16-03-12, Ardmair, Old Man of Wick, Far North Scotland - Scottish Sea Stacks Rock Climbing

Sandwood Bay with Am Buachaille and some fine surf.

 I have been on another NW and far North rock trip in Scotland the last few days with Francis. Windy but dry and plenty of crags that must be climbed on! Tuesday we headed to Ardmair near Ullapool which was great. Butch, steep sandstone, savage cracks and generally well protected. We hoped to do some sea stack climbing, so with a slightly optimistic idea we walked the 3 miles to Sandwood bay and Am Buachaille. We should have brought our surf boards, the waves were clean and high! So obviously we were never going to be able to make the 10m swim across the channel to the base of the stack! The day was salvaged by climbing a great route on a crag called Creag an Fhithich, excellent gneiss, highly recommended, there seem to be crags everywhere up there. Thursday we drove over to Wick and climbed the Old Man of Wick. Very enjoyable and exciting. No swimming required, just a pendulum abseil to get to the base. The route was about HVS 5a,4b. Some looseness but in general a nice climb and obviously a great summit! Abseil back down the landward face to climb another steep juggy wall back to the path, again about HVS 5a. Some drizzle on the West today so no rock climbing, looks like there maybe a slight dusting of snow over the weekend with a return to 900m freezing level, so those handful of ice routes on the Ben may last a bit longer!

Cragging at Ardmair, Summer Island E1 5b.

Am Buachaille.

Old Man of Wick, abseil and pendulum to the base of the route.

 

The second pitch on Old Man of Wick, loose in the corner but great crimps on the wall. 

 

Francis enjoying the stack experience.

The top, abseil down and climb out on the other side.

12-03-12, Sarclet, Latheronwheel, Caithness Coast - Scottish Rock Climbing

Sarclet!

 The Scottish winter is rapidly disappearing, nothing to climb in Cairngorms and very little up high in the Ben. Plenty of ice and rock fall, and the usual suspects are literally hanging in there! I have spent the last couple of days rock climbing with Garry on the Caithness coast just south of Wick. It has been dry and fairly warm considering it is March. Sheltered from Westerly winds on these SE facing crags. Yesterday it was Sarclet - a conglomerate/sandstone mix, which on the whole was fairly sound, but we (well I mean Garry) managed to find some looseness! A cool crag, that I doubt ever sees 2 teams, slightly confusing to find some buttresses but the photos in the Gary Latter guide do it justice. Occum's buttress was the best bit we climbed at. Today it was Latheronwheel, which I have been to before , but it is very good. It is better than Sarclet as well. Vertical and steep, mud stone, solid, good positive holds and great cam placements, we had the luxury of a double set of cams which made it glorious! The weather is set to be stable, dry and warm so hopefully some more Scottish rock climbing on it way.

Garry seconding 'The Haven' , VS 4c.

Abseiling into Occum's buttress, Sarclet, Caithness

Garry on Nobody's Crack, VS 4c, Latheronwheel

Heavy Duty, VS 4b apparently!

Big Flat Wall, Latheronwheel, a little seepage so no climbing there today.

07-03-12, Ben Nevis - Winter Climbing

Ben Nevis North Face

Off to the Ben on Monday. Ice conditions up high 1100m and above great. There was a lot of soft slab about at the top of Tower Gully. We had a relatively late start for the Ben, with the road from Loch Carron only opening at 7am due to the land slide. Up Tower Gully, with the rest of the world, numerous teams on Good Friday Climb, Gardyloo Gully, Smiths, Tower Scoop and Tower Ridge. We climbed Tower Scoop (III), 3 good ice pitches for Andy and Stewart to get their ice fix for the week! Tuesday less good weather, windy, cloudy then heavy rain late afternoon. We climbed the East Ridge of North Buttress on Stob Ban (II/III) a great mountaineering route, which can be climbed in any condition. That day we did it with just one axe and no crampons. Today some rock climbing at a crag near Applecross very gneiss rock, and a day of four seasons, snow showers, sunshine and occasional wind. There is a good dusting of snow in the NW, the freezing level was probably 600m.

Busy Tower Gully area.

Andy enjoying the ice.

Some Hero's having it on a new route!? Left of Kellets. They abbed off from there.

Dusk



Stob Ban, Mamores, East Ridge of North Buttress on right sky line.

04-03-12, Fuar Tholl, Glen Carron, NW Highlands - Winter Climbing

View from the top of Fuar Tholl.

 I am over working in the NW highlands again this week for Martin Moran. There was a dusting of snow this morning and today the weather was fair and pleasant. There are some old snow patches still hanging in high up, but most routes harder than grade I/II are non existent, and there are few climbable at that grade. Andy and Stewart are on a technical winter climbers course and hope to feel confident leading grade II winter climbs and have experience of seconding harder. Today we refreshed winter skills, cramponing and boot work, snow belays, bucket seats and buried axes, then the guys led the first couple pitches of Access Gully, II, (Fuar Tholl) before I took over. The weather looks set to be cold for the next few days so hopefully ice on the Ben Nevis will be improving.

Andy and Stewart climbing Access Gully, II

Looking south from the summit.

03-03-12, Creag Bheag - Rock Climbing

The last few days have been very similar weather wise, warm conditions but dry at least in the Cairngorms. On the last 3 days of the winter skills course we bagged a few more Munros and consolidated skills learnt earlier in the week. We also looked at use of the rope and how to build good snow anchors, when venturing into steeper graded ground.

Today Kath and I went sport climbing at a recently bolted conglomerate crag called The Mound about 1 hour NE of Inverness on the Caithness coast. This is a very nice friendly crag, lots of 5s and 6s, with numerous juggy holes and stones. It faces SE and has a very quiet feel overlooking the river Fleet, only 10 minutes from the road and good quality conglomerate rock with little seepage. Worth seeking out if your in the area and fancy a chilled day.

28-02-12, Cairngorms - Winter Skills

Very dry Fiaciall Buttress

 This weekend and week I have been working at Glenmore Lodge on Winter Skills courses. MCofS University students at the weekend and a regular open week long course this week. There are enough significant patches of snow on some NE aspect slopes to practice winter skills - Lochain and Cas. There are some deep accumulations still hanging around on the plateau in the usual places i.e. Domhain, Ciste Mhearad and Cnap Coire na Spreidhe, but other than that it is bare and very summer like. A couple of winter routes exist (if your seriously desperate!) in the corries. Basically crags are bone dry and ready for Rock Climbing! Today (Day 2) we headed to Coire Cas, did some more ice axe self arrest, and cramponing up the slope, headed to windy col and descended into Coire an t-Sneachda, marvelled at the glorious dry rock, dug some emergency shelters in the moraines and covered some more navigation.

Mess of Pottage

Aladdin's Buttress

Skiing - closed.



Don't dig too deep!



23-02-12, Beinn Bhan, Applecross - Winter Climbing

A' Chioch Traverse, Beinn Bhan

This week has been very warm, wet and stormy! Not very good for Winter Climbing! I have been working in the NW Highlands again. Luckily for my group of Intro Winter Climbers, Sunday, day 1 was ace, cold, crisp and snow down to sea level. We took the bull by the horns and went for a big route immediately, Chris and Steph had done some winter stuff with crampons and ice axes but Terrance hadn't so had to learn fast! We traversed A'Chioch on Beinn Bhan, a great grade II ridge route (the photos say it all).  The following days we have had serious rain fall, and rising temperatures, 5 and 6 degrees on the summits, which has decimated most snow everywhere. We climbed 'Way Up' on Liathach yesterday, the only thing you could climb! A very soggy experience with some ice fall for good measure. On the other days, we have practiced some navigation, rope work, rock climbing and dry tooling - It has been productive, if not very wintry. Weather forecast suggest a cold snap next couple of days then back to warm ming! But who knows what it will be like in a couple of weeks time.


Beinn Bhan



The Team on the ridge with the impending wall looming.



17-02-12, Aonach Mor, Ben Nevis - Winter Climbing

Ben Nevis above the cloud from Aonach Mor

This week I have been climbing and working on the West on Aonach Mor and Ben Nevis for Adventure Peaks. Liam and Martin were on a Improvers Snow and Ice climbing course. The idea being to climb Ice and mixed routes between grade III and V, learn about technique, runners, belays, stances and how to survive winter climbing, with a aim to become independent and be leading easy winter winter routes on their own. The start of the week had glorious weather, freezing level below the summits with lots of icy routes in good condition high up 900-1000m altitude, as the week progressed, mild weather and rain and wind became the norm. On Sunday I was out climbing for myself with a friend on Aonach Mor, the ice routes were in great condition, we climbed Aquafresh, Roaring Forties and Siamese Twin all grade IV. Monday with work, the team had already have crampon and some winter climbing experience we headed back to Aonach Mor and climbed Tunnel Vision III. Tuesday and Wednesday to Ben Nevis and climbed the first 3 pitches of Nasturtium IV (which was in poor condition - relatively low and probably very hard now with the recent thaw), and Wendigo IV (a great ice and mixed route on Coire na Ciste Crag). Thursday was very mild and raining heavily in the morning so we had a rest day and worked on dry tooling technique (on Onich Slab) and some rope work at Polldubh crags and climbed a 2 pitch route The Gutter, Diff in the sunshine! Yesterday, Friday myself and Liam climbed Faulty Towers, III right of the Douglas boulder which gave 3 good mixed pitches, on snow ice and turf.

Looks like the weather may have ended the winter season yesterday, however it is a blizzard of snow in Grantown on Spey at the moment, so the freezing level has dropped and the snow is returning to lower levels! I will be in the NW Highlands this week, hopefully, the routes are looking white and frozen.



Siamese Twin, IV,4 with rescue helicopter helping an injured team near by.




Siamese Twin IV,4 - excellent steeper variation to Left Twin on Aonch Mor.




Tamsin, guiding a pair up the classic Left Twin, III.



Nasturtium, IV, 4

Faulty Towers, III

09-02-12, Logie Head, Moray Coast - Rock Climbing

Logie Head, great quartzite fin of rock.

More rock climbing today. Slightly damp, so not as glorious as you may imagine! Very warm in Scotland today, reports of saturated slushy wadefest snow in big gullies of the northern corries. Avy and I went to Logie Head, and enjoyed some wet rock, we had a look at placing runners, building belays and tying yourself to the rock face safely. The wildlife was most excellent also, spotted maybe 10 or so Bottlenose Dolphins.

Wet VDiff climbing at Logie Head.

Bottlenose Dolphins in the Moray Firth.

08-02-12, Cummingston, Moray Coast - Rock Climbing

Cummingston stack from the cave.

 High wind speeds in the Cairngorms today. Avy and I went rock climbing on the Moray coastal crag - Cummingston. A soft sandstone, 10-15m high, tidal and non tidal areas, good range of easy to mid grades. A good calm but cold day, gave Avy's knees a rest and a chance to look at rock climbing skills, taking out runners, belaying and abseiling. After dropping off Avy in Aviemore, looks like lots of snow has left the mountains, probably blown away! The buttress starting to look black also.

Flying buttress left, VD. Climbs the stack.

Cornflake Wall, Mod. Cummingston Classic!

07-02-12, Coire an Lochain, Cairngorms - Winter Climbing

Coire an Lochain

Second day of winter climbing for Avy today. We climbed Y Gully RH (II) in Coire an Lochain. In general the Corie is quite dry on some parts and well rimed on others, especially on the top 50m or so. Bomber neve nearly everywhere. Quite windy today, still sunny. Avalanche activity has been spotted over the back of the plateau, so even though there isn't full snow coverage, there is still some large amounts of slab about.

The Hoarmaster, (hoared/rimed enough!?)



Top out of Y Gully Right Hand.



06-02-12, Coire an t-Sneachda, Cairngorms - Winter Climbing

 Today I have been out climbing with Avy, on an introduction to winter climbing course. We headed to t-Sneachda and climbed Central Gully Left Hand (I/II). It had some annoyingly deep pockets of snow in the gully proper, which we avoided and climbed the rib to the right. The top half was scoured, icy and good. Other teams were out on the buttresses and gullies. The top out was excellent, hard neve, and fantastic views.

Avy, having the ice pitch at the end!

Sunshine melting the rime.