Laura and I headed over to Torridon today to complete a circuit of Beinn Alligin. This superb ridge outing has short sections of grade 2 scrambling and is a superb introduction to Torridon’s longer scrambles. We weren’t treated to the best weather with on/off showers throughout the day but there were still long enough breaks in the cloud to get good views.
I had 2 great days guiding Terry on the Cuillins on Thursday and Friday. On the first day we completed a circuit of Coire Lagan climbing Sgurr Dearg (The Inacessible Pinnacle), Sgurr Mhic Choinnich and Sgurr Alasdair followed by Sgurr nan Eag and Sgurr Dubh Mor on the second day. Apart from a bit of low cloud and a windy climb up the Inn Pinn we were treated to two stunning days. As I was leaving on Friday the campsites were filling up with many folk heading for the ridge at the weekend.
On Wednesday I had a day productive day exploring some unclimbed crags on the Ross of Mull. Despite a damp start to the day the gamble paid of and we found dry rock. The pink granite is superb to climb on with excellent friction and crack lines. The south-west corner of Mull is a great spot with big sandy beaches, blue seas and loads of quality unclimbed rock to go at.
We climbed 7 routes between VDiff and HVS 5b,6 of those being new. Not a bad effort for 2 1/2 hours climbing.
I’m back out on Mull for a few days this week for a bit of canyoning and coasteering training prior to some work later in the summer. Today I made a descent of the Ben More Canyon with Andy, Danny and Cherie. I made the second descent last year and I’m reliably informed today was the sixth. 10m jumps into pools and abseiling down waterfalls – good stuff!
I’m back home after an enjoyable week on Mull with Danny providing a challenging range of activities for a young group from Ayrshire for Hebridean Pursuits. Over the course of the week the group challenged themselves with coasteering, canyoning, climbing and hill walking. I also got a chance to explore a potentially undeveloped sea cliff (might have to revisit this one later in the summer) and put up a couple of new routes on a crag on the North of Loch Scridain at about HVS.
With the soaring temperatures over the last few days, Charlie and I made the sensible choice to swap ice tools for sun cream and embarked on a couple of days rock climbing in the Northwest. We visited Diabeg and Applecross climbing a number of classic lines on perfect rock. There looks to be only a trace of snow on the highest peaks and the crags are dry! Time to wake the arms up after a long winter.
Charlie and I made the drive over to Ben Nevis yesterday and climbed Orion Face Direct. The freezing level was above the summit for most of the day making the climbing conditions pretty bold and slow going towards the top. There were teams on Point Five, Hadrian’s Wall and Tower Ridge amongst others. The Ben could do with a big freeze for the ice route to firm up but in the mean time the ridges look great.
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.
I’ve been a bit too busy to blog recently so time for an update. Last week I passed the Mountain Instructor Certificate (MIC) assessment. This is the UK’s highest mountaineering instruction award covering all aspects of instructing and guiding in summer and winter. In the past, for our winter mountaineering and climbing courses Focus Mountaineering has either used other trusted instructors or I have worked with existing clients who I know well. I am now personally able to offer a full range of winter mountaineering and climbing experiences with my normal speciality of designing custom courses to exactly match clients aspirations.
On the conditions side, we’ve been experiencing a thaw for the last week and many of the buttresses on the East are black for the first time in months. Considering that in previous winters this has been a two-weekly event and the current thaw is the first of this winter I think we’ve been incredibly lucky. There is still plenty of snow and plenty of climbing to be done. Gully lines up to grade III will be largely unaffected as they have been so full of snow and by all accounts the classic ice lines high on Ben Nevis are superb and being climbed a lot. The winter is not over yet.
I’m working in the Cairngorms with a military group this week so I’ll post conditions updates when I get a chance.
