Focus Mountaineering

Nice day out with Laura in the Northern Corries today. We climbed Fiacaill Couloir which was in excellent condition. The chockstone is completely buried at the top and there is not much gear between belays – as expected really. Quite a few teams had similar ideas which was probably a result of the large drooping cornices over other gully lines in the corrie. I saw teams on Invernookie and Belhaven. The Seam and Stirling Bomber also looked to have been climbed recently.

There was a large slab avalanche at the bottom of the Fiacaill Buttress yesterday and the crown wall is a few inches high and still well defined. Danny witnessed the avalanche and has a photo on his blog. Temperatures were particularly high today and the surface snow is damp and heavy.

The North West has been the place to be this week with much better snow conditions than anywhere else. On Thursday I visited Beinn Alligin and climbed a new turfy, mixed route (Christening IV,4) on the buttress to the right of Diamond Fire.

The temperature rose by at least 8 degrees throughout the day and I would be surprised if there hasn’t been avalanche activity in the NW since then. Although the more coastal regions have had less snow than elsewhere, they have still suffered from the omni-present buried surface hoar.

I’ve got a bit behind with the condition reports this week so its time for a catch up. Mid-week I climbed Umbrella Fall (V,5) with Jon in Coire Dubh Mor, Liathach. We were heading for the 4 star classic Poachers Fall but were beaten to the route by another team. We didn’t feel to hard done by as Umbrella Fall was in good condition and well worth its 3 stars. We were treated to a perfect traverse of the ridge to finish an excellent day. More to come…

This last week has definitely been a week of 2 halves. On Wednesday the snow arrived in force with about 2 feet falling in 24hrs. The difficulty in getting around meant using snow shoes was the only sensible means of travel and I spent 2 enjoyable days touring the local area whilst looking at navigation skills and snow (in)stability tests.

The avalanche hazard rose considerably with the fresh snow fall and is still extremely serious. The recent surface hoar formations have been buried under a thick layer of unconsolidated powder and I have witnessed some extreme instabilities in the snow pack with cracks shooting out on the surface of the snow under just my body weight, thin 20m square slabs detaching on 20 degree slopes and test pits collapsing whilst being dug. Be careful out there and keep an eye on the avalanche forecasts. On a positive note views up towards the Northern Corries this afternoon showed some scoured ridges and slopes. The Cairngorm ski road has been closed since the new snow fall but Cairngorm Mountain hope to open for some skiing tomorrow.

The current spell of good weather looks like its about to change so I decided to make the most of another superb day and headed over to Ben Macdui. This was day 2 of a Glenmore Lodge winter skills course and was quite an ambitious undertaking for my group who had only ever put winter boots on for the first time yesterday. The team did well and were rewarded with spectacular views in all directions. In particular we had clear views into Braeriach’s eastern corries and could even make out Ben Nevis in the West.

Today was the first day of a 5 day winter skills course I’m running for Glenmore Lodge. I spent the day looking at winter footwork skills and self arrest techniques before stumbling upon the rabbit warren of snow holes in the morraines at the head of Corrie an t’Sneachda. Another summer alpine day with blue skies, suncream and shades. Jacob’s Ladder, Alladin’s Couloir and point 5 gully have all been skied in the last few days.

Excellent journey up the Fiacaill Ridge and over the summit of Cairngorm today. It was another superb day to be on the hills today. There is a lot of soft snow on the Cairngorm plateau that would make walking very tiresome if there weren’t such excellent trails and trenches along popular route. Its also worth noting that there are vast quantities of surface hoar on the snow pack as a result of the recent windless, cold, clear days. This could cause a significant avalanche hazard if it is buried under new snow without being destroyed by strong winds or a thaw.

I went into Coire Laogh Mor with my winter skills group from Glenmore Lodge today to look at core footwork and self arrest techniques. Driving down from Inverness this morning I could see the Cairngorm and Braeriach massifs bathed in sunshine and sticking through a low lying cloud inversion. This quickly lifted and I spent most of the day with sunglasses on. Lots of people out on skis enjoying the awesome snow. It looks like another superb day tomorrow so get out there and don’t forget the sun cream.

Yesterday was one of those special days in the Scottish mountains. I spent a perfect day climbing a new route in Coire na Caime on Liathach with Roger and Martin where we climbed a new mixed route straight up the buttress to the right of the ice line of Jerbil. Its yet to be named but has a particularly tricky 30m crux pitch at about VII, 7. We were treated to great company, perfect weather, a photogenic cloud inversion on the walk in, and an excellent climbing. A bit tired today though – I left home at 6, we didn’t stop all day, climbed the last 2 pitches and traversed the Am Fasarinen pinnacles in the dark and got back home at 1am. Excellent!!

I headed up Ben Nevis today with Si and Martin. There had been a great deal of new snow overnight which prompted us to head for high ground and have a crack at Tower Ridge. I’ve done this route a few times in both summer and winter but the going was just too slow today with the ridge under a thick layer of powder. Snow continued to fall throughout the day and we made the sensible decision to descend before we got too high.

Not surprisingly, Ledge Route was busy today and views of the Orion Face  and Point Five area looked promising but the approaches are probably not too sensible until the new snow settles.