II/III). A winter traverse has been on my "to do" list for years, but every previous winter trip to Glencoe has been preceded by a massive thaw. Not so this year! Strong winds were forecast so it was without much optimism that Alan, Rich, Jenny, Carmen and I slogged up the hill. But somehow we managed to be sheltered along the whole ridge – Peter and Annie were on the other side of the valley and had trouble walking due to the wind (or was it the pies?), and Simon, Debra and Ben had a similar experience on Beinn an Dothaidh. It was worth the long wait for winter conditions, we had a magnificent day in clear cold conditions (between -6 and -8 along the ridge). Quick progress at first gradually slowed as we all started to tire, and the ropes came out to safe guard the pinnacled section. But we had passed the tricky bits before the sun set, all that remained was the ascent of the final Munro and the long descent in the dark back to the car we'd left at the Youth Hostel. 12 hours car-to-car, a great day.

December 30. Wild weather was forecast, and duly arrived. Ben and Nigel joined us for a short walk up Sgurr na' h-Eanchainne, a Corbett on the other side of the Corran Ferry. At least I thought it was a Corbett, but realised half way up it was actually a few metres short, so no ticks today, much to Nigel's disgust A nice little hill, with superb views across to the Glencoe hills and further north to Ben Nevis. Peter and Annie pushed their bikes round some snowy woods, I'm not sure about the others!

December 31. Expecting a sunny day, we plumped for the Ballachulish Horseshoe (Beinn a' Bheithir). The ascent up the NE ridge of Sgorr Bhan proved trickier than expected, and soon Carmen and I were on our own. Ben took a long detour round the awkward bit, hoping to meet us later, while Simon and Debra retreated to the nice warm hut. Sadly the forecast sun never arrived and we spent most of the day in the clag. We briefly considered heading back from the col between the Munros, but Ben had left his car at the far end so we pressed on. There was no sign of Ben, but not much sign of anything else either, so we decided not to wait. Navigation on the last section proved tricky, with undulating terrain and loads of identical small lochans, many not marked on the map. But eventually we emerged from the cloud, in roughly the right place. The final descent was a little more entertaining than hoped for, as we had to find a way in the dark round countless small outcrops and a couple of large cliffs, but we made it to the road and soon met Ben, who in best Annie style had bumped into an old friend on the hill and taken the descent from the col. I'm not sure what everyone else did – I think Annie and Peter went up Gulvain, but cheated by taking mountain bikes for the long approach.

New Years Eve. Preparation of the haggis supper was well under way, when suddenly we were plunged into darkness. The main fuse had blown! So we adjourned to a quiet and atmosphere-free Kings House for dinner before returning to the hut – where Nigel had nobly remained to organise an emergency electrician, so we had light in time for the customary new year falling asleep.

January 1. A return to the Beinn a' Bheithir for Carmen and me, this time for some ice climbing. Very slow going through deep powder with a hard crust which sometimes supported, and sometimes gave way. When we reached the north ridge of Sgorr Bhan we saw a small icefall and took the opportunity to stop for a rest and climb it. Nice easy climbing on fantastic ice, Carmen led straight up the middle for a good little 30m grade II. After this, some more crusty powder led to the main route of the day, Russian Roulette II/III. I say 'main' but it's only 50m high! Loads of ice, though more brittle than our first route, with lots of dinner-plating. Back to the sacks just as the last of the light disappeared, and the standard walk-out in the dark.

January 2. We decided on an easy day with a short walk in so went for a look at the Aonach Dubh cliffs on Bidean nam Bian. We didn't bother with a guidebook as we were just looking for some short easy angled ice to play on. Firstly we tried the Allt Coire nam Beithach but there was too much flowing water and not enough ice. Higher up though, there was loads of ice. A steep icy gully looked tempting but probably too hard, and there was a group of 3 just starting (we later found that this was Number 6 Gully, grade IV ***). So we went for an easy looking line of ice further right, which looked about grade II and one or two pitches. One minor epic and 3 pitches later, we reached the top – much steeper than it looked, the last pitch was vertical for a few metres! Harder than anything else we'd done, I reckoned about III/IV. Consulting the book later it turned out to be Squaddies Climb, grade II/III, only mildly humiliating – fun though.

A great week, in great weather – and it was just the beginning of a great winter!

Loads of photos here.
Peter's bike-pushing pictures here.
Debra's photos here.

Tags: cold, ice, main fuse, powder, snow, sun
Posted in Climbing, Extended trips, Mountaineering, Scrambling, Walking, Winter | No Comments »

Blencathra in the snow

Thursday, December 24th, 2009

After much dithering, Will and I decided to head for the Lakes yesterday. In typical British style we chose to ignore the "A66 closed" signs on the A1, as the roads were clear and there was no sign of falling snow. They must have been left on after earlier problems, mustn't they. Er, no actually. The snow gates were closed at Bowes.

We decided it would be quicker to wait for the road to re-open than to try to find an alternative route. 90 minutes later we were off, and arrived at the layby near Blencathra some 4 hours after leaving York. So much for the early start, by the time we were walking it was almost midday!

At least the late start meant that a trench of sorts had been worn through the deep powder (up to a foot deep even in the valley, knee-deep higher up). A series of mini-avalanches could be seen below the path, triggered by passing walkers. As we slogged up, we passed 2 guys descending on skis and one on a snowboard, who had skied all the way from the summit to the road. In the Lake District, in December!

Without much hope of finding anything climbable due to the powder, we nevertheless traversed under Sharp Edge through thigh-deep powder to the foot of Foule Crag. It was clear that most of the normal lines were going to be difficult, unpleasant, and possibly dangerous due to the snow. But at the left end of the crag we saw an obvious turfy buttress, immediately to the left of Blunt Gully. It's not in the guide but it looked a reasonable option so we decided to give it a go, we didn't fancy yet another day carrying climbing kit for a walk!

Up close, it looked a lot steeper, and appearances weren't deceptive. Will took the first pitch, with excellent turf to start. An overhanging wall could probably be taken direct by someone competent, so we went round it. There seemed to be an easy option on the left, so Will went right, swimming up the totally unconsolidated start of Blunt Gully, before moving back onto the ridge. I took the next pitch, much more pleasant up well frozen turf with a few rocky steps. Total gear for the 80m route consisted of a very dodgy nut backed up by an even dodgier bulldog. Blunt Gully Buttress, grade II/III.

We topped out at the start of Sharp Edge, so finished up this (grade I/II) – easy enough as it was all snow rather than ice, with a well trodden path – just a couple of short but awkward and exposed descents, involving strategic use of buttocks.

We arrived at the summit shortly after sunset, and had the place to ourselves (apart from a cold looking mouse). Glorious views in all directions, with the whole of the Lake District visible, and everything covered by snow. A quick descent down the Scales Fell ridge returned us to the car at 5pm.

Lots more photos here.

Tags: A66, powder, snow
Posted in Climbing, Mountaineering, Winter | 2 Comments »

The Far North West

Friday, June 12th, 2009

Prior to the club meet in Glencoe over the Bank Holiday weekend, Carmen and I took a week off to explore the far north of Scotland.

It was pouring with horizontal rain for most of the journey, getting gradually worse the closer we got to our destination. So we decided we couldn't face camping, and stopped at the Craske Inn, a small hotel/pub/hill farm in the middle of nowhere. It's a great place, just 3 rooms, and bags of atmosphere, highly recommended. And the landlord/farmer, despite having been up there for 40 years, turns out to have been brought up in Malton!

Next day it was cloudy but expected to improve, so we went for Ben Klibreck (a Munro). The normal route seemed to have little to commend it, apart from being short, so we did a longer route from Altnaharra to the north. Altnaharra may be familiar from the weather forecasts in the middle of winter when it is often the coldest place in the UK. The sun did indeed arrive, and we had a great day with excellent views, loads of lapwings, and even more baby baa lambs. We took a detour to the east ridge where there was a surprisingly large monument to two airmen killed in a flying accident in the 1950s. Despite being a sunny Sunday we only met 3 people all day, all of them on the 'tourist route'.

After a very nice night camped by the road (the sort of road with grass up the middle), the next day we went for the other Munro in the area, Ben Hope. Again, this is usually climbed as a quick there-and-back from the road, and is often done in the same day as Klibreck, with a short drive in between. Again though we wanted to make a full day of it, so contoured round the hill to reach the north ridge. Once we'd left the tourist route behind, there was little sign that anyone else had ever been there, despite this being the finest way up the hill. A little easy scrambling and a deer-path up the fine grassy ridge was followed just below the summit by the 'bad step' , and easy-ish (about Diff) but dirty and extremely exposed 10m section. On my last visit, I was on my own, and bottled this bit in favour of a dirty gully off to the left. But this time we had a scrambling rope and a bit of gear, so were successful. Passing a handful of people on the summit we set off to the south-east (the tourist path goes south west), heading for the south ridge, but soon abandoned this plan as heavy rain arrived and sent us running down the normal route to the car.

We set up camp in the site at Durness, on the top of the cliffs overlooking sandy beaches, idyllic. Next day was forecast to be wet, so we took the ferry across to the bird sanctuary of Handa Island, where we wandered round taking photos of puffins. Not surprisingly, it was the sunniest day of the week, so when back on the mainland we took the opportunity to do a few climbs on roadside outcrops. Mostly fairly ordinary climbing in a stunning setting, but one in particular was superb, Updraught (Severe **) on Creag an Dubh Loch, overlooking Handa and the tiny port of Tarbet. There was no sign that anybody had ever been there before, let alone climbed the route.

After the usual dithering, we decided to have another mountain day after this, and went for Foinaven. This narrowly escaped being promoted to Munro status recently, but fortunately turned out to be a couple of metres too short, and so nobody ever goes there. A controversial new landrover track up the glen made for a quick if blemished approach, but it was still a couple of hours until we left the track and took to open country to approach the top of A' Ch'eir Ghorm. This is largely composed of scree, but has a series of relatively solid buttresses on one side, and our intended route was up one of these.

The guidebook offers three routes, at Mod, Diff, and VDiff, and the total description given is that there is a cairn at the foot of each route. We meant to do either the Diff or the Mod and so had left rock shoes behind in favour of climbing in walking boots. It took forever to cross the loose scree slope to reach the rock, and by this time, the increasingly threatening weather had unleashed some heavy showers, so the rock was dripping wet. We found what might have been the remains of one cairn, but there was no sign of any others – as it was probably several years since anyone else had been daft enough to come up here, they have probably merged into the scree by now. As we debated whether to head up into the unknown, another heavy shower intervened, and we headed back along the scree, where we opted for the easy-but-tortuous way up, a 300m 45-degree scree slope.

After admiring some spectacular rainbows, we headed along the shattered ridge, mostly bypassing some rather fragile pinnacles, and up into the cloud, where we stayed. We had to imagine the fine views, with steep scree falling either side of the ridge and even the vague hints of a path, as there was nowhere else to go. From the summit, we decided to miss the final top (the inside of one cloud being much the same as the inside of another), and headed down the seldom-visited NE ridge of Ganu Mor. I picked up a discarded sweet wrapper on the way, with a best before date of 25th December 2005.

After picking our way slowly down the craggy hillside to the Skye-like corrie of Glass-Choire Granda, we contoured to the next bealach before cutting across open lochan-studded moorland back to the car. A fine day on a fine hill, and plenty of failed plans to return for!

The next day we took things a bit easier, broke camp, and drove to Sheigra (near Sandwood Bay) for some sea-cliff climbing. A seriously good crag, with dozens on 3 and even 4-star routes at all grades from Diff to E-silly, but despite unbroken sunshine all day, there were no other climbers to be seen, just a handful of people walking their dogs. The need for abseil approaches limited us to just 4 routes.
Tall Paul *** Severe – fantastically exposed with huge holds
Flamingo *** Severe – a superb line up a pink ramp. Carmen led, and I narrowly missed being submerged by the incoming tide.
Shark Crack *** Hard Severe – unfeasibly overhanging for HS but with climbing-wall-sized holds in strange black crystalline rock
Blackjack ** Diff – a bit of a sandbag at the start, but a jugfest above.

Friday was our last day before the long drive south to Glencoe, and on the strength of an excellent forecast, planned on climbing the triple-Corbett mountain of Quinag. Sadly it was not to be, the rain was heavy and the cloud down to road level, but as we drove south conditions improved, and we stopped off to bag the Munro of Ben Wyvis. A newly built path was more like a staircase and took us quickly to 800m, from where a nice grassy ridge led to the summit. Everyone else we met just turned round at this point and retrace their steps, but we continued over a subsidiary top and down a pathless ridge before picking up a forestry track, and back to the car 4 hours after setting off.

We arrived at the hut half an hour before Nigel, and an hour before Margaret, in glorious sunshine – almost the last we saw until the drive home, 3 days later…

Lots more photos here

Tags: Foinaven, Handa, Hope, Klibreck, puffins, Sheigra, sun
Posted in Climbing, Crags, Extended trips, Mountaineering, Scrambling, Walking | 1 Comment »

A Towering Achievement

Friday, April 17th, 2009

Having booked 6 spaces in the CIC hut almost a year in advance, me, Rob, Simon, Carmen and two non-YAC members Andy and Matt headed up to Fort William for the Easter weekend. On the drive up, me, Rob and Matt stopped off to buy the food. Me and Matt were shopping for so long that Rob almost called the police to report two people missing in Tescos. When we eventually arrived at the car, amazement was expressed at how much food we had bought for a weekend away. In particular, our complete disregard for weight (i.e. buying precooked noodles instead of dry ones and one pack of pitta bread per person). Oh well, carrying heavy packs is bound to be good training for something.

We met up with Andy (who had driven from Portsmouth!) and Simon and Carmen and spent Thursday night in a bunkhouse. Friday morning was very wet and miserable so enthusiasm for setting off was limited. Forecasts and conditions reports were mixed, so I was really having to spread my optimism around generously to keep any hopes of winter climbing alive. While packing our ridiculously large packs, Matt noticed he'd forgotten his boots – this provided an excellent excuse to go shopping in Fort William and waste a bit of time drinking tea. With Matt £350 worse off, we finally headed for the north face car park and slogged our way up to the CIC hut. The general consensus was that this did permanent damage to all of our shoulders. Also, the large selection of fresh vegetables I had carried up had somehow managed to turn into a putrid juice which infected all of my belongings.

With a cat 4 avalanche forecast and everyone we met saying the snow was dangerously wet, we decided to spend the afternoon scrambling up castle ridge. This gave a good couple of hours entertainment and a good exercise in scrambling in the wet in plastic boots. We finished in the snow with a taxing descent over scree back to the halfway lochan. Our hopes for anything wintery were all but dashed at this point and we resolved to go for a "summer" ascent of tower ridge the following day.

We set off in two teams of three (rob/simon/carmen and me/matt/andy) in the morning and were pleased to note that the snow at the foot of observatory gully had refrozen hard. Also, much of the ridge had a cover of fresh snow. Once we were on the ridge, the sun came out and we were all waxing lyrical about "alpine conditions". At the first steep step, verglas made us put on crampons and move together (the other three took this opportunity to overtake by soloing ahead). From this point on, the whole route was on good snow, with occasional mixed and ice steps. We caught them back up at the little tower where a queue had formed getting past a tricky step.

Four more pitches beyond this got us to easy but exposed snow leading to the great tower. The eastern traverse looked fantastic, really easy but outrageously exposed. It was matt's lead but I got equivalent excitement going last. By this point it had started snowing and it was getting very cold waiting on belays. We heard some shouts drifting down from the top suggesting the other team were on the final snow slopes. So we were quite relieved to round a corner and find ourselves at tower gap, my lead – argh! I teetered along the narrow snow ridge as far as the final boulder and got in some bomber opposing nuts, then lowered myself into the void. I made the mistake of climbing right down to the top of glover's chimney (the other two just made a large stride over the gap) and spent a good ten minutes trying to work out how to climb back out. Eventually I commited to hanging off a one axe torque and bellyflopped onto the other side (rob later told me it was much easier to bridge up the gap – oh well!) A bit more snow led to the bottom of a small chimney, with an obvious belay at the top – "no more rope" Matt shouted. Bugger! We had to move together for a few metres until I could reach the belay and bring matt and andy over.

The end now felt very close, but for the first time we had to move together with no protection and the top out looked interesting. With matt belaying me from a bucket seat, I headed up and placed a small nut in the final wall before thrashing my way up the loose snow slope and cornice. We were all delighted to find ourselves on flat ground again, although we couldn't see much of it as it was almost a whiteout. We began following bearings to get back to the zig zags when we stumbled across a family sitting in the snow in jeans and trainers – "are you mountain rescue?" they said. They tagged along at the back as we continued on our way. We then found another group of walkers – "do you have a gps?" they said "no, but we know where we are". They also tagged on the back. Like the pied piper, we picked up various other stragglers along the way until once we left the cloud we had a group of 15 people following us! A long walk back to the halfway lochan and then back to the hut got us home in time for tea. Tower ridge took us 8.5 hours in total so no records for speed, but it was an absolutely brilliant experience and in excellent condition for a winter ascent.

The forecast for the next day was looking perfect for some ice, so me, matt and rob headed up observatory gully for tower scoop, while simon and carmen headed into coire na ciste. Many more people were out on the sunday, queues on indicator wall, parties on smith's route, point 5 and good friday climb as well as lots on tower ridge. After a long slog we arrived at the bottom of tower scoop to find lovely thick plasticy ice. I led the first pitch and finally got to use my petzl ice flutes (which are brilliant). Some rather complicated rope arrangements for our party of three ended up with Rob leading the final steep ice pitch belayed by both me and matt. Me and matt were certain the final ice must have been vertical but rob assured us it was nowhere near.

We finished up tower gully, spurred on by the ginormous drooping double cornices. There were some tracks outflanking the cornice on the right, but this looked horrendously exposed. Rob opted for an alternative: smash through the bottom cornice, crawl along for 10 feet between the two and then smash out through the second cornice onto the plateau. I found this mildly terrifying and was very pleased to arrive on the plateau in bright sunshine to join the crowds at the summit.

A quick romp round the carn mor dearg arete led us to the summit of carn mor dearg from where a series of snow patches could be linked to allow a 600m glissade almost back to the door of the hut. All that remained was to repack all the food we hadn't eaten and carry it all back down. My strategy was to minimise the time spent with the pack on my back so I ran from the CIC hut back to the car in 49 minutes (probably doing permanent damage to my knees in the process).

Hopes of a warm bed in a bunk house were dashed as they were all full, so we wild camped in glen etive. Gluttons for punishment that they are, Rob, Simon and Carmen squeezed in a munro on the monday while me, andy and matt devoured a scottish breakfast.

Overall, a fantastic weekend that defied the apparent lack of winter to give 3 days of adventure. The extension to the CIC hut has turned it into a very comfortable place to stay (though the SMC members we met could barely have been more stinging in their criticism of the workmanship!) Perhaps we'll take a bit less food next time though.

Tags: CIC Hut, tea, Tower Ridge
Posted in Climbing, Extended trips, Mountaineering, Scrambling, Winter | 3 Comments »

Winter Sandbags

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

All week I'd been thinking about a weekend trip to the Lakes for some winter fun. And all week I'd felt myself going down with a cold. By Friday, I was completely voiceless and off work. But the conditions were rumoured to be perfect so it was too good to miss, and arrangements were duly made.

I couldn't face the 5am start favoured by Rob and (mainly) Will, but we still managed to leave York by 7.30, and parked at Dunmail Raise a couple of hours later. As we were getting our kit out of the car, Will and Rob drove up. It was a long story apparently, involving a forgotten rope…

So, off we raced, along with hundreds of others, up towards Grisedale Tarn. We passed several parties on the way up, and were then passed back again when we chose an unnecessarily slow traverse line towards Tarn Crag, on the lower slopes of Dollywagon Pike. When we arrived, it was teeming. All the grade 1 and 2 gully lines contained queues, as did Dollywagon Gully (the 2* grade III we'd been hoping to do), and even the largely snow-free grade 2 buttress.

But Dollywagon Chimney (grade III, no stars) was free, with just one other team on it already finishing the 2nd pitch. More of a mixed route than we'd had in mind, but better than queuing. As we geared up, Will and Rob arrived and duly joined the queue for Dollywagon Gully.

It was a bit hard. Actually, it was a lot hard. An initial tricky rocky groove was followed shortly afterwards by an even trickier icy groove then some more tricky bits before the belay. I took 50 minutes, Carmen about the same. The 2nd pitch looked slightly easier, but wasn't, as snow and ice gave way to some nice back-and-footing. Carmen thoughtfully let me lead this one as well. I muttered a few choice words as I rounded a corner and the narrow chimney of the last pitch came in sight.

After bringing Carmen up, I convinced myself it must be easier than it looked, and set off. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't easier than it looked at all, it was slightly harder. I bridged and struggled half way up the narrow chimney, until the holds ran out. Luckily, there was a small spike out on the left at this point, so I could pull myself precariously out of the chimney, and make a few vaguely terrifying moves up before stepping back into the gully proper. Some nice neve then led to a buried-axe belay at the top.

Other people's comments on UKC suggest that a more accurate grade might be IV 5!

By this time it was 5pm (5 hours for a 130m route!), no time for anything else, so we packed up and headed back down to the car, no need for torches due to a glorious full moon. We expected the others to have got back already, but Will's car was still there. So we drove to the campsite and were putting up the tent at about 7.20 when Will phoned to say they'd just topped out! having finished the Gully and decided to follow us up the Chimney. Unsurprisingly, they decided to return to York rather than staying until Sunday.

The next morning we were up before dawn to return to Tarn Crag, this time to climb Dollywagon Gully. Vague hopes of beating the queues were dashed, and we were the 4th team there. We decided we may as well wait and climb it anyway – so we did. And very nice it was too, fortunately rather less traumatic than the previous day's epic. An initial rocky chockstone was followed by a nice snow plod, and then some water ice to finish (unfortunately rather hacked to bits by this stage).

We descended Tarn Crag Gully 2 (grade I), then dithered between Tarn Crag C Gully 1 (I/II *) and Falcon Crag Gully (II *). We went for the latter, as it was a little longer, with 3 pitches rather than just 2.

It started well with a nice (though hard for the grade) ice pitch, with an optimistic belay at the end. Then a snow pitch, which Carmen led, also with an optimistic belay. Next, what I hoped was the final pitch, as it was snowing by this stage, a turfy groove and traverse back into the gully proper. I was a little surprised when I popped round the corner and found the gully disappearing out of sight in the distance, with an obviously difficult rocky groove in front of me.

To cut a long story short, there were another 2 long pitches after this, mostly turf with some rock, and though one of the belays was good, there was not a lot of protection. Over 5 pitches, we placed a total of 4 pieces of gear, and 2 of those were on the first pitch! So the easy 3-pitch turned out to be 5 hard pitches. The discrepancy in grade (maybe IV 3?) can be explained by conditions, but the guide is seriously wrong in its estimation of length!

We topped out (in a blizzard) at 6pm, just as it was getting dark. Luckily the descent is quite straightforward, so despite the lack of a helpful moon, we got back to the car at about 7.30 and were back in York for some fish & chips at 10.

Next weekend we're having a rest.

A few more photos can be found here.

Tags: queues, sandbags
Posted in Climbing, Mountaineering, Winter | 3 Comments »

Midweek snow

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

Wed last Peri and I met up with Guido and Keith at Borobridge and headed off for Red Tarn face on Helvellyn. Easy journey apart from road upto Greenside Mines being too icy near the top (we parked off the road and got a warning note from the ranger !)

At 300m its a good start to the day, we slogged up into the mist and geared up underneath the face. Everyone was looking for V Corner (III ***). The mists lifted for a while we got a brief glimpse and Peri and I headed up. Guido and Keith were wandering around to out left. From the snow slope I climbed a short bit of ice and started looking for belay to bring up Peri (her first ice route after a snow gully in Wales). After 55m I managed to find a thread (as Peri had all the rock gear on her harness) and dropped the rope vaguely on her direction. As a delaying tactic I sliced my finger open on a flake of rock and dotted blood all round — nice !

Higher up was a short, near-vertical pitch and an interesting corner, great fun and well protected, Peri came up without and hassle with a huge grin, and lead through up the snow slope to the summit plateau. Guido and Keith wanderd past having just soloed Nethermost Gully (just the other side of Striding Edge) after V Corner. We compared notes at the shelter with about 4 teams claiming to be on or near V Corner. Who knows !

Peri dished out chocolate to all-comers and we soled back down No 2 gully – good long snow gully and back up No 1 gully which was excellent with good ice in the narrow steep part and tiring top part where it joins Number 2 in a snow bowl. Well done to Peri for her composure and commitment.

The walk down along Swirrel edge was as good as ever, but the pub was closed so we made our the way home

No pictures as battery ran out at the tarn !

Guidos take on events and some pictures at yorkClimbers

Posted in Climbing, Mountaineering, Winter | No Comments »