24-01-12, Torridon - Winter Mountaineering

Enjoyable winter mountaineering along the 'Black Carls' east Bein Eighe. 

I am in Scotland now till the end of March. The Cairngorms are fairly lean, despite snow falling in Grantown over the weekend. I have been working on winter skills course at Glenmore Lodge. Very high wind speeds with snow accumulating on eastern aspects. Yesterday I was in Torridon helping with a winter mountaineering group from Martin Moran. We headed up a snowy Creag Dhubh on the eastern end of Bein Eighe, traversed the Black Carls, looking at using the rope to keep everybody safe on a ridge line in winter.

19-01-10, Beinn Eighe, Torridon - Winter Walking

Kath, Gaz, Matt and myself made the long walk into Beinn Eighe in Torridon. With no climbing reports for the area we were still hopeful to climb one of the classic buttresses of the Triple Buttress (right). However the thaw has unfortunately badly affected the North-west of Scotland. The freezing level was at about 1000m today and as the buttress came into view our fears were quickly realised. So in order to salvage the day we went up Fuselage Gully I. This turned out to be a great gully climb, made particularly memorable because of the Lancaster Bomber remains from 1952 which provides the crux of the route.

Liathach back corries have very thin ice smears and again little snow. So the classic ice climbs like Poachers are out.