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!!!

To book a course or arrange guiding on the Skye Cuillin  Ridge see https://www.talisman-activities.co.uk/product-page/cuillin-ridge-munros

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.

20 degrees and skiing Aladdin's Couloir today!

It's been very warm over the past few days and nights with the snow cover becoming more and more patchy AND icy in places - take care on the coire headwalls!
With the high in Aviemore hitting at least 20 Celcius we packed our trainers as well as the ski boots for the hike up onto the Cairngorm plateau for some more couloir skiing.
Within the ski area it's still possible to ski down Coronation Wall and down the Coire Cas ski run to the middle station but the cover is a lot less than on our last visit just few days ago.
The gun barrel will likely start to break up within the next week or so but should just about last until the weekend.
Having said that the NW facing slopes, coire headwalls and big gullies are still holding out surprisingly well and the skiing was really nice and not at all sticky due to the surface granular ice crystals.
The warm temperatures have melted off the newer softer snow layers leaving a surprisingly firm and quite icy old snow pack in places.
We were glad of the ice axes and almost wished for crampons at one point while checking out the Coire an t-Sneachda gullies this afternoon - step cutting was usefull!
We skied Aladdin's Couloir and had fun videoing the descent on the homemade Pentax W90 helmet cam and my Lumix TZ7 - all in HD stereo!
The YouTube video of us skiing Aladdin's Couloir is here

In the meantime see Fi's blog here for more details.

Spring skiing in Coire an t-Sneachda

A lovely day to be on the hill so we took the skis and my homemade helmet cam onto the Cairngorm plateau.

As the ski area funicular is out of bounds for skiers midweek we hiked up to the Sheiling before putting on our skins and skis.

There's still good cover from the bottom of the Coire Cas run up and over the headwall and onto the plateau. Once on the plateau we linked the snow patches and coire edge cornices following Jim and Kim to ski up and over to the top of the Goat Track our proposed descent route.

Helmet cam on and a fun steep ski run down the headwall into the coire. The snow was so good we climbed back up via Point Five for yet another run down via the gully!

A quick traverse round the coire showed us that apart from the steep snowy approaches and gully lines many of the classic rock routes such as Fingers and Pygmy Ridge were now bone dry.

We traversed back into the empty ski area via the old snowfence line for our last few turns back to the midstation. A great day with lots of video clips to piece together - the helmet cam footage is fun!!!

More details from Fi on her blog here.

16th May and a good ski day!

Surprisingly good skiing on the hill today. The ski area was again open for the weekend with pretty good skiing on the upper and middle runs considering it's almost June! As expected the snow got heavy and a bit sticky by the afternoon but the Coronation and the Cas walls still gave great descents on firm spring snow all the way back to the mid station. Several of the grade 1 gullies such as Aladdin's were reported to be in great skiing condition.

At this time of year it's possible to do an early morning snow climb and then once the snow has softened ski back down one of the gullies and climb a rock route...!

The main gullies are still full of deep snow although the climbing crags are black or patchy. Although some of the south facing granite cliffs are now clear of snow many of the approaches and exits aren't. Many south facing summer rock routes are running with melt water. The routes also have steep sagging snowy exits so are threatened by collapsing snow and rock from above!

There's still wide and complete cover from Cairngorm to Ben MacDui for ski touring.

I'll upload skiing video from today later this week.

Great skiing but Cairngorm closed midweek :-(

With sun, fresh snow and good cover today would have been a stunning skiing day except for the fact that the ski area is now closed mid-week...

The Cairngorm plateau and the Northern Corries are still plastered in snow. All the main gully lines remain full and complete for climbing and off-piste skiing! Even the buttresses routes were white today.

A couple of skiers took advantage of the empty corries to ski down Aladdin's Couloir and a lone skier was spotted in the Coire an Lochain Couloir just above the 'Great Slab'?

The ski area has almost complete snow cover from Cairngorm's summit down Coronation Wall to the Cas. The Coire Cas middle runs still have good wide cover.

For those prepared to walk the Ciste Gully is still full as is Lurcher's Gully (narrow).

Below mid station the ski runs are now history!

Really Cool on the Cuillin Ridge!

We're just back to a snowy Aviemore from ten days guiding on the Skye Cuillin Ridge Munros.

Between Fi and I we managed four guided (2:1 ratio) ascents of the In Pin and many of the trickier Munros while avoiding the worst of the cold windy weather.

The weather has being unseasonably cold since the start of May with fresh snow and good skiing still on offer in the east Highlands on Cairngorm.

Out west passing through Glen Sheil there was hardly any old snow left on the hills. However arriving on Skye there was fresh snow falling on the Cuillin Ridge.

Most of the snow melted back by Tuesday but the fresh snow and rimed rock ended a few ridge attempts on Monday and made some of the easier peaks treacherous.

We met one experienced ridge traverse team from Ireland who'd spend three and a half hours descending on iced slabs from their bivy cave a few hundred metres along the Sgurr a’ Ghreadaidh ridge to An Dorus to escape!

Fortunately there was less old snow in the corries and gullies than in the past avoiding the need for Jenny, Len, Scott and Karin to carry ice axes and crampons. We had all the winter kit just in case though!

A YouTube video of Jenny, Len and Scott climbing and abseiling off the Inn Pinn can be viewed here.

After the first Cuillin Ridge course finished we eventually (no mobile reception!) met up with Emma, Fiona, Alan and Craig for some more Munros including climbing the In Pinn.

The weather outlooks all looked dire with more snow, wind and and minus 4 on the summits. So we decided to climb the In Pin on Sunday rather than the original schedule for Monday or Tuesday. We made the right choice and had a great day. On Monday we awoke to fresh snow down to about 500 metres with more forecast for the next few days!

Later we drove back east to the fresh snow in Aviemore. Maybe some summer skiing and easy summer winter climbing!!!!

There are still a a few places available on our next Skye Rock Climbing and Cuillin Ridge course. The courses and private guiding on the In Pin start on the 31st May-4th June 2010.

To book a course or arrange guiding on the Skye Cuillin  Ridge see https://www.talisman-activities.co.uk/product-page/cuillin-ridge-munros