A few Sunday gully's

See http://fionachappell.blogspot.com/2011/03/ron-and-i-went-into-coire-t-sneachda.html We had a late start today and despite this still managed to get into the upper Coire Cas carpark without the usual 08.00 am start! The skiing still looked good on the main runs though the Northern Corries were very quiet compared to normal. Despite a good buildup in many of the grade 1 and 2 gullies and great cover on the Cairngorm MacDui plateau we had our chozen routes to our self. The Mirror Direct was still complete and there were climbers on Red and Goat Track Gullies which are definitely NOT complete!! The weather wasn't quite as nice as expected and the snow still quite soft on the approaches. However the snow soon firmed up the higher we climbed with some really good ice on our climbs, the Runnel LH, Spiral Gully and in on Fiacaill Couloir. It got very windy and wet by late afternoon with some worrying ferocious gusts almost blowing me off in Fiacaill Couloir! I took lots of video with the headcam which will hopefully be uploaded tomorrow once it's been processed and edited.

Snow shelters and chili hot chocolate!

It was Erica and Kris's last day and they had a flight to catch so we spent the morning constructing some roadside snowholes before heading down to the Mountain Cafe for hot chili chocolate, lunch and goodbyes. Erica's snow lintel was a masterpiece!
Meanwhile Fi and Carron headed off up to climb the thick blue ice on the Mirror Direct and details can be found on Fi's blog here and on the SAIS blog here!
Pretty quiet on the climbs today despite a number of guides from the west coast travelling east over to the Gorm's today - see Ken's blog here!

Gully climbing

 

Accompanied by Carron and Fi we had  damp misty start on the walk in through the wet snow. Fortunately the cloud lifted and weather improved as we headed up towards the Mess of Pottage.
Fi and Carron headed up towards Hidden Chimney but decided to continue up Jacob's Ladder after a quick look at the thin looking traverse onto the Slant. The pair continued on to descend Aladdin's Couloir after the skier and then climbed back up via an icy Runnel.
See Fi's blog for more details here
Meanwhile Kris, Erica and I headed up the gully on a mix of soft wet and firm granular snow putting into practise the past few days ropework as we climbed up towards the blue sky, plateau and the sun's warmth...

Lots of wind and bollards!

A very windy day with gust of over 100mph. Erica, Kris and I decided to head into the more sheltered Coire Laugh Mor to practise winter ropework as we pitched up the coire snow slopes avoiding the heavily corniced slopes on the right.
The guys enjoyed throwing themselves headfirst down the slope while testing the snow belays using dynamic waist belays! We then abseiled off our bollards for a late lunch before wading back through the deep soft snow to plan for a hopefully less windy day tomorrow...

Couloir skiing, ice climbing and warming up!

It was fairly busy in the corries today from what we could see from our vantage point on Fiacaill Ridge. 

Kris, Erica and I looked at alpine rope work and direct belays on our ascent of a rocky rib on Fiacaill Ridge while Fi kept us company and took photos - see here. We initially climbed in boots but later put on our crampons which balled up at times and required extra care. On our descent we constructed snow bollards, buried ice axe belays and looked at different abseil techniques.

There were climbers on Hidden Chimney, Slant, Jacob's Ladder, Aladdin's Couloir, Mirror Direct (L and R), Central, Runnel, Spiral Gully, Fluted Buttress Direct, Fingers Ridge, Red and Goat Track gullies and no doubt the routes on Fiacaill Buttress.

Several skiers descended from the plateau and down Aladdin's Couloir!

This morning the walk in was on a reasonable firm track but unfortunately we post holed on the walk out as the freezing level had risen above the summits...

Good skiing with the Cas and Ciste carparks full!

I was with Kris and Erica on the start of another Winter Mountaineering course. The snow was a lot firmer for foot travel today as long as we stuck to the tracks!
The skiing looked good with skiers heading down from Coire Laugh Mor and back along the side of the Ciste ridge, gully or via the snow-fences to a packed Ciste carpark.

Snow, sun, shades and skis

A perfect weather and skiing day on Cairngorm Mountain until the SW wind started to pick by late afternnon. I took a few ski video clips of the plateau and Coronation Wall with the camera and the headcam which will be uploaded later. For more pics and details see Fi's blog here

Skis or snowshoes useful!

Snowy!



Good cross-country skiing in the forest tracks

Blizzards, poor vis, deep snow and a high avalanche risk in the mountains. The main Cairngorm Mountain ski area road was closed but the more sheltered forest trails have good cover and nice cross country skiing.

"HILL ROAD AND SNOWGATES WILL REMAIN CLOSED AT GLENMORE OVERNIGHT.
It has not stopped snowing all day, there is 2-3ft of fresh snow across the whole mountain! The forecast is for the snow to continue all night, however it is forecast to be windy at first,which may prevent us operating first thing.
We will aim for an update for 7.00am - Cairngorm Mountain 13/3/11"

Wild and snowy

The weather forecasts have all been a bit hit and miss and depending on your choice and update you would have had a good day today before the snow and blizzards arrived. The Cairngorm Mountain ski area outlook looked promising with good fresh powder on all the runs and a good day in prospect - so packed carparks with keen skiers.

However one look at the Met Office, BBC and SAIS and you got a totally different picture and even a severe weather warning!!!
Fortunately we'd seen all the reports and knew things were unpredictable with lots of snow and a big change in wind direction more than likely before mid-day.
Anyway, I met Will for a winter skills intro for a forthcoming Haute Route ski trip. I explained we'd have keep and eye on the weather in case we got snowed in. We covered all the basics of axe and crampon use and had ideal conditions for looking at avalanche assessment before heading for a look at Coire Laugh Mor.
Massive cornices (looked like seracs!!!) on the NE aspects as expected were just glimpsed between whiteout vis. Then unexpected terrain changes, snow aretes, wind scoops and cornices at the foot of the coire - what!
I suddenly realised that large sections of cornice had previously collapsed releasing the wind slab below and then drifted over creating the terrain change. Good for nav aspects, avalanche pits and snow shelters though...
The avalanche risk was reasonable so we dug a couple of emergency shelters for lunch and then realised the wind direction had changed quite a bit with lots of fresh snow being blasted from the NE.
The weather was changing for the worse and a hasty retreat to the carpark for called for before we got stuck! We followed our original path back which had drifted over to knee depth in some place with shooting cracks in the wind slab.
At the ski carpark a number of the cars were having problems with the snow and some powerful 4x4 were spinning their wheels and skidding all over the place, I soon realised they were just showing off that they couldn't drive as I headed down to Aviemore with ease with my two front snow tyres!!!

Deep snow drifts and a high avalanche risk

Travel difficult and a high avalanche risk on many aspects. A lot more snow is forecast for Saturday and Sunday too! See http://saisncairngorms.blogspot.com/2011/03/snowfall-cleared-and-winds-eased.html and http://www.sais.gov.uk/page_northern%20cairngorms.asp

Wild weather!

It's been pretty stormy over the past few days with strong winds and lots of fresh snow down to quite low levels in the Cairngorms.The Northern Corries and further afield will hopefully have improved from last weekend and will ether have been scoured, fattened or buried depending on height and aspect. Once the weather and avalanche risk settles and with a few freeze thaw cycles the winter climbing and skiing should be really good. The forecast for this weekend sounds unsettled but from Monday onwards we could be in for another good spell of weather and classic snow ice conditions.

While uploading a test video onto Vimeo after watching Alan's Kimber's excellent Orion face video, I came across this really absorbing video of Scottish winter climbing as seen from an Eastern European visitor's viewpoint! The climbers climb lots of  winter routes in both west and east Scotland. Some of  the routes are climbed in thin and far from ideal conditions (in the west) and capture the unique Scottish winter climbing and camping experience! It's really well worth the look at http://vimeo.com/10890254

Blizzards and videos!

Blizzards and 4 inches of fresh snow outside the house this morning so conditions will have changed on the mountain!

I've also edited and uploaded a few videos from last week including those of Chute Route and Invernookie which can be seen above. More to come...

Stunning Sunday on Chute Route

Another great weather snow and ice day this time in Coire an Lochain. We met Ian from Carrbridge again after meeting him on the Mirror Direct last week and had a nice chat on the walk in to the coire.

Our plan a was to climb Sidewinder which had been good early last week or Chute Route. However on entering Coire an Lochian we took one look at Sidewinder and changed our plans immediately as the buttress was now almost completely black.

On looking around we had a number of other icy options higher on No. 4 buttresses as well as the area around Y-Gully LH which had some big worrying cornices. The area above the Couloir was nice and icy too with Snow Bunting and the neighbouring routes looking good. Over to the left of the Corrie the Vent area and Milky Way were looking good so our plan b was to have a closer look at the narrow strip of ice on Chute Route!
It looked quite thin at the start though better higher up. Another team of two John's were starting up the route so we set up our belay opposite to get a good view and photos as we chatted to them and Al Halewood and Charlotte above on Milky Way.
It was then my turn and after feeling very chilled in just my VR smock the coldness quickly evaporated as I dealt with the technicalities of the thin start. Ten metres higher and a few good ice screw runners and the world was a better place as I then headed up on good ice to join Anne and her partner on the Milky Way belay on 50 metres of rope stretch. Another young lady and her partner later joined us on the cosy hanging stance! Fi climbed up and lead onto the plateau where I joined her for lunch in the welcome warmth of the sun. YouTube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPxsm3QGio4
We headed back via the Goat-track chatting to Al and Charlotte finishing the Vent and their third climb of the day including Ewen Buttress (good nick)! On descent we met Smiler and his client who'd had a good day on Red Gully (bottom looked thin) and Fiacaill Couloir (still OK) In all a nice rest and very sociable day...!
More details and photos of me on Fi's blog here

Superb Saturday

  

 

The cloud lifted, the snow froze, the sun shone, we all smiled. We smiled even more at the anctics of the "cheeky" kilted skiers on the icy Fiacaill poma ...!

The buttresses were black but the snow climbing and weather conditions were perfect for Joanne and Nick leading their first winter climb. The lack of wind and spindrift was perfect for all the kilted skiers on Cairngorm too! More of the same tomorrow :-)

Thaw and refreeze for the weekend

There has been great climbing conditions and weather all this week though it did start to warm up on Wednesday. By Thursday the snow pack was starting to get a bit wet though any thick blue ice was plastic and fun to climb as long as you were aware of any potentially loose blocks.

The later part of this week has been spring like with no overnight frosts and a slow thaw of the snow pack. The main snow gully lines in the Northern Corries are still complete but the buttresses and some of the thinner ice routes are now broken or looking very black. Many of the buttress routes would suit an alpine style ascent in big boots rather than axes and crampons once actually on the route.
Having said that with good route choice there is still plenty of good winter climbing to be had on the easier snow routes and a few of the ice and mixed routes of Grade 1 to 3 and the odd 4.

The Loch Avon basin and Loch Etchachan area has seen a fair bit of activity recently due to the good weather, underfoot conditions on the plateau and good ice buildup in some places, though the sun will have taken it's toll on any south facing aspects.
The good news is it's to get colder again and everything should start to freeze up well from the weekend. In fact it's likely to become very icy yet again!

There is also snow being forecast to low levels from the middle of next week, so winter is far from over yet!
Rather than mention specific honeypot routes and create dangerous overcrowding just look below on the blog and on UKC's winter reports to see what's being climbed by SOME registered UKC forum members.
It's also worth looking at Alan H's blog and his videos to see what Glenmore Lodge and other guides have been doing.

Windy and warmer on the Mirror

A slight blip in the perfect weather today. It was windy with a grey sky, the snow surface was excellent though softening slightly.
Chris wanted to climb some steep ice so Fi joined us and we headed up to the Mirror Direct to form an orderly and polite queue!
Despite the slightly warmer temperatures the thick bue ice was in excellent condition and still very dry. We continued up the Mirror's perfect neve slopes for a bit. Then followed a super direct narrow icy chimney I'd previously spotted.
This ran up to the top of the RH knife edged Aladdin's Arete and the plateau!
Really nice climbing in the icy chimney to the notch on the arete overlooking Aladdin's Couloir. The last 15 metres on the exposed alpine-like rock arete was bare but good fun and very photogenic!
Photos and more details on Fi's blog here and on Chris blog here