ClimbNow Blog

Out with Euan, Nic, Pamela, Glenn, Davy and Fran today for an EICA Ratho staff training day looking at best practice for teaching winter skills and security on steep winter terrain.

A happy Glenn and Pamela

The snow level on Ben Ledi was from circa 700m, snow was generally soft with the odd area of crust, but no significant areas of wind slab (note Ben Ledi is only 879m and some of the higher hills in the area looked to have considerably more fresh snow cover). Recent avalanche debris in east facing gully lines. Exposed turf generally wasn’t frozen, but was firm from 750m. Paths fairly icey in places.

Nearing the top

No precipitation during the day, light winds, generally clear and a frost starting before we left the car park. A beautiful day in the Scottish winter hills.

A very happy Nic with the Crianlarich hills and Ben More/Stob Binnein in the background

Up in Coire an t-Sneachda with McGeek and Glenn. We had a look at Seams-tress, but ended up climbing The Seam as the cracks were full of ice and the protection on the Seam-stress was going to be quite hard to get.

Fag break after having a look at Seam-stress

Mess of Pottage still pretty black, Fiacaill Buttress pretty white with hard snow and water ice and proving a popular choice. Pockets of wind slab building on a firm base. Below freezing all day in the coire with westerly/south westerly winds.

Glenn seconding the top pitch of The Seam

Out with Euan today, see his report below for conditions. Here’s a photo from this morning showing the conditions in Coire an Lochain.

Coire an Lochain

Martin below the ice bulge of the Vent.

Martin enjoying the traverse on Inventive.

Martin and i visited Coire an Lochain today and climbed Inventive on Number 1 buttress. The route starts up the Vent before breaking left. The ice bulge on the Vent is in good condition and Inventive had lots of good snow ice.

There are many buttress routes in condition at the moment in Coire an Lochain. Some of the cornices may be impassable. We walked out via Coire an-t Sneacdha. Amazingly,despite the thaw of the last few days, some of?the higher buttress routes on Fiacaill Buttress are complete. The plateau also still has excellent snowcover and from a distance it appears like there may be a few things to do on Carn Etchachan.

Paul climbing Fiacaill Coulior.

John below the twin grooves on Grooved Rib.

For the last two days i have been out in the Northern Cairngorms team with Paul and Gayle from the Falkirk High Tops Team. We climbed Fiacaill Couloir on the 13th. The route had lots of excellent snow ice placements for axes. Today, we climbed Grooved Rib (with the right hand finish). Again we had good snow ice. John, Ian and Archie climbed the left hand finish.

The high buttress routes on Fiacaill Buttress are still white. From a distance it looks like there is still plenty of mixed routes to do in Coire an Lochain. In Sneacdha, some of the easy gully lines have massive wet cornices.

Out with Euan today on Pas De Deux. See his post below for conditions. A few more photos below showing conditions on the crag and route.

North-East Corrie of Ben an Dothaidh, Femme Fatale to Cirrus area

Euan above the "short wall"

Euan tackling the corner on the right of the tower

For the last two days i have been climbing in the Bridge of Orchy area. On sunday i was out with Jason and Jacqueline from the Falkirk High Tops Team on the side of Beinn Dorain. We climbed Kick Start and finished up the last pitch of Glass Bead Game. The turf was bomber and the crag was well rimed. Two teams were on Second Coming and Niall and Craig were on Centigrade on the side of Beinn an Dothaidh.

The crux groove of Kick Start.

Today i was in the North East corrie of Beinn and Dothaidh with Martin. We climbed Pas De Deux. Again the turf is excellent. The corrie was very quite. The snow in the gully style routes at the moment is poor for climbing. It is very heavy and there is a lot of soft slab around. Old avalanche debris was witnessed on the walk out.

Martin at the start of Pas De Deux with the great tower above.

Climbed on Saturday with Phil Dowthwaite we had bomber frozen turf and verglas on rock. This is a cracking route well worth the four stars it gets in the new Welsh Winter Guide by the Ground Up Team.

John Jackson and I decided today would be a good day to visit a crag we’d not climbed on before and hence we headed to Ben Ime and Fan Gully Buttress. We climbed Ben’s Fault, which gave an excellent day, although not a route to be underestimated.

John above the first chimney

The turf was well frozen, although burried below a layer of powder snow with a crust, which made for a lot of clearing and some wading. The approach from Bealach a’Mhaim requires some care (there’s fresh avalanche debris in Easy Gully) and the recent snow is on a harder base in some areas. There’s no significant cornices, but it’s worth noting this face catches sun until after noon.

Looking down from the "Damoclean flake"

Below freezing all day at crag level. Mostly clear skies and no fresh snow on the hill before we left although it was snowing eastwards from the Trossachs as I drove home.

Above the flake, about to commence some more squirming

Andy Nelson leading the crux of Coup De Grace

Andy Townsend leading a direct finish to Coup De Grace

Today i was out on Beinn an Dothaidh with Andy Townsend and Andy Nelson. We climbed Coup De Grace. The route was in excellent condition. The turf was very well frozen (I could have done with some sharper picks). Andy Townsend led a direct finish rather than doing the easier pitch 4. This climbed a very steep crack above the belay of pitch 3 and then two steep bulges.

The mixed climbing on the other routes looked in good condition also. There appeared to be a team on The Skraeling. The ice falls of Taxus are currently not visible due to the large volume of new snow.