8th February 2010 The sun was shining this morning in Glen Coe as Bryn and I walked in to Curved Ridge on Buachaille Etive Mor. The ridge is well covered in snow and ice and with a little sunshine today it was great fun. The snow low down is quite firm as it thawed out well before it refroze, however the snow is still soft higher up. The upper buttresses are very well coated in rime and snow. Slime Wall looked amazing, I've never seen it so white! Despite the soft snow, Coire na Tullach was safe enough to descend and the gorge low down is full of hard snow making it a quick descent back to the car. Dave and Andy climbed Minus Three Gully today on Ben Nevis. Keep up to date with the Marshall Smith Project here.
7th February 2010 Out with Andy of Hebridean Pursuits again today we went to the east of Creag Meagaidh to look at mountaineering skills with a rope. Snow anchors, body belays, rock anchors and abseiling off snow bollards were all looked at. The snow was still soggy and the layer of cloud is not helping it go hard. The humidity under the cloud is higher so it takes lower temperatures to freeze the snow properly. Andy and Dave climbed Piggot's Route on Ben Nevis, the second of the seven climbs they will try and do this week. Read more on Dave MacLeod's blog.
6th February 2010 The Cairngorms were a bit drizzly this morning. It did brighten up a bit in the afternoon although the snow was soggy all day. There is still plenty of now, not surprisingly, and we didn't have to go far to find areas we could practice core skills. Working for Andy of Hebridean Pursuits with a group from Manchester University we went to Coire na Ciste and set foot onto the snow in the car park! We looked at movement skills, how to use big winter boots and ice axes, self arrest with an ice axe and emergency shelters. My new Arc'Teryx Gamma softshell was just the job in the drizzle. Over on Ben Nevis, Dave MacLeod and Andy Turner climbed The Great Chimney, the first of the Jimmy Marshall and Robin Smith climbs of 50 years ago. A team climbed Orion Direct as well although there is some suspect snow around and you need to be careful on the approach slopes and exit gullies of many climbs.
4th February 2010
More fresh snow last night has given way to a dry morning today. The temperature has gone up markedly and the freezing level was hovering around the tops at 9am. This gentle thaw will stay with us for tomorrow before a cool down again on Saturday. Indicator Wall, Comb and Green Gullies were climbed over the last couple of days as well as the major ridges. Everything is covered in soft snow but after the refreeze at the weekend it should be a bit easier going. The Jimmy Marshall Project is about to start and it looks like conditions will be reasonable for Dave MacLeod and Andy Tuner to climb all the routes first climbed 50 years ago.
2nd February 2010 It was a stunning day in the Outdoor Capital of the UK today. Fresh snow last night covered the hills and unbroken blue skies were overhead for much of the day. There was a bit of a breeze which was creating some spindrift on NorthButtress of Buachaille Etive Mor which, combined with icy rocks under the fresh snow, made it awkward going for Donald and Chris. It's a great climb though in any conditions and if you ask me, it is at its best when it is absolutely buried in snow because just about where ever you look under the snow there will be a good hook or spike!
1st February 2010 A little light snow fell last night but really not very much. This morning was very nice again and Donald and Chris climbed SC Gully on Stob Coire nan Lochan saying it was in really nice condition. Most of the routes on the crag are looking good really. The gullies have nice ice and neve in them, the easier buttress routes are well frozen and have good snow and the rocks are better well rimed on the steeper routes than a couple of days ago. It started to snow again early in the afternoon and has been snowing above just a couple hundred metres this evening. By tomorrow there might be a reasonable depth of fresh snow on the tops.
31st January 2010 Another nice day with light snow showers and gentle north winds. Donald and team went to Coire Tullach on Buachaille Etive Mor for a coaching day looking at snow and rock anchors, ropework and all sorts of mountaineering skills. The snow was very hard and there are many ice bulges in the coire. Ben Nevis saw a significant second ascent by the sounds of it - Point Blank, a much sought after thin ice route next to Point Five Gully. Despite this there appears to be little ice high up on the mountain. Susan reports seeing nothing much on Psychadelic Wall and even Gardyloo Buttress looks thin to her. We've not really had the stormy weather that builds really good snow ice on the buttresses so this could be the reason. It's early doors yet though, still four months of winter climbing to come!
30th January 2010 Dan, Brad and Basil went to climb Sron na Lairig with Donald today. They found very hard snow and just a little fresh snow on top. The wind wasn't as strong as forecast and it was a very nice day despite the mist that clung to the tops. Alan went up Number Three Gully on Ben Nevis and round the Carn Mor Dearg Arete. He says the snow was firm with one or two pockets of avoidable windslab. There were teams climbing Green Gully, Vanishing Gully, Number Three Gully Buttress, Ledge route, Tower Ridge and Thompson's Route. Point Five Gully and Zero Gully look well formed in the pictures Alan sent too.
28th January 2010 Donald and Andy went to Stob Coire nan Lochan and climbed Spectre today. It wasn't the climb they were after but it was a good use of a soggy day. Wet snow was falling for much of the afternoon and it was tough to keep warm and comfortable. Other teams were on Dorsal Arete, Twisting Gully and Central Grooves (looking a bit black). The gullies all look complete and after tomorrow's freeze should offer good climbing on neve and ice. Rime should also form on the buttresses with the breeze blowing onto them, low cloud and colder temperatures.
27th January 2010
It was a good weekend on Ben Nevis with quite a few climbs being done. The weather was calm and cool and the sun was shining through the clouds every now and then. Observatory Ridge, Point Five Gully, Tower Ridge, Green Gully, Darth Vader and Ledge Route are some of the climbs that were done. Generally, there was still soft snow on the higher parts of the mountain and quite a lot of it. There is plenty of ice and the gullies are quite full. Yesterday the summit temperature started to rise and it peaked at +9celcius at 9am this morning with some rain to the summits. It is now starting to cool down again and it has dried up nicely. By the weekend very cold northerly winds are forecast to come in, freezing the snowpack and consolidation the snow on the upper part of Ben Nevis. We will get some snow showers and a good breeze from the north so expect the crags to be rimed up, snow ice to be exposed on the north face and good climbing conditions generally.
25th January 2010 Thanks to Jim who went in to Creag Meagaidh a couple of days ago and climbed Last Post. He said it had the blueist ice I've ever seen in
Scotland. The base of the first pitch must have been 25m wide. Nice
plastic ice on pitches 1 and 2, not so good on the final 3rd slabby
pitch. The ice was rather sugary snow ice and halfway up the pitch
with no gear my ices were ripping through everywhere I looked. After
an "exciting" down climb we escaped left up Missed the post.
Smiths Gully was climbed and said to be in good condition, South Post
Direct was climbed as was Centre Post but I can't comment on
conditions. The icefall to the left of Staghorn gully (or maybe that's
the start ??) was enormous.
There had been a definate thaw during the day and the hard neve on
Easy Gully in the morning had been replaced by soft snow in the
afternoon. Easy Gully had no cornice but a large one was forming over
the very end of the Post Face - would suspect there would be a large
one over Pumpkin but did not go into Inner corrie so can't confirm.
You could easily have a Cogne, la Grave, Gressonay style day by
climbing and abbing the first pitches of Missed the Post, Last Post,
South Post Direct and the Staghorn Ice fall + 200m of quality ice!
23rd January 2010 The snow did stabilise quite well and there was fairly firm snow and rime covering the hills. Lots of people were out climbing, enjoying the calm conditions. Alan went up Ledge Route and took these great pictures with some beautiful light on Ben Nevis. He spotted teams on Route I, Tower Ridge and Green Gully plus several more teams in Coire na Ciste. It seems like Point Five Gully, Zero Gully and Observatory Ridge were also climbed. Glen Coe was very busy with many routes on Aonach Dubh, Stob Coire nam Beith and Stob Coire nan Lochan being queued for! Elliots Downfall is still complete along with most of the water ice routes above 500m.
22nd January 2010
Since the breakdown of the high pressure system and the big freeze we've seen more normal Scottish weather. The temperature has been going up and down with strong winds and regular snowfall on the tops. Much of the water ice that was present in the cold spell is still in existence above a few hundred metres. Steall Falls has fallen down but the Carn Dearg Cascades are still fat along with Waterfall Gully, Compression Cracks and all around the gulches at either side of the foot of Coire na Ciste on Ben Nevis. The big steep cascade under Carn Dearg Buttress was climbed today and it offers some very steep climbing for quite a long way. The West Face of Aonach Dubh also has plenty of ice on (The Screen, The Smear, Number Three Gully, Number Six Gully etc.) and the West Face of Aonach Mor similarly has lots of ice all along its 2km length!
Higher up again the crags still look very white. The thaw freeze cycles have got the balance right and snow and ice has been building on the big face routes. The gullies have a good fill of snow and ice and are generally in good shape. The major ridges have very good neve on them and offer great climbing. Twisting Gully and Central Buttress Ordinary Route on Stob Coire nan Lochan and 1934 Route on the side of Tower Ridge were both climbed recently as examples.
However January is known for stormy weather and the strong southerly wind has deposited soft snow in the gullies and steep slopes with cornices growing over the crags on the north faces. This morning summit temperatures are higher than expected. Right now (10am) it is +4C at 1130m on Aonach Mor. The snowfall we had last night will be very wet and heavy and there will be some avalanches caused by the sudden rise in temperature.
It is forecast to cool down over the weekend and be much drier. This new snow should stabilise quickly making climbing at the weekend a more reasonable idea.
20th January 2010
Sorry for the break in transmission. I had to go away to take delivery of our third child, a girl named Katie. Full service will resume as soon as I get some sleep! In the meantime check out Fort William Mountain Festival on 11th to 15th February 2010.
Andy Kirkpatrick hosts the Extreme Night.
Paul Diffley from Hot Aches screening Single Handed plus The Asgard Project on the Adventure Night.
Dave MacLeod and Andy Turner celebrate Jimmy Marshall and Robin Smith's incredible first ascents on Ben Nevis 50 years on with Jimmy Marshall himself.
Best of Banff World Tour.
Tickets are on sale, buy yours now so you don't miss out!
15th January 2010
If you missed the ice climbing action at Steall falls on The Hour show you can watch it on the STV Player.
14th January 2010 We still have ice at all levels and the snow line has only retreated a hundred metres up the hills. Kenny, Andy and a team from Limerick University went into Coire nam Beith to climb the extensive ice smears below the N Face. They did various pitches under Central Gully. Deep Cut Chimney still isn't fully formed so it must require some thaw and refreeze cycles or just more snowfall. Many teams were in Number 6 Gully and Elliot's Downfall is still in place and complete although as yet unclimbed. There has been some fresh snowfall over the last two days which has built up in some places from the SE wind. Tomorrow and Saturday look like they'll bring challenging conditions to the hills with very strong winds and a thaw to above the tops. Take care!
13th January 2010
At long last the high pressure sitting to the north is starting to drift away. We now have very strong SE winds and some fresh snowfall. Ben Nevis is especially spooky in a SE wind as snow collects under the big faces such as Orion Face and Hadrian's Wall. There have been some massive avalanches out of Observatory Gully after a SE wind so take care. There was an avalanche at 650m above sea level on Monday on the west side of Meall Beag near the top of the gondola. The crown wall was 90cm high and the folks involved with the avalanche are all OK thankfully. I was out on Steall Falls on Monday, the first slightly warmer day. I had a team from STV doing some filming for The Hour show which will be screened today at 5pm to 6pm. Make sure you tune in! The thaw is gentle at the moment and low level cascades are still hanging in very well. However the freezing level will rise to the summits on Saturday so expect avalanches to occur. The refreeze should be on Sunday and early next week and this cycle could settle the snow and make the climbing on the tops quite good.
10th January 2010
The NE wind picked up a bit today and I was concerned we were in for a battle as we walked up Am Bodach. However, the Aonach Eagach was a fine choice for another great day out today with little wind and stunning views. Andrew and Colin enjoyed their second day out with crampons and decided the route is a bit harder than Ledge Route. It has a very good covering of helpful snow with dry rock handholds every now and then. Ideal conditions really. When we got down the temperature was a barmy +2 celcius, the highest it has been for a couple of weeks. However with the air being so dry nothing is any where near starting to melt! The ice on the W Face of Aonach Dubh was busy today apart from Elliot's Downfall it seems. Yesterday Kenny, Louie and Anne climbed the direct start to NW Gully on Stob Coire nam Beith which they thought was worth a V,5 for the first pitch and IV,4 for the second. Both pitches sound fantastic. They were also impressed by the size of the cliff and were down a bit late so they enjoyed an easier day on Finnisg Aig Falls today. Dave MacLeod was out with Donald on Friday and came away with a fine new route right of The Slit and an ascent of Excellerator on the E Face of Aonach Dubh, both of which were impressively steep ice routes. I was playing on some roadside ice just past Glen Finnan, two 10m routes we called No Fuss (III,5) and It All Adds Up (IV,6). Yesterday Dave went up the even steeper line of ice columns next to the first new route at VII,7. There is so much ice in Glen Coe at the moment, even Mr. Softy looks like it's worth a look!
9th January 2010
The cloud pushed a bit further south than expected so it was a grey start to the day. The mist did clear early on though and Colin, Andrew and I enjoyed the views from Ledge Route on Ben Nevis. As a bit of training before going to bigger peaks abroad this was a great way to learn how to move around in winter with ice axes and crampons and get used to walking with a rope on. There was a light breeze, low temperatures and a little fresh snowfall last night. There were sevral teams on Tower Ridge including Alan Halewood and Graham and one team on Garadh Gully. We descended Number Four Gully and found it to be completely scoured. The slope beneath the gully under the crags is a bit odd with some wind slab and a very firm wind blown layer on a soft layer. We chose a route next to the rocks to avoid open areas just in case!
8th January 2010
7th January 2010 Number 6 Gully on Aonach Dubh West Face was fantastic today. Abib and I climbed right from the bottom of the gully with thin ice on the first pitch which is easily walked around. From the usual start the ice is fat and soft and very nice to climb. There is one patch of wind slab above the main pitch at the top, otherwise there is very little avalanche threat at all. We climbed up and right above the final pitch of ice to gain The Rake which led us easily and quickly to Coire nam Beith and back to the car before 2pm. Elliot's Downfall now has two bits of ice touching down and it might well be a proper column in another two or three days time. There were other teams on The Screen and Squaddies Climb. There is plenty of ice on Stob Coire nam Beith and several complete ice lines. Blue Ribband has been climbed a few more times and, generally, Glen Coe is full of ice down to and below road level. The East Face of Aonach Mor isn't so good at the moment as Kenny found out with a fair depth of cruddy snow on top of the ice and much avalanche threat on the snow beneath the crags. It was a stunning day, calm with blue skies and sunshine. Even in the sun it was -6 celcius on Rannoch Moor! The forecast says it will be even colder and sunnier tomorrow and right through the weekend.
6th January 2010 After a wee faff with my ice axes (I left them at home) Abib and I headed up Ben Nevis. The snow from last night has drifted in over the path just above the forest so the first km was heavy going but above this the ground has been scoured by the very strong N wind. It was significantly colder today than of late and there was much less water running behind the cascades under Carn Dearg Buttress. We climbed the line first right of the very steep cascade in one 60m pitch to good block belay anchors at the top. We then went round to Compression Cracks. The lower section of this route is very fat with water ice. Take your longest screws and plenty of them as the crux is very steep for a few metres! We abseiled off v-threads as the upper corner is not formed (it needs snowfall and thaw-freeze action) and kept out of South Castle Gully. This and North Castle Gully are full of soft snow despite the whole Castle Coire being scoured. It was blue skies and sunshine all day today with the breeze dropping away. Tomorrow will be very cold again. Click the image below for a big version.
5th January 2010 If you are into geology, the Chasm of An t'Sron is very interesting. It forms the boundary of the couldron that subsided 410 million years ago over the area we now know as Glen Coe. As a result the right wall is granite and the left wall is andesite and rhyolite. The ice climbing is very interesting too! Vic and I walked around the first cascade and got in to the chasm to reach a big bowl with a free hanging icicle at the back. We avoided this on the right and abseiled back down into the chasm to climb a 60m pitch with a section of grade 4, an easier 70m section with ice steps and snow then a final 30m sustained grade 4 pitch. Grade IV,4 overall seems about right. By then there was some soft snow in the gully and we scrambled to the top up the grassy buttress between the two branches of the stream. It was a great adventure and worth doing. The wind got up quite a lot and there were several periods of snowfall in the afternoon. It was full on goggles weather on top and there was lots of spindrift blowing around and down the chasm. The west face of Aonach Dubh had huge waves of spindrift washing down it as well. The Screen and Number 6 Gully look very icy and Elliot's Downfall has touched down ... but the bottom metre is only a few centimetres thick! Give it a few days more and it might be OK.
4th January 2010 The NE breeze over the last few days has been hard at work on Ben Nevis stripping it of most of the soft snow. Down at the CIC Hut the grass is showing through where there was 30cm of soft snow when I was up on 29th December. Vic and I climbed Tower Ridge and found it to be in brilliant condition. It is well covered in crunchy neve and, after the awkward chimney out of Douglas Gap, we didn't touch rock until the Great Tower. We got to the top with plenty of time so we descended by Ledge Route and still made it back to the car by 4pm! We went past the tops of Number 3, 4 and 5 Gullies, all of which are now scoured at the top and as far down as we could see. There are still one or to areas of wind slab on Ledge Route and the base of Number Five Gully is full of soft snow. I'm sure there are many patches of soft snow in gullies and sheltered hollows, however it is looking far better than I expected. Caution is still required and the approaches to some climbs might be suspect.
Ice has been forming well. Orion Direct is looking good into the Basin but thin above, there is ice in the Minus Gullies, Point Five Gully is fat and there's a thin plating on Psychadelic Wall. Italian Route Right Hand is complete, Vanishing Gully is complete if a bit thin at the bottom (picture on Mountain Plan) and The Curtain is fat at the top but the slab is too thin still. The only other team we saw all day was on the Carn Dearg Cascades (which are all very fat now) and Waterfall Gully. The Compression Crack cascade is very fat and there is plenty of ice coming out of Boomers Requiem.
Around in Glen Coe, Number 6 Gully on the West Face of Aonach Dubh was climbed on Saturday. It sounds like it was a bit thin in places and Elliot's Downfall has not yet touched down! I'll remember my camera tomorrow! Thank you Gary for the pictures.
2nd January 2010 The alpine style weather is continuing with cold temperatures and blue skies. Doug and I climbed Blue Ribband which was so good two days ago that I was very happy to go back. It was much the same although the temperature went up by a degree or two during the day so it was slightly softer ice and a bit drippy. We followed Graeme and Gary who made quick time and we were all on the Aonach Eagach before 2pm. By then the temperature was dropping again and the sun coming out more making the quality of light and the views from the ridge spectacular. A couple of teams completed the traverse today and they must have had a real treat.
1st January 2010 Happy New Year! It's off to a great start. Colder again last night as the NE breeze calmed down allowing cold air to sink into the glens. Doug and I went round to Finnisg-aig Falls on the NE side of Sgurr Finnisg-aig. The climb is called Smoking the White Owl in the SMC guidebook after I recorded an ascent many years ago but it had been climbed before and Finnisg-aig Falls is a better name. It was more frozen than when Alan Halewood climbed it two days ago but there were many sections of thin ice. However, the higher we went the better the ice got and the final fall was a fantastic sculpture of ice making a brilliant pitch. Nobody else was there and we took our time, looking at placing ice screws and v-threads along with many other aspects of climbing cascades. We had a snow shower in the middle of the day and it warmed up a little at sea level but still very cold in the hills. The cold conditions are set to stay with us for at least another week so we will have soft snow on the tops and plenty of windslab and threat of avalanches as the breeze moves the snow around. Keep an eye on the Scottish Avalanche Information Service and blog but more importantly, keep an eye on what's happening under your feet.
