Lost Valley and Ben Udlaidh

Due to living in the back of a van for a few days I have not managed to update as regularly as normal.

On Monday Matt and I worked all the way up to Lost Valley Buttress to find that the route we wanted to climb was not really in. It looked as though someone had done it recently, but we could not justify it. The day was saved by another route to the left that had held it’s snow. Moonlighting is a steeper than it looks and varied V,6. The rock is a little shattered, so the gear is not as comforting as you would always like. We had stunning views from the top down Loch Etive and over Arrocher.






Tuesday took us up to Beinn Udlaidh. Despite being a bit tired we seemed to be on it once we started. We soloed up Central Gully to get to Junior’s Jaunt IV,5. This had to excellent pitch, the first a thin-ish corner which took you to the up stepped wall. One we would definitely recommend. We then abseiled into Organ Pipe Wall, this has an extremely steep pillar in the centre. I climbed this direct which felt a lot harder than the V,5 given (I had to have a little word with myself). The right hand line and using the groove as describe looked more in keeping with the grade. It was still early so we walked down and climbed Peter Pan Direct V,5. This is a bit chopped up but still offers good climbing. The start is steep but short lived, then a slab takes you to the belay. A nice grade IV pitch then leads to the top.





There was a lot of wind and snow moving yesterday. Quite large pockets of slab were forming around the tops of gullies and around the base of the crag. We waited to keep an eye as one fella did battle with a horrible soft cornice top out on Quartz Vein Scoop. There are a lot of strange layers in the snow pack at the moment and a lot of care needed.

Today I went and climbed the Oui Oui with Nic. It's holding in there, but won't last long if the temperatures stay as they are. the middle is hollow and kicked to bits. The top icicle have formed and looks stunning. Scott Muir climbed it a few days ago, so it's there to be done.

Beinn Udlaidh

Today I was working for adventure Peaks again. We went into a quite busy Beinn udlaidh. As usual most of the crowds were over on Quartzvein round to Green Eyes. We desided on Central Gully so we could continue on what we covered yesterday. Alister did a good job leading the first 2 pitches (Angela was not herself today), and I took the easy stretch to the top. There is a fantastic 10m ice slab to be climbed instead of following the gully direct which leads you back to the main route. It is easy to avoid the bulk of it, which looks like most people have been doing. On the way in we spotted a short steep looking fall on the right of the corrie, so we came back down to this. It offered some steep excellent climbing around grade 4ish (I can't grade) on blue ice. this was an great way to rap up the weekend.

Adventure Peaks offer a wide range of courses, most notably there greater ranges expeditions. check out the website for more info.

Nice Ice

I am working for Adventure Peaks this weekend with Alister and Angela. The aim of the course for these guys was to start leading as they are off to Norway. We walked up the Lochain path and found 2 ice routes on the weat side of Gearr Aonach after 30 mins. Both these offered excellent climbing at grade 2 with mainly ice screw belays.

Grey Mare's Tail

Martin climbed the Grey Mare's Tail today. He said that both sides were in good condition and there were 3 other teams on it. He also said the road to get there was a bit dodgy.

You might get pics on the climbnow winter blog

i saw some great looking ice in Glen Ogle on my drive over to Onich this afternoon. Might be worth a look.

Messiah

Sorry for the lack of up to date info. I have been away from regular internet access this week, hopefully I have caught up now.

Matt and I had spent the night in the van up at the Bridge of Orchy. We headed up on to Creag an Socach on Beinn Dorain. The approach was a relatively easy hour walk in. There has been some strong winds about as we noticed some hard wind slab with a number of layer that broke away easily. The main event was Messiah. At VII,7 this is said to be one of the finest climbs in the Southern highland. It did not disappoint, sustained steep climbing, with excellent turf gave an awesome experience. Matt made swift work of the first pitch which included the hilarious hand traverse. I linked the next 2 pitches to make quiet a long strenuous pitch. The vertical ice groove on pitch 3 was a mix pitch all the way.

We had time to do another easier route, so we climbed Second Coming. This is a very interesting III,4 that climbs some steep turf and pleasent ice. Matt also desided to throw his axe down the crag at the belay so had to make do with just 1 and a snug rope. We had almost given up hope of finding said axe when I stumbled across it saving the day from a nagative end.

An amazing day in awesome weather.

Day of Disappointment

I hooked up with Matt, with the view of strapping in on and having a bit of an adventure. We don't get to climb together that much any more so wanted to make the most of it. After scanning weather forecasts and phoning Di for for beta futher north we had a plan. We woke at 5am, had a quick breakfast and headed for Beinn Bhan in the NW. The snow that was forecast overnight did'nt seem to have appeared, so we were feeling good about the day and psyced to go somewhere new. As we drove the snow got worse and the blizzards came. Are enthusiasum pushed us on and we still had high hopes. On arriving at Loch Carron we encountered a small hill. This proved to be the 1st crux of the morning. We blew the on sight in style as we tried to ferry glide are way up the road. The 1st redpoint was probably are high point. This included a half mile run up and me running and pushing to get every inch we could. After about 6 shots, Matt had mastered the 1 point turn and we head back home with are tails down, but not between our legs. We had a new plan.

We would pick up some extra kit and head down to the Fort and climb Steall Falls. Quick short route, peice of winky. After 7 hours driving we where making our way up the Glen on a very snowy road. we made it to Simiter Buttress before we got spanked again. This time sliding down the road sideways with me pushing the van to help keep it out of the ditch (how much help I was is questionable). It took both of us to push the van back straight and make our retreat out of the glen. We thought about walking in from there, but were more worried we would not get the van back out of the Glen. After the scariest 30 mins I can remember we strapped our eyeballs of the windscreen as we made it out. Not yet fully defeated we had a back up.

Take 2: We met Di Gillbert and Kev Sheilds, who had a 4 x 4, RESULT. However, what we did not know was that if Carlsberg made 4 x 4's, they would not make this one. We managed to get to within 200m of the carpark before we got stuck. Steve Gordon who was meeting Di and Kev cruised up in his skoda taxi (winter tyres folks) and gave us a lift down. What followed was a valient rescue attempt be Alan Kimber and Clients with 2 4x4's which failed and another failed attempt by some folk from the mountain rescue team.

So after a day of almost 9 hours driving we climbed nothing. Hopefully tomorrow will bring better luck.

Low Level Water Ice

I have been working for Nick Carter the past 2 day. I have been climbing with Alex and Dave who wanted to look at leading and improve in general. Yesterday we went to Drummochter Pass and climbed up the burn I had been to recently. This worked brilliantly. They pitched their way up placing ice screws as they went. We then drove a little further south and climbed a few pitches of roadside ice with a demaning 30 sec approach.

Today we wanted to try a few steeper things and put into practice some of the skills we covered yesterday. We went to Creag Dubh to have a look at Oui Oui. Despite being early there were quite a few folk around. The only free line was up the steeper left hand side. This offered some excellent climbing that probably touched grade 5. With tired arms we had lunch then climbed a slabby line up on the left wing before climbing the main (easier) line of the main fall. An excellent day.