Sunday 10 March 2013

Taxus Icefall Finish

Yesterday was the first day of Andy and Mark's intro to winter climbing course.  We spent the day in the Gualch looking at skills whilst seconding.  After climbing around 180m of ice and mixed, we were set for a go route today.  With that in mind Andy, Mark and I headed to Beinn an Dothaidh to climb Taxus Icefall Finish IV,4***.  This was a good option as it gets more interesting the high you go.  The lads did excellent and put all the skills learnt yesterday to good use as they cruised the route.  After chatting through some snow stuff, we had a leisurely walk down and the fella shot away to catch their plane home.

It was a very cold, dry day which made the ice extremely brittle of the crux pitch,  Phil and Dan climbed Cirrus IV,4*** and found the same.  It was also on the lean side making it very sporting at the grade.
Mark cruising the Icefall finish crux pitch

happy faces at the top
This is final day of my Scottish Work season, and it has been a stunner in good company.  A fantastic week has been had by my clients, but I'm not sure they had as much fun as me.  Despite not being up North, I will still be available for Lakes and Wales guiding if conditions allow.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Adam,

Finally got around to posting a comment. Pic's look good. Was I really cruising at that moment?! Great course. Many thanks for getting our training spot on, rectifying some bad habits and selecting a cracking route for the Sunday. Would have no hesitation in recommending your services. Hope to be able to organise some lead training in the Peak district before our Bolivian trip. Cheers, Mark

Adam Hughes said...

Was a great weekend Mark. I really enjoyed myself as well. Hope to see you both again soon.

Adam