Cairngorm Conditions

Greg ang Euan where in Corrie an Lochain today and climbed Deep Throat. Greg said that conditions are perfect, with white buttresses and frozen turf. Greg is out tomorrow, so hopefully there will be more updates from him. I'll be out later in the week, fingers crossed the condition holed out.

Winter is Finally Here

Yesterday John climbed Fingers Ridge. The route had a nice covering and the ground had firmed up. With more snow forecast and the temp coming down even further, next week should be good. I will hopefully venture out next week when my man flu leaves me.

Winter Courses

Winter is on its way so now is the time to start thinking about what you are going to do with yours.

We don't do set dates for courses so we can work around you. So check out the website or get in touch to talk about how we can help you acheive you goals this winter.

We offer:

Guided Winter Climbing
Instruction in Winter Climbing
Winter Mountaineering
Guided Winter Walks
Winter Skills

All courses are designed around what your aims and objectives are.

When will winter come?

The weather has not been very kind over the last few weeks. I have kept myself busy in the wall with the usual groups, route setting and leading courses. On the occasions that the weather has been ok for a morning or so I have stolen the odd cheaky solo at the local haunts in an attempt to stay sane. I have many been training in the wall or gym to stay fit and get strong for the winter when it makes an appearence. Hopefully soon.

Learning to Lead

David at the top of Fishhead arete

I've been working with David and Sandra over the past 2 days, and have been learning to lead. Yeasterday we started at the wall, looking at building belays and organising stances etc. Before moving outside to Rosyth Quarry. There we spent time placing runners, before they both took to the sharp end and led a couple of wet routes each.

Today the weather was much better. We went to the Hawkcraig to build on the skills learnt yesyerday and get a few more leads under their belt. They both did excellent. David led his first Severe and Sandra her first VDiff. A good couple of days despite the weather on the first day.

Exped

Today I returned from a very wet overnight exped with the Moray House crew. We had a very wet and windy experience on A' Chailleach in the Monadh Liath, and an even wetter and windier night's camp. Today we walked back to Kingussie in dry and sunny conditions which was a pleasent change from the previous day. A good exped despite the weather.

River Crossing

After looking at the weather forecast we opted for a low level day. In the morning the group split into pairs and made a short nav circuit around the low hills behind Kingussie. They then swapped circuits and went to find the points in a set time limit, putting the skills leant over the 5 previous days. In the afternoon we had a look at river crossing. This is still an important skill and judgement process to learn if you take to the hills in Scotland. After a short video we headed down to the Calder in Newtonmore to put some of the skills to the test. Folks did really well, managing themselves across some strong shoots of water. A good producive day.