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Showing posts with label cairngorm winter climbing report. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cairngorm winter climbing report. Show all posts

Saturday, 6 April 2013

Avoiding Mr Whippy...!












Another great day, this time avoiding the Mr Whippey cornice on Hidden Chimney...
Being an end of Easter weekend, with perfect weather and snow conditions there were only three teams climbing in Sneachda. There was a team or two climbing on Fiacaill Couloir, one team on Genie (or similar) and us on Hidden Chimney. 
We're certainly not complaining about how quiet it is and that the rare Snowy Owl is still residing in the Cairngorms - in fact we're loving it!

Tuesday, 5 March 2013

New picks and great ice spoiled by a shit belay!!!






It was one of my much needed rest days, but Fi persuaded me to go ice climbing in case the weather breaks!
As I'd just robbed a bank to pay for new replacement picks for my Quarks, I insisted, it had to be thick ice!

The forecast freezing level was good but the promised sun never arrived. It was actually grey, warmer and the snow was softer than on Monday.

Fortunately in comparison to yesterday, all the Northern Corrie routes were extremely quiet. All the assessment groups had headed off to the Ben and we had the Patey's Route and the Mirror Direct all to ourselves!


The downside was that someone had shit down the Patey's Route from the first belay, making it unpleasant and difficult to avoid contaminating our ropes and climbing gear.

Fortunately above the crap belay there was lots of fun thick ice on the upper section of Patey's Route and this made the normal upper crux chockstone relatively straightforward. It was easier than the lower chockstone and happily saved wear and tear to my new picks.



We then descended to climb the Aladdin's Mirror Direct which although steep on the left pillar, is now very hacked up, making pick placements relatively easy, compared to a week or so ago when I had to make all my own placements.

The climbing on AMD is still very strenuous, especially through the central pillar's upper bulge. This had me wishing I'd taken more than three ice screws, just as my grip strength started to ebb and I was forced to push through way above my two ice screws until back in balance - great fun though!

Lots more photos of  Patey's Route and the Mirror Direct on Fi's Blog here.

Sunday, 10 February 2013

Snow shelters and blizzards!







Great weather for snowshelters, navigation, avalanche awareness and testing our winter clothing and gear.
Bright and clear but by mid morning the winds had increased with frequent snow-showers and white out as we navigated to a sheltered hollow to dig some emergency snowshelters for lunch. With the strong SE winds the fresh snow was quickly drifting and loading windslab onto NW and W aspects. Almost a foot of fresh cornice had formed during our half hour lunch break!




Initially Diana had been reluctant to squeeze into the snowshelter but after a cosy lunch break with Ian and Lizzi they were all very reluctant to leave the warmth of the snowhole to brave the blizzards!
After lunch we dug out our rucksacks and then headed to some old snowholes, which the now converted, Diana said she would give a five star rating on Tripadvisor! The snow holes gave us temporary respite from the wind and painful spindrift as we looked at our maps and planned our route back avoiding the hidden corniced edges and trying to get shelter from the wind and painful spindrift!



Donning crampons we then headed back practising crampon techniques and climbed some of the steeper corniced slopes.
The ski area road was closed yet again but when we returned back to the cars but plans were already being hatched by Lizzi and Ian and maybe even Diana for future snowhole expeditions!
On the same day a party of students from Leeds University got into trouble after a fatal climbing accident and loss of the most experienced member left the five survivors confused, disorientated and lost in blizzard conditions on the Cairngorm mountain plateau.
See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-21409600
A short video here from the Sunday gives and idea of the weather on the day. Our thoughts are with the survivors, families and friends of the victim.

Friday, 4 January 2013

A good day but choice is limited and rock loose!



Warmer, softer, less snow and more limited climbing choice compare to even yesterday.
On the positive side the winds and weather were better than expected and we had some great views on and from the plateau. The setting sun above the sea of pink cloud was stunning.
The plateau snow cover to Ben Mac Dui is still excellent though softer than yesterday.




The big Grade one snow gullies are more or less still OK and very busy. Other than that and the odd Grade two and one detached Grade four icefall - most routes are broken or too risky due to loose rock and ice. 
Dave, Kevin and I decided to check out at a long Grade 2 route, I'd looked at yesterday. The route was entertaining but worryingly loose where it had broken up. This was especially bad on the last pitch due to the size of the blocks. 
The climbing required, gentle, thoughtful technique to avoid dislodging the rock. I certainly wouldn't have liked to be below anyone under the current conditions - so well done guys!



Thursday, 3 January 2013

Firm crusty snow and dry rock!





The thaw continues with the snow much depleted from yesterday. Today the rock was quite dry and some buttresses were being climbed in big boots. 
Despite this the snow was still firm and icy in the easy gully lines and the Goat Track path required crampons. 
There were quite number of folk climbing the main gully lines, some of which are now starting to breakup and all, require extreme care due to loose rock and sagging cornices. 
A lot of the ice has fallen down though there were queues at the foot of the Mirror Direct icefall!
A report and more photos on Fi's blog here

Thursday, 27 December 2012

Post Boxing Day turkey burn off!


An early start and a wee wander over the bitterly cold (-30 with wind chill!) Cairngorm plateau to check out the climbs in the Loch Avon basin.




Firm but grippy conditions underfoot couldn't have been better for crossing the plateau, to the Shelterstone for a wee look. Fortunately it was totally calm once we had descended into the Loch Avon basin. Snow conditions were excellent and well built-up, but the ice was thinner than I had expected and the snow more crusty on the steep north facing crags. We saw two climbers in Hells Lum and two heading up the Sticil Face but no one else! See the YouTube video here and a panorama of the Loch Avon crags here.




Despite Fi wearing all her layers, we were still cold and decided to abandon my intended mixed route, after faffing about trying to dig out gear. We head up a scenic gully, to keep warm and get back to the car in daylight!
Lots more photos and crag shots from the day are on our Winter Conditions 2012/13 Facebook album.

Tuesday, 18 December 2012

Winding our way above the clouds!


Stunning weather and snow conditions with an inversion over Strathspey. After a late start we headed into Coire an Lochain to find something to climb.


The path and snow was so icy we had to put on our crampons within a few 100 metre from the carpark! We kept the crampons on all the way though the snow got a bit more crusty the higher we climbed.
Coire an Lochain was plastered white but more or less empty apart from a  group of climbers below the start of Savage Slit and Fallout Corner and another team. We headed up to find a safe spot to gear up, passing a large pile of old avalanche debris, presumably from last weekend.




We decide to look at Sidewinder Direct/Third Man which I'd not done for about 20 years. We found another team at the start and decided to follow them up. At the bottom we had difficulty getting a good belay due to the thick ice in the cracks - an ice screw would have been useful.
I followed the other team up and found it less than positive and hard to get good protection which wasn't helped by my Quarks trigrest breaking yet again!  Fortunately the snow and protection improved half way up the first pitch. I had a nice sociable chat at the belay about a UKC thread on Fingers Ridge and I've just recently found out the leader was a friend!
The upper pitches have amazing situations as the route winds around the buttress. A real joy to climb, though again in the current icy conditions getting gear was difficult. Fortunately we had fairly good snow and ice and good belays so the long runouts weren't too worrying.
At the top of Prore, passing through the Savage Slit chimney was great fun as was the icy upper gully onto the plateau. More details and photo's on Fi's blog here



We saw some climbers on Savage Slit when we arrived, they were below us when we were climbing and they were still there when we left the corrie at last light, hopefully OK!