Summer in the Alps!

We're off on our annual alpine trip now that Cairngorm's ski season has finaly come to an end this mid-summer. There's still snow in the gullies and the rock is dry for rock climbing but as the midges have arrived it's now time to leave!
Cairngorm Mountain's ski area re-opened for skiing over the mid-summer solstice. More details can be found on the BBC News report here and photos on the WinterHighland site here and here.
We leave from Rosyth tomorrow in 'SPLUD' our motor-home and return in September so no more Scottish reports until then. If I get time and a decent free WiFi connection I'll upload a few photos from the Alps as we travel.
Should you wish to contact us to arrange a course or guiding we can be contacted by text or voice on our UK mobile. We are now taking Scottish and Hot Rock booking and our Winter Mountaineering courses are starting to fill already too.

Last weeks Cuillin Ridge course

A few photos of Ken, Godfrey, Mark, Karin and Fi from last weeks Cuillin Munros and scrambles course. Karin (ML) again came along to shadow, assist Fi and myself and bag a few Cuillin Munros and climbs. Overall we had several days of superb clear weather along with a few very claggy, wet and blustery days where a cool head, carefull foot and map work were essential.
Total reliance on a GPS is dangerous on the Cuillin' and Mark's trusty Garmen was at times more than 500 metres out on the narrow ridges and steep coires due to weak or obscured satellite signals!!!
Everyone bar one, found the hills, steep, exposed and hard work but very very rewarding at the same time and achieved their ambitions.
As a bonus Godfrey, Ken and I managed to avoid the worst of the twenty plus In Pin queues!!
After the course Fi and I stayed on for a day's sunny rock climbing on the south face of Sgurr Alasdair and would have stayed on longer if the midges hadn't arrived with a vengeance on Saturday evening!! See Fi's blog here for more details.

A YouTube video of Ken and Godfrey climbing the Inn Pinn can be viewed here

June skiing video and rock climbing pics!

Saturday 5th June 2010... Same day same country - Scottish hot rock climbing on Grand Diedre, Skye and summer skiing on Cairngorm Mountain!!! See Fi's blog here for more details.

You can also see the YouTube ski video courtesy of WinterHighland here

Off to Skye again

It's been a cold week with some fresh snow on the mountains. The Cairngorm ski area is open for skiing over the bank holiday weekend!
The blog wont be updated for a few weeks as we're based in Glen Brittle on Skye while we're climbing and guiding on the Cuillin Ridge. The forecast is looking promising so hopefully it'll be a lot warmer than on our last trip a few weeks ago!
We still have a few places available on the Skye ridge course and can offer day to day guiding over the next week or so too. Details and photos from our last Cuillin trip can be found here
Full details of the Skye Ridge Munros and Scrambles courses can be found here
On our return from Skye we head off to the Alps until September!!!

A summer winter route and a wintry summer route!

It's been cold over the past few days with the freezing level dropping well below the coire floors. Today it was wintry on the tops with occasional snow and hail flurries so we headed into the coires with our axe and crampons.
Some folk were climbing up Aladdin's Couloir (no skiers today!) as we headed up towards the Trident Gullies.
We climbed up Central Gully for a bit before heading left and removing our crampons to climb a slightly wintry Pygmy Ridge. The rock was freezing with snow on the ledges but still plenty of grip for our vibrams and knumb fingers!
Central gully is now broken in the middle and the Runnel is bare at the chimney pitch.
In Coire an t-Sneachda the only complete gullies left are Jacob's Ladder, Aladdin's Couloir, and Point Five (half a gully).
There's still good snow cover on the coire headwalls and windy col.
Please avoid any descents from the plateau via the steep coire headwalls unless you have an ice axe and crampons as it would be pretty suicidal without them.
There's still fairly wide cover on the plateau towards Ben MacDui.

See also Fi's blog at here

The full screen YouTube HD video can be found here

Skiing and summer rock on Finger's Ridge

Temperatures in the mid twenties and still some good piste and off piste gully skiing this weekend but with the very warm temperatures the snow cover has been receding fast compared to last week. The big NW facing gullies and slopes between Windy Col and Aladdin's Couloir are still full but the Trident Gullies are now thin or broken in places.

We met Aly returning from some uncompromising steep ski descents of Aladdin's Couloir, Jacob's Ladder and the Goat-Track and saw another skier exit from the Jacob's / Forty thieves / Aladdin's area.

There were climbers on Pygmy Ridge and Fiacaill Ridge and a couple followed us up to the START of Fingers Ridge?

The upper approach below Pygmy Ridge is now clear of snow but a large snowfield still guards Aladdin's Buttress and Fingers Ridge. The Goat-Track and coire headwall are still good for skiing!

We decided to do some easy alpine style rock climbing for a change and used our ice axes to good effect on the approach up onto Fingers Ridge. A steep 60 metre snow field and the potential for an ice screw runner provided additional interest to the normal summer rock climb's start - great fun if prepared with ice axes worrying if not!

It is worth noting that the winter frosts and extensive dry tooling have caused a lot more shattering of the rock on the ridge and the climb though good is a lot dirtier and looser than in recent years especially in the upper section.

The still extensive snowfields deterred a few hill walkers and summer climbers and with good reason. The old snow was very firm with areas of old ice in places. We saw a number of hill-walkers gingerly retracing their steps from the coire headwalls and one screeming, yelping, tread-milling dog had a near miss chasing a Ptarmigan at the top of the Goat-Track! All in all great conditions for all summer and winter outdoor sports. With the forecast of lowering temperatures next week all the remaining gullies will freeze solid to provide some good easy winter routes for June!

More info a photo's on Fi's blog here.

20th May 2010 skiing Aladdin's Couloir video

You can now see the full YouTube video here in HD.