Focus Mountaineering

I’ve just got back from an excellent day on Ben Nevis where I climbed Hadrian’s Wall Direct (V,5) with James. The Ben was busy today with lots of  traffic on Tower Ridge, Point 5 and queues for Orion Direct among others.

This week I’ve been working for Talisman Mountaineering providing a challenging winter mountaineering week to a group from the Royal Navy. As well as covering the necessary core skills to operate safely in the winter hills, the group had a particular emphasis on developing previous navigation skills with the week culminated in an expedition camping in the Lairig Ghru. The weather has been pretty mild and claggy which has been great for navigation training but less good for assessing the climbing conditions. The few views I caught have shown largely black buttresses but the climbing in the gullies is still good and unaffected. Although the snow cover in the Cairngorms has been reduced, it is still very good with complete cover on the plateau and the piste skiing is good down to the Ciste car park.

The weather forecasts show we are about to have another could snap with freezing levels across Scotland down to 400-500m tomorrow. Longer range forecasts show that this is due to last which is excellent news for the climbing conditions. The black buttresses will quickly return to white and the high ice routes will build. If you don’t believe me have a look at theweatheroutlook and scroll through the UK 0c isotherm for the next sixteen days – it looks cold for the duration. I’m climbing on Ben Nevis tomorrow so will post an update when I get down.

Graham and Alex joined me to climb Broken Gully in Coire an t’Sneachda today. It was a return to proper wintry conditions with low cloud and a rise in temperatures resulting in damp snow and damp climbers!

I’ve spent the last 3 days on a snow holing trip in the Lairig Ghru and a journey on the Cairngorm plateau. We are experiencing yet another period of stable high pressure which has brought little wind, blue skies, bright sunshine and cold nights. It doesn’t get much better! There has been a distinctly spring like feel in the air but winter enthusiasts need not worry. There are vast quantities of snow in the East and in the West, high routes are only just coming into condition – this winter season will be a long one! The snow pack has stabilised massively with a few freeze-thaw cycles making walking and climbing reassuring but the icy crust is making off piste skiing hard work at the moment.

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…