October 2021 winter climbing in the Cairngorms!

22 October 2021 - Climbing 'Right of Flake Groove' in early season conditions in the Cairngorms! At an altitude of over 1100 metres and facing E to NE the shaded damp grooves are surprisingly reliable and quick to ice up especially when it's minus 5! Similarly situated climbs can make really great excursions early season or in lean winters before they are buried by deep snow and overhung cornices! With a few days of proper winter weather being forecast I decided to check out some future new lines and variations and headed up and over the Gorm. Just as I arrived at the top of the crags the clouds lifted and revealed the winter wonderland below. I had a quick look at Torr Buttress climbing back up via Left Rampings/DodgerRamp. I then headed back down to check the lines at around 900 metres which although looking good and snow covered were wet and sticky underneath. With crampons balling badly as the sun rose I headed back up onto Central Ridge. This being a bit higher at 950 metres and on rimed and snowed up rock was in much better condition with lots of fun mixed variations to explore and play on, including a couple new winter starts! At the top again I decided on one last climb (the one in the video!) near Torr Buttress. The sun had move off the face everything had undergone a quick melt freeze cycle to create some surprisingly good crusty ice smears on the rock and grooves for enjoyable climbing to end to a very productive day!

Birthday Boys 22nd Dec 2019

Guided Ice Climbing Tasters

Why not give someone you know a Christmas activity gift voucher? 

This video was filmed on the 12th December 2019 so there is ICE and SNOW in the Cairngorm's!

Winter skills, snow-holing, guided winter climbing, ice climbing taster days and much much more can all be arranged from £120 per day, each for two people. 

 For the ice climbing you'll need to have done previous winter skills and be hill fit!

 See https://www.talisman-activities.co.uk/product-page/gift-voucher

Climbing the Frendo Spur (part 2 of 2)

Climbing Mhearad's Fall Chimney Finish 18th Nov 2019

Not as much ice as expected, but enough and it's only November, and a fun day's adventure on snowshoes checking the ice out and ice climbing on Mhearad's Fall Chimney Finish :-)

The climb on the day felt about Grade II with two cruxy boulder moves of 4/5 due to the deep soft snow and thin brittle ice but as the short ice wall and chimney are so well protected it's really good fun, especially early season in November! :-)

Later on in the year with good neve and ice it eventually banks out to about Grade 2 or even Grade 1.


If you too fancy a few days of bespoke and unique early, mid or even late late season off piste skiing, snowshoeing, winter mountaineering or winter climbing adventures that are well away from the queues and crowds, booking details can be found on our website at https://www.talisman-activities.co.uk/winter-skills-courses under private guiding.

Petzl Gully Review and Good Ice Starting to Form :-)

Today I was out looking for thick ice while testing a the latest ultra lightweight Petzl Gully hammer with the new Petzl Sum'tec ice axe. 

I was pleasantly surprised at how well the Petzl hammer's thin pick easily penetrated the water ice despite it's ridiculous low weight (280 grams). 

I didn't get a chance to try the hammer and it's maybe not the tool for hard mixed, extreme ice and dry tooling but for general mountaineering on snow and ice it works really well.

The Petzl Gully is sold mainly as a steep skiing snow gully/couloir tool but when reviewing the hammer I found it was equally well suited to easy ice climbing on some steep ice bulges especially when paired with the slightly heavier and more robust Sum'tec mountaineering axe. 

Quite worrying approach over any hard snow towards 'Mhearad's Fall' due to avoidable depth hoar or facets, so I am told, unless of course you are trying to access the ice route but being able to plunge the Sum'tec into the ground below gave added confidence!

Once on the ice it was nice, relatively safe and really enjoyable. With a brief freeze thaw it'll get even better unless it all melts OR gets buried by lots of fresh snow ;-)

Bespoke Guiding and ice climbing on Cairngorm's 'hidden Alpine Face' routes can be booked online here >>>

Alpine Climbing Conditions on Cairngorm 5th January 2017

A bit of a hike but well worth it for a fun winter mountaineering and winter ice climbing adventure on Cairngorm' east facing 'Alpine Face' on Cnap Coire na Spreidhe. This secluded area is right in the heart of the Cairngorms but does require a long approach over Cairngorm's shoulder into the Strathnethy.

We had near perfect weather, ice and snow as we climbed yet another new unrecorded ice route which we called 'Mhearad's Fall'!

The the main frozen waterfall route is a good early or poor season choice when there's lots of escape-able Grade 2 or even Grade 3 variation before it banks out.

If you don't mind the long approach there are several other short ice climbs to the right and even some longer 300-400 metre mountaineering routes on Spreidhe's east facing 'Alpine Face'.

'Mhearad's Fall' - a new Grade 1/2 winter route up the Ciste Mhearad waterfall from the Strath Nethy. The route normally banks out to a Grade 1 snow gully but in cold lean early season, it reliably forms a number of ice steps at around Grade 2/3, if taken direct.

Later in the season when banked out provides a challenging off piste descent which for the less bold can be abseiled!

More photos can be found on our Facebook album here.

Two places still left on this weekends Winter Skills course running on the 7-8 January 2017 so what are you waiting for, book now!

Ice Climbing and Skiing conditions from La Grave!

We're currently ice climbing and Skiing in La Grave in the French Alps and will post regular route condition photos throughout January 2015! Post by Talisman Mountaineering.

Above the clouds in German Gully...

https://plus.google.com/105878505519624119076/stories/d0862200-bad0-337f-8080-60120fe870dd14799acfda5?authkey=CJCokfyDzcON6QE

Ice is nice and sun is fun when cool!

https://plus.google.com/105878505519624119076/stories/25bbfc60-1047-3a23-a577-7a8ffca4e5d01477a4d471d?authkey=CIDF4Yqy6pjftQE

Looks like a white Christmas is on the cards!

Very unsettled weather at the moment which is good news as the southerly winds are blowing lots of snow into the ski and climbing areas and filling up all the gullies. Once the winds drop a bit there should be some good skiing and winter climbing available up high and even some large low level drifts to play on!
In the meantime I've been getting into the swing of things (on a dead tree!) and testing my new Scarpa Ultra boots and Grivel G20 crampons. The boots and crampons should be ideal for ice climbing in La Grave and skiing in French Alp, January 2014 - happy days... :-)
Our Christmas and are full as is the New Year advanced Winter Mountaineering, though still last minute availability for Winter Skills and Private Guiding.

More NW ice climbing!

Another great day exploring and ice climbing in Mad Hatters Gully in Coire Na Poite on Beinn Bhan. Despite plenty of ice on the classic Silver Tear's first few pitches and in Mad Hatters the coire was completely empty, though we later heard some climbers voices half way up an icy March Hare Gully just as we were leaving.  
Ice conditions were surprisingly brittle and glassy with evidence of recent avalanche debris, ice and cornice collapse. 
Full details and more photos on Fi's Marmotte Blog here

Ice climbing on Umbrella Falls...

 

Calmer and sunnier weather this time as we headed up on to Liathach's ridge via Umbrella Falls, a classic Mick Fowler Grade 5 ice climb. 

We had yet another great day in Liathach Coire Dubh Mor, though taking in the lower tier of Umbrella Falls and then heading for the summit after the crux,was longer and trickier than expected. 

We had the climb to ourselves although the neighbouring 'Poachers Fall' was busy and folk were abseiling off as others climbed below, so couldn't have been so pleasant, despite the good weather and snow conditions on the mountain. 

A team from Aviemore were climbing on 'Salmon Leap' and like us enjoyed the fine views from the ridge though it sounds as if Tom enjoyed the views twice!

Climbing up onto the summit before descending to our sacks in the coire down 'Way Up', was more than worth it for the stunning views from the narrow snow arete on the summit ridge!

The ice climbing was fantastic with some steep and delicate sections and a very steep sustained crux, that had me worrying about running out of ice screws and strength before it relented! The crux headcam video is now here

More details and pictures on Fi's Marmotte Blog here

Sunny winter climbing is just great...!

Day oner of a three day Winter Climbing course with Dave who was returning with Simon after their Advanced Winter Mountaineering course with us a few years ago. 

Unfortunately as Simon couldn't make at the last minute it was just me and Dave left to enjoy the icy fun in the sun. 

A few large winter skills groups but apart from that it was surprisingly quiet with very few climbers about which we took advantage of to climb Red Gully for an early lunch in the sun before descending back into the shade to climb Goat Track Gully. 

We then headed back down and just missed taking a stunning video of a skier jumping the cornices of Jacob's Ladder and then descending the steep slopes between the Forty Thieves area. 

Perfect weather, perfect ice and perfect fun yet again... A short video clip of Dave climbing in Red Gully is here.

From French ice to Scottish ice!

 

 

After a great two weeks ice climbing in the French Alps, Fi and I took a wander over the road to our local ice climbing crag and sun trap at Slochd! 

However we were just beaten to the frozen waterfall by George and Hannah. 

As the sun moved onto the sparkling ice I got the opportunity to take a few photos and video of the guys in action.

A great way to spend the morning back in Scotland, though at times, climbing in the sun, I thought I was still at Alpe D'Huez.

More photos and video link can be found on my Facebook pages and on Fi's Blog here as well as 'BBC Scotland', 'Press and Journal' and the 'Daily Record' newspapers!