Ben Nevis wanderings

Had a lovely day up the Ben in pleasantly poor weather to add to the fun and games.
Well done to the Positive Alternative group for making it to the top.
And importantly the bottom.

Agag's Groove - and ICE

Great day out on Agag's Groove...and Mark learned that ICE can also be good in summer...he never knew it means In Case of Emergency on my mobile...it's not a bad thing to have on ur phone, as heaven forbid, it gives emergency services a head start on who to call if they need a point of contact...hopefully never tho.

Love climbing on clean warm rock but it's not winter!!   We had a great day on Agag's...sun, warm rock, good chat, nice fellow climbers and a bit of excitement...what more can a body ask for?


Simply Epic doing Agag's Groove - Glen Coe from C Coid on Vimeo.
First rock climb of the year - March 2012

Endomondo saved the world

Simply Epic and Rockhard crew headed down to Innerleithen for some great biking in damp conditions.  We met up at the local coffee stop and got a brew followed by a quick change and off to the climb out the golf club.

Some brilliant navigation saw us lost in space until the mist cleared and we found our downhill nirvana in a new place - never have found it with out Endomondo :))  Anyway, steep ground beckoned and we were off rippin' things in style for the first 10 yds anyway, followed by some epic, radical walking, as evidenced in the video.

Despite the evidence, we did actually ride some mega downhill bits in soft mud and super slippy conditions, but mostly rideable and not too desperate.

All in a great day and we even retreated for more coffee and cake.

Highlight of the day was Dickie-Bow having his off (see video) and Fish , well being Fish...even with his new Breitling, the weight of which clearly held him back.

So many trails we need to scope, we will defo be back.

Good to chat to some familiar faces from the SXC series too.

Seven Years in Tibet

Mark and I headed for the North Buttress of Buachille Etive Mor - a climb I've had my eye on in winter for as long as an itch!

We got up early doors and had an interesting scramble up to the base of the climb in very icy conditions but fun just getting to the start.   Things were looking good but as we got over the lip of final wall, we saw a couple of young turks kitted up and about to start the route - bummer. However, after a brief chat they were off and climbing fluently.

                                 














Mark took the first lead and we were all booted and suited, ready to rock.  Mark headed up the first pitch but near the block shouted down he was unwell and light headed.   No dead heroes motto came to mind and he quickly set up a double checked abseil and came down to the start.   He was pale and a bit shitty looking...no change there then...but we sat down and had a sarnie and some statutory tomato soup.   He brightened up a little but it didn't make sense to keep on, so we bailed off another abseil to easier ground and trekked over to the bottom of the chute from Crowberry Gully and Easy Gully.

There was some clear evidence of serious avalanche activity and sluffs running down the gully.   We moved quickly and safely over the exposed ground to the safety of Curved Ridge line and had a final abseil, after some serious excavations and off my abandoned prussik loop, further down and then had a comfortable walk down to the Great Water Slab, thence to the car.

All in, still a good day out and sensible decisions made, resulting in a fight another day...another seven years - shoorly not.

Short video showing the conditions on the day - lots of ice about but melting fast in the warm front which won out over the lovely chill from Siberia :(

Kato Tamed

Great day out with Andy and Aneela of Go Where Scotland in the Borders' trails above Innerleithen and their excellent InnerHaven accommodation.

Peter and I headed off early without Bill (wrist injury) and Mark (climbing) but got down in jig time for a coffee before heading off with the local experts for some awesome biking in majestic Scottish weather.

Lots of climbing with truly stonking steep down hill, techy biking had us smiling from ear to ear as we quickly heated up in the freezing temperature.   Andy and Aneela know the trails like the back of their hands and found us the best trails testing our skills, to crashing point.

After more ups and downs, it was off to the local coffee stop for some re-energising lemon cake and a well deserved break.   "pm saw us back at Andy's, sad to leave after a great Simply Epic and Go Where day in the hills.

We will defo be back for more, if they can resist the allure of Kato...which Andy knows can be damn hard, especially with 'Old Glory' in full regalia!!

Short video of our Borders' trip...fun fun fun.

North Buttress (no), NE Zig-Zags (no), well must be Curved Ridge

Alpine start saw us ahead of everyone on our way to do the North Buttress of the Bookle.  We met our usual Royal Stag on the way, just beyond Bridge of Orchy - saw him last time too, so he must have a wee howff nearby.   Glad we never saw a dead deer on the road on the way home tho.

Walk in with headtorches hid the fact the snow is collapsing around us.  We had a nice scramble up to the NB but it was bare so we headed for the NE Zig Zags, which we hoped might have something on it worthy of attack.  Sadly, our efforts on the first pitch came to nothing and Mark backed off after clearing the old snow ice that was there...it was just desperate stuff.

 Bare NB

Desperately soft snow on the 1st pitch of the NE Z-Z

We traversed over Crowberry Gully which has plenty of snow but it is all so soft.  We checked out Shelf Route on Cr-Ridge but it is stripped nearly bare with numerous black sections.

View up Crowberry Ridge - very soft slushy snow

Running out of options, it had to be Curved Ridge for the third time this winter.  It always good sport and has a real mountaineering fell to it.  We heard voices in the mist but saw no-one, and headed round to the foot of the first steepening.  It was very black and we headed up and finished off at the top of the open book corner then ab'ed off on three raps to the line above the Water Slab.  Huge amounts of snow but real waterfalls flowing and lots of flowing water under the snow.

 Rannoch Wall - ice was collapsing off it with frightening regularity

Havin' foon! 

Ab'ing of the open book corner pitch.

All in, a great day out but winter is a real burst balloon just now with little evidence of things improving with our ongoing weather of wind and rain....grrrr.

Anyway, some mountain biking for me next week, so the weather can do what it wants, as long as it's sunny with no wind!

Ledge Route, Ben Nevis

Plans to camp out in North Face car park fell with dreadful weather, so we bunked in the Bank St hostel - not the best place with drunks etc o/s at 2am. However, a 5am rise saw us leaving the NF carpark around 6am ahead of the queues.

We trudged up the path in the dark with no snow until about 500m. The path became indistinguishable and we ended up above the CIC hut entering the main corrie. Once we got our bearings, we saw that the ridges were bare, and gullies were out, (North East Buttress was my objective, but no-one felt it was on - they were right). We wandered up to No 5 gully and saw evidence of the earlier avalanche

The Curtain was pretty bare! 

After a quick strategy chat, we headed for a look at Ledge Route but wondered if the wind would prevent us crossing the ledge, higher up. We set off in windy snowdrift and found ourselves at the start of the higher ledge. Mark took a harder line to the left of the ledge but dislodged a huge bolder which thankfully stuck in the snow beside us. Suitably satisfied the line was for another day, we headed up the ledge proper.

We neared the top in nice conditions but as soon as we hit the plateau, the westerly winds hit us with a vengeance and it was struggle to stay upright. Mark had a route card for nav'ing off points on the Ben and we took a dog leg around the dangers and hit the Red Burn spot on.  We wandered down in the gale to a boulder for some shelter and a well earned sarnie and obligatory tomato soup, thence to the car.

The Red Burn

A great day and my new glove's strategy worked a treat - brilliant industrial rubber gloves courtesy of Mike - they work...just need to buy a jacket to match them now

All in, a great day in the hills, and wall to wall smiles at the end of the day still gave us enough time to visit Nevis Sport for a quick coffee and cake before a mad dash down the road (with two stops for desperately sore cramp for me on the way :( )

Mark's Crack - new line on the Cobbler

A very late in the day change of mind saw me, Bill and Mark head for the Cobbler to do MacLay's Crack which Mark and I looked at last year but never got on. The early views were stunning.

It was a wonderful morning but the forecast was to close in with more snow. We swam up to the start ahead of some crowds and were amazed by the quantity of soft unconsolidated snow - indeed the was evidence of a monster avalanche out of the gully heading up towards the peak.

Mark took the lead and swam, literally, up first pitch, and part of the second to belay in a neat little cave (very similar to Vanishing Gully on the Ben). The next pitch looked interesting and Mark steamed up it in no time, with Bill and I following on. This is no doubt a lovely climb in better conditions but was really not very reassuring in what we had. That said, we renamed it Mark's Crack in honour of his lead.

We came down in jig time but I still managed to incur some wrath for a late home for family dinner :( Conditions would have been amazing if the snow was wetter with a freeze but it is very powdery, has at least two layers in the first foot which are avalanche prone - 2" and 4" down and the turf is decidedly warm - not at all frozen. With a little rain and a good freeze the conditions will be stellar but forecast is not promising for a freeze. Ever hopeful my back recovers soon, as it is a proverbial pain in the ass, just a little higher tho!! Lower back pain is a real hinderance when carrying a sack and climbing, even tho Bill and Mark lugged the heavy stuff, but hey ho, that's what friends do. All in a great climb under normal conditions - we just never had them. The approx line - book is not overly helpful - climb in two pitches (not three); first to fork (20m) and follow groove on left to cave belay (another 10m tops - pic of me sitting therein). Continue directly up on corner to left out of cave to steep wall 5m; climb wall direct and follow for 5m then cut back right on ledge to steep groove (5m) and climb direct to poor belay (10m) by very small fir tree :) Climb direct thereafter on easy ground to top (2 pitches in total and ignore poor directions in book!)

As you can see, weather deteriorated!!

...rather than a Night at the Opera

Bill and I chose some night time navigation practice rather than heading for a re-run of the inaugural performance of Antonio Salieri's Europa riconosciuta at Nuovo Regio Ducale Teatro alla Scala, in Milano - night time nav has never had such appeal :) Anyway, we headed for Shantron Hill off the A817 near Faslane and did a bit of pacing, timing and walking on a bearing. We did a lot of contour interpretation and matching bearings to the map and vice a versa too. Mark couldn't make it due to carrying me at the weekend; we missed him terribly and let him know we were enjoying ourselves on some grade two ground;

Other than having fun, it was actually damn cold near the top in a chilly, biting wind, evidenced by ice on the pavement back home. Sadly, it was all gone in the morning as a warm front moved over us. Wednesday's remain nav night, Thursday are Opera and Sunday's are climbing, and biking...in what order is determined by the weather. Sadly, we missed the Opera, which was apparently half decent; the location might catch on :)

Mixed bag in SCNL - and first suicide deer!

Mark and I had our first real alpine start this morning and made SCNL car park in the dark. The usual slog up there left us exhausted - it is a hard walk but today the snow was mushy and breaking under foot up to the thigh at times...it did not bode for great conditions when some young lad walked out saying it was not in.

Undeterred, we slogged on and made the lochans in good time. It was too warm tho and the conditions were not good - snow just pulled through, no ice and no frozen turf.

Without hooking, it was a bit sketchy at times and the work to get to the base of Boomerang Arete damn near killed us old guys :) - in my defence, my back was agony after a recent muscle strain.

However, we got on route and made the best of a bad deal - not great and took a safer variation nearer the top to avoid some dicey conditions.

We moved together a bit and finished off to the summit in a flurry of horrible spindrift - there was loads of it thro the day, blowing soft snow and graupel all around the mountain. There was quite a lot of new snow about, so a good freeze thaw will likely make the routes bomber, as there is enough snow, but continued warm days will rise the avalanche threat probably...I wouldn't be rushing back in the next few days unless we got a great freeze.

All in, a 50-50 day; great to get out, glad we made the effort but pity about the conditions. Plenty teams on Dorsal, one swimming up Central Buttress Ordinary Route and maybe one rope went for SC Gully, but not sure. The walk out just reminded me why SCNL is always a long, hard day (need to get fitter) - guide book out for more on the Bookle! On the drive down the road, we nearly came to an inglorious end when a deer walked out, rather nonchalantly to be sure, in front of the car blissfully unaware of his near impending death...Mark's keen eye to protect his 'hairdresser's car' saved the day and the deer. Suicide deer should wear fluorescent jackets!!!

First Winter Climb - worst hot aches - EVER!

Mark and I ramped up at CR for the first winter climb of the winter and found it in nice nick - plenty winter cold, snow under foot but no ice - a full on mix route today but great. We moved together mostly but pitched the first steep pitch and the pitch up to the open book corner. I had the crappest Mountain Hardware gloves on - going straight back to the shop - burst after 2 wears and waterproof as my £1 watch I got off the looky-looky man in Majorca! Anyway, had the worst hot aches ever after the first pitch as my hands were cold and wet - screaming in pain but they then warmed up for the rest of the day :) Got to the top in a white out and down into the tourist route corrie in dreadful, driving spindrift - great fun...what a great day :) Back to the car with my feeet screaming in anger at my ill fitting new Scarpas - need a new strategy to last the day. All in a fantastic opener to the season - two super-nice pitches to test winter skills and placing gear on front points on rock - always fun. Can hardly believe we saw no-one all day - where was everyone? Plenty of snow in the lee of the wind and the corrie down had bucket loads. Hopefully it all stays and consolidates a bit with the cold and more snow coming. Turf was only beginning to freeze high up where exposed - a real cold snap is needed to turn it into an ice fest for the harder routes. All in - smiles all round and another 5 star day. Bill enjoyed himself too....decorating :( Some pics - first is my favourite.

First pitch

Hot aches

Mark coming up to the open book corner nr the top

Coming up to Crowberry Gap