Over the past week Morris has been bivying in the heart of the Cairngorms near Braeriach and bagging remote Grade 1 Gullies and attempting the odd Sneachda 2/3!
Morris had mentioned down-climbing some of the gullies and climbing back up and curious I asked why? It's more tricky down-climbing than climbing up but apparently he needed 'log book' climbing 'up' ticks for his Winter ML!
After all the winter climbing and basic ropework he fancied having a go at summer rock climbing and wanted me to assess his ropework and gear placement.
I suggested Fingers Ridge and a very late start so it actually caught the sun...
At the moment the climbing is very alpine and combines snowy approaches with dry rock. The only problem was the strong gusty wind which blew off Morris's hat and had us hanging onto all our gear and rocks in the coire floor!!!
To be honest I thought it was a no no but suggested that we at least try and get to the start of the route without being blown over as in theory it should be more sheltered from the easterlies!
Well it proved correct so as soon as the sun hit at 2.30 pm and established on the route we totally forgot about the wind and had a good day.
In fact it was so calm and pleasant that we had plenty of opportunity to look at gear placements, belays and abseiling techniques while filming all the climbing!
Another Finger Ridge and learning to lead after 60 mph gusts in the coire video coming soon...!
1 comment:
it's really great guidance blog about climbing,,,,
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