Winter Conditions

Relatively easy day on Ben Udlaidh with Pamela today. We climbed West Gully with Pamela leading the left hand variation at the top at a solid grade IV.

We then nipped back around and did White Caterpillar, which was in very solid condition.

Other parties on The Smirk (which looked a bit hollow), Organ Pipe Wall and Doctor’s Dilemma. There appeared to be footprints in to and off the top of Peter Pan and Green Eyes, although we didn’t see anyone on them. Quartzvein Scoop still has a large cornice. Routes east of Central Gully are now catching the sun relatively early in the day and still have some drooping cornices. Light winds, no precipitation, below freezing in the shade, but warm in the sun.

Nettle and I were up in Glen Coe today. We went up the Zig Zags followed by Boomerang Arete. Other parties on Boomerang Gully, Dorsal Arete, Twisting Gully and Central Grooves.

Snow patches from road level. Only the odd snowy patch on the Zig Zags. Raining low down early in the day, but falling as snow above circa 900m. Turf still frozen to low levels. The snow pack was pretty wet to about 1000m, above this level it was below freezing. There’s some good snow ice about, but also some pretty big cornices over many lines in Stob Coire nan Lochan. Clearing as we left, so likely there’ll be a frost tonight.

I headed into the Northern Corries today with some of the Falkirk High Tops Team and climbed Alladins Mirror Direct. The crux ice bulge is currently very short. A number of the harder mixed climbs are now looking in better condition. The rest of the team ascended Cairn Gorm.

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The whole Falkirik High Tops team headed out to An Teallach and completed the traverse. Exposed turf is frozen above 500m. The quality of the snow improved throughout the day as clear sky’s allowed the temperature to come down and the snow to refreeze. Conditions on the mixed routes should improve over the weekend.

I am currently in the North West Highlands with the Falkirk High Tops Team with the aim of scrambling, winter climbing and munro bagging.

The weather today has been poor with the freezing level well above the summits, strong winds and heavy rain.

Myself and half the team completed a rock climb called Anyways on Stac Pollaidh today which prooved to be very ‘interesting’ in the current conditions. The other half of the team completed Am Faochagach near the Aultguish which gave a long slushy walk. A serious refreeze is needed to bring the winter routes back into condition. We will probably head to An Teallach tomorrow to do the traverse if the weather improves slightly.

Out with Patryck and Bruce at Beinn Udlaidh today. We climbed Organ Pipe Wall V,5**, splitting it in to three short pitches to give everyone a lead. The route was in very good condition, although dinner plating a lot on the lower sections after a very cold night.

Organ Pipe Wall

Bruce leading off

Lots of other parties out on routes from Doctor’s Dilemma around west. East of Doctor’s Dilemma the routes have some pretty scarey looking cornices/soft snow above.

Looking across to Quartzvein Scoop, Peter Pan etc.

Light winds and below freezing all day in the shade. Sounds like a change in the weather for tomorrow.

I was out today on the Brack with Pamela, Kenny and Andrew for a staff training day looking at parallel roping with two clients. The top two pitches and the first pitch of the route were in excellent condition. The second pitch required the front crawl technique of climbing. A slight variation on the first pitch was taken to make use of exposed turf ledges.

Lots of routes to do on the Brack at the moment. The Cobbler is mostly black so a poor choice.

Back to The Brack. Euan was there as well, as it was a Ratho staff training day and will no doubt report. So just a quick report and a couple of photos. Davy Virdee, John Chival and myself went to look at the Plunge, which was in the sun, so we traversed up and right to join the Abyss above the initial corner then headed up this and January Buttress, which had excellent ice at the top. Conditions were much the same as yesterday.

Out on The Brack again today with John Jackson. We climbed a probable new line between Hell’s Teeth and The Abyss. It gave three pitches of fairly uninspiring II/III up to a point level with and close to the top of the blocks on Hell’s Teeth. However, it then finished up a superb chimney/cave feature. This required unusual techniques to traverse 15m horizontally over chockstones with a dark, seemingly bottomless chasm below. John’s approach was to downclimb and then perform a long twisting bridge; mine was to perform a full body brace across the chimney and shuffle. Chockstones and the walls at the far end then allowed vertical progress to be made to eventually stand on the top of the huge flake forming the outside of the chimney, before stepping back on to the crag to top out. A very memorable pitch and difficult to grade, we thought IV,4 or IV,5 and would have been less strenuous without rucsacks. John got the crux lead and has given it a provisional name of Chockstone Alley.

John entering the chimney/cave system

The turf was well frozen, although largely buried under a thick layer of unconsolidated, but stable snow. Clear blue skies and a light north wind all day, with snow that had been in the sun forming a crust after returning in to the shade.

Out with an Adventure Edinburgh group on Ben Vorlich near Loch Lomond looking at emergency snow shelters. We found a good area to work in on the way up to the Little Hills and built personal shelters, snow pits, snow graves and a shovel up. The photo below is from my phone, so not the greatest quality, but gives an idea of the depth of snow even at quite low elevations of circa 550m.

Due to the snow conditions we’d headed to this area and chosen a north-east facing ridge. There is heavy loading of lee slopes with fresh and wind blown snow; at lower elevations in this area it’s full depth to the turf and starting to consolidate. However, where it’s on hard old snow with the potential for a burried surface hoar it will represent a considerable avalanche risk and careful route choice is required. The turf is still well frozen down to low levels.