A Busy 2014

So I have been sort of neglecting my blog recently but this has mostly been due to me being really busy!

Kandersteg

I have loads to tell you about, but I will be brief to avoid making it into too much of an essay.

Team GB in Romania

During January I competed in the Ice World Cup in Korea, Romania and Switzerland. Despite me never challenging the top climbers at all I have learnt loads, had so much fun and made loads of new friends.On my travels I have also been to some cool mixed climbing crags. We were shown a newly bolted crag in Romania and then went to Kandersteg whilst in Switzerland.

Saas Fee Structure

Saas Fee Qualifiers (Photo Credit: Matt Pritchard)

Romanian Qualifiers (Photo Credit: Anna Wells)

My best performance was in Korea where I just went out there and climbed as I didn't have a clue how I was going to do. Hopefully next year I will be selected for the team again and I can do a bit better!
After returning from Switzerland I went straight to the BMC international meet. This was a week were UK hosts, of which I was one, showed loads of foreign climbers around the winter scottish highlands. I didn't really get very much done as I missed the best days to go to university but I did manage to climb The Seam, Unicorn, a new route in the Cairngorms, DTS Spirit and Fast and Furious in my wellies (well I took a victory whipper from the final hold on this).

The Seam (Photo Credit: Piotr Sulowski)

Unicorn (Photo Credit: Piotr Sulowski)

Unicorn (Photo Credit: Piotr Sulowski)

F+F (Photo Credit: Piotr Sulowski)

Since the meet I have managed one day out on Ben Nevis where I climbed Route 1 with its Direct Winter start.

Route 1 Direct Start

In addition to my ice axe related adventures I came joint first, with a very strong boulderer, in the Edinburgh Universities bouldering competition last week held at the CSE climbing wall. I was quite surprised at this since I haven't rock climbed very much at all in the last month or so.

Competing at the CSE (Photo Credit: Steven Barnes)

Glen Coe Conditions 31.12.13

I managed one last day of winter in 2013 yesterday with an ascent of the Aonach Eagach ridge in Glen Coe.

The weather was looking to be a bit blowy but I figured if I climbed something where I could just keep on moving it wouldn't affect me too much. 

It was a bit wet in the morning and I almost sacked off the ridge for the day and ended up heading into Fort William for some breakfast. On my way back through Glen Coe again I decided I might as well just go and try it. Id probably get wet but I can always dry off again and Im here already. 

It was wet on the way up

I left the car at 11am in the wind and rain and made my way up. Things started getting wintry just before Am Bodach with snow on the ground, although it was a bit wet. On the ridge there was some good snow about and even a bit of decent turf in places. The rocks weren't exactly rimed up but there was snow in all the important places. I thought the bit around the pinnacles was pretty fun, and felt fair for grade II, but it was sustained. 

Looking towards the pinnacles

Back at the pinnacles

The weather improved throughout the day and I managed to get a good look at a few of the crags in the area. Bidean looked reasonably white, as did parts of Stob Coire nan Lochain. I managed to get a look across at the Ben, although you can't really see the North Face from the ridge, but it did have a good cover of snow. 

Glen Coe Crags with Bidean and Lochain in the clouds

Towards Ben Nevis

Hopefully the weather will settle down soon for some proper climbing!

Happy New Year and Safe Climbing!

SCNL Winter Conditions 19.11.13

Today I went to Stob Coire nan Lochan with Dan Tait and Helen Rennard with the intention of making the second ascent of Twisted (VII,7). The forecast looked good (really cold, not too windy) so waking up at 3am for the drive over wasn't too much hassle.

Stobe Coire

We met Helen in the car park and set off up. Things looked good, the snow line was low and it was feeling cold! It wasn't until it started getting light and I could start seeing the corrie that I was getting worried but I assured myself things would start looking whiter when we got closer. They didn't.

Twisted and Chimney Route

Unicorn and Scansor

We looked at twisted but it had a big black section at the bottom. Chimney route was a bit whiter but it was dripping. We walked along the crag but everything looked to have large no wintry looking sections. In the end we started up Crest Route, which is quite high up so we thought it was a good bet. I climbed pitch 1, which featured lots of bad truf! The start of pitch 2 however was completely black so we backed off and went for a walk to the top.

Crest Route Pitch 2

We had a look over at Bidean and the Lost Valley but nothing looked particularly white.

Bidean

Lost Valley

In summary things aren't very in at the moment. Also it wasn't minus 5 degrees like MWIS had said it would be! Hopefully if the cold weather continues and things start getting blown around a bit some mixed lines may be in by the end of the week.
Also a tip. Don't walk around with your axes over your shoulder and your thumbs over the pommels. When you fall over it jars your thumbs. Mine hurt!

Seattle Grooves First Ascent

I went to Stob Coire nan Lochain with Edinburgh University fresher Alex McMillan on Saturday to try and get some late season wintering in. I intended to make the second ascent of a recent Simon Yearsley/Malcolm Bass route "Twisted" (VII,7) but unfortunately this didnt look "in". I had lots of back up options but all of these were steep and had been stripped of snow in the lower parts.

Classic

I walked in quite quickly so I had a look through the guide and decided to try and find some new ground. I settled for a line between Twisting Gully and Forked Gully Right Hand.
We started at the foot of the buttress at the lowest rocks. I made my way up snow slopes to a short corner, climbed the corner then followed the snow again until I found a belay underneath a steep, turfy groove line. I had hoped to climb this but it was dripping with water and didn't have as much snow on it as I had thought. I decided to keep on climbing up the snow slope until I found a suitable place to breach the steep wall. I found another narrower groove line about 10m above the belay and attempted to climb this. I climbed a few meters up on thin hooks but decided it wasn't really going to go as I couldn't find any gear and it looked like it was going to get harder higher up, so I down climbed.
Just to the left of the groove was an icy ramp which I climbed instead. Above this was another, slightly steeper, icy groove which led quite nicely to a belay on some broken blocks.

First Pitch (Photo Credit: Alex McMillan)

Top of Pitch 2

The final pitch was the reason why I had chosen this line. I could see some very white looking rocks from the coire floor which didn't seem to have any routes up them. I took the left hand groove on this. The groove started off nicely with some good ice in the back but got increasingly steeper with less foot placements until a steep pull over a bulge brought me onto an icy ramp. I climbed this to its top and made my way carefully through the final couple of meters to a small cornice. I broke my way through that and topped out into amazing sunshine.

Final Pitch (Photo Credit: Alex McMillan)

(Photo Credit: Alex McMillan)

(Photo Credit: Alex McMillan)

The Line

I have emailed Andy Nisbet to ask whether its new, and he seems to think so. I have decided to call it Seattle Grooves. I have named it this as I only found out that Alex is from Seattle on the drive over. I have graded it IV 5, but im not too sure really as some of the moves could be tech 6.
We finished this quite early so climbed Spectre (V,6) to finish off the day. I managed to climb it in 2 pitches, although I got to the final belay on rope stretch.

Alex on Spectre

Ravens Edge

On Tuesday Helen Rennard, R and I climbed Ravens Edge on the Buachaille. The route gets VII, 7 in both scottish winter climbs and the glen coe SMC guides but I think the VII, 8 which it is given on UKC is a better grade.

I picked R up on my way over and we met Helen in the Buachaille car park at 7am. Everything was looking pleasantly white and the clouds were just brushing the top of the mountain. We set off up the footpath and geared up at the bottom of great gully. Great gully has a couple of interesting ice steps and the snow was quite well compacted.

Ravens Edge makes its way up the buttress to the right of Slime Wall, with Ravens Gully splitting them. Ravens Edge look very nice and white high up and the turf on the approach to it was quite good in places. Ravens Gully seemed to be holding a fair amount of ice, which I've heard is rare for this route.

Helen led the first pitch which is a long 55m pitch of quite run out ground, all be it never too hard.

Helen on Pitch 1

The second pitch was R's. It took a thin rising traverse line into a large open book corner. There was gear, although not that much, so it was important for neither second nor leader to fall off here. We all got up that fine and next it was my turn on the main corner. The start was barred by a small roof, which I traversed under. In the process I ripped a block off which I thought was a very good hook. I managed to stay on and kept on going. The rest of the pitch was quite sustained, but the gear was good if you could place it. There was one more scary moment when both my feet came off. Luckily I was on good hooks and it actually allowed me to place my crampons on the higher holds I was trying to get to. This pitch turned out to be by far the crux on the day.



Starting Pitch 3



That pitch took a while so we decided it was best to try and run pitches 4 and 5 together. This should have been 65 meters of climbing, on 60 meter ropes, but we decided to have a go anyway. R climbed pitches 4 and 5 very quickly, and used just under 60 meters of rope. Pitch 6 was a short easy pitch to finish which I climbed. It was a bit longer than the 10 meters suggested by the guide, but was nice quite easy so we managed to top out just before dark.

We descended down great gully, which needed 3 abseils to avoid the ice, and we were soon at the bottom.

Im really pleased to have climbed Ravens Edge. According to UKC it hasn't been completed since 2008, which was by Ian Parnell and co., and has only been attempted once since. UKC isnt an exhaustive list of ascents so if anyone knows otherwise please tell me.

Anyway to sum up conditions on the Buachaille low down things look in thanks to the low freezing levels and snow of recent.
There would have been more pictures but no one else brought a camera and I forgot to charge mine, and I also couldn't see R on pitch 2 to take any of him.
I will add some more photos later when Im on my own computer, this was a library job.

Back to it

Its been over 2 months since I injured my elbow, and since my last blog post, and I have quite a bit to update you on.
My elbow turned out to be dislocated, although it popped itself back in. Its mostly back to normal now, although it still doesn't fully straighten.
Whilst injured I managed to keep fit by initially using exercise bikes in the gym, then going running and one handed climbing. This was all a bit boring really compared to normal climbing but it was something to do.
My return to proper climbing was during a trip to the peak district. The mountaineering club was supposed to be going to Torridon but the weather was bad, so it went south instead. I climbed mostly with Joanna and managed to lead Left Unconquerable (E1), Flying Buttress Direct (E1), Desperation (E1) and Wuthering (E2). I also had a good go on the green traverse, but kept on getting pumped just before the end.

Flying Buttress Direct

Wuthering

The week after I went to Glen Coe with Joanna, Jamie Sparkes, Claire Holland and Dan Tait. We climbed in Stobe Coire nan Lochain. I did Moon Shadow (IV,4) with Dan and Joanna and Twisting Gully (III,4) with Jamie. It was nice to be back in the mountains, and in amazing weather. My elbow survived alright although it did hurt a bit with the jarring motion associated with ice climbing.

Stobe Coire nan Lochain

In the last few weeks I have made a number of trips to Ben Nevis. My first trip was with Helen Rennard and Dave Macleod, where we climbed Left Edge Route (VI,5), a little repeated route in observatory buttress. Im not sure I can go as far as saying it was the second winter ascent, but I don't think its been done many times in winter.

Left Edge Route

My next trip was with Sinclair Cooper. We went to try Darth Vader (VII,8) on number three gully buttress. I led the first 2 pitches, which saw me belaying in the cave belay of the main chimney. Unfortunatley Sinclair couldn't second the second pitch so we abbed off. I then soloed South Gully (III).

Darth Vader, Pitch 1

Darth Vader

My latest trip was with Cassim Ladha, Craig Holden and Alex Toomey. It was the weekend of the mountaineering clubs Ben Nevis trip, but unfortunately there wasn't a mini bus driver so I took some extras in my car. We made quite a later start on friday night, as we needed to wait for Cass to drive up from Newcastle, and so didn't get into our tents next to the CIC hut until at least 2am.
On Saturday Cass and I attempted Hobgoblin (VI,7), also up number three gully. I actually intended to climb Gargoyle Wall but I didn't read the guide properly and so climbed direct to the Gargoyle, which is the line of Hobgoblin. After the 3rd pitch, which were the amazing Gargoyle Wall cracks, we abbed off ass Cass was too cold. On Sunday I went by myself and soloed Vanishing Gully (V,5), South-West Ridge (IV,5) (although probably III,4 on the day), and Observatory Buttress (V,4).

View from the tent Saturday morning

Tents and Carn Dearg

 

Hobgoblin, pitch 1

 

Cass seconding pitch 1

  

Vanishing Gully