Stob Coire nan Lochan - 19th March '11

I haven't written anything in the blog for ages as I've been so busy with Uni work and taking RB to comps that I'm home after climbing, so tired, then too busy the next day.  I thought about ditching the whole thing but I kinda missed the writing and D reckoned I should keep up with it.  So, what have I done since I wrote last, um........can I remember now!  Andy and I spent a day in Coire an Lochain in the Cairngorms where I led the crux pitch of Milkyway and Andy led the 2nd pitch.  We then downclimbed the Couloir and Andy led the 1st pitch of Ewan Buttress and I led the 2nd.  That was a nice day and good to get out and do something quick and easy as I only had the one day.  Even though these routes are tiny, it's worth going in for a day to do a few routes, they're quite nice.

The week after that, D and I went hillwalking in Glen Lochay to bag some munros I hadn't done before.  Most of the snow had gone from lower down but there were still soft patches on top.  Again, that was just a day trip as I was short on time.  I think it was either the day before or the day after that RB had the 1st round of the Youth Climbing Series which took part at the Stirling Wall.  She got 1st place for that round, after not managing the hard boulder problem but making a comeback on the final route.

Last weekend RB had the MCofS's School Climbing Comp final in Glasgow where she got 2nd place, being beaten to the post by Rachel Carr of the British Climbing Team on the final route, which went at 7b.  Beks did really well on that route, getting just over half way up, she can't quite onsight 7b yet.  We're in the process of building a 30 degree wall and a 45 degree wall in our garage at the moment (courtesy of Ali Robb) so some extra training should see her hopefully onsighting 7b in the near future.
The day after the school's comp, H and I drove up to Bridge of Orchy, keen to check out the crag on Meall Buidhe, and have a look at a route called Echo Edge in particular, a ** grade III.  We arrived at Achallader carpark in good time and it was looking snowy and was snowing, but not as windy as forecast.  After skirting round some boggy ground we made it to the start of the Crannoch woods and cut off up hill to cross the railway line.  This is where the going got tough and after ploughing up hill through knee deep to thigh deep snow for an hour and not really getting anywhere fast, we decided to bail.  The hill was shrounded in mist and I wasn't sure how steep the ground was beneath the cliffs and the snow felt like it would be dodgy if the ground was steep enough to go.  Sod walking up all that way only to have to turn back.  Gutting though as I hadn't climbed in ages.
Not to worry though, as yesterday H and I drove up to Glencoe to climb and were successful in me onsighting my 1st IV lead and H climbing her 1st IV route.  I'd been wanting to lead a grade IV last winter but it never really happened and then it wasn't seeming to happen this winter either what with one thing and another!  I knew with the up coming forecast and time constraints that this was probably going to be my last chance of the season to grab that elusive IV.  I had been toying with Fingers Ridge or Opening Break in Coire an t-Sneachda as my 1st IV but the pictures of Raeburn's Route on Central Buttress in Stob Coire nan Lochan had really caught my eye.  I'd heard it was a good choice as a first IV lead and that the crux was well protected.  And it was probably going to be better suited to me rather than the reachy, udgy style of Cairngorm Granite.  My only worry was the amount of snow still around and whether conditions were going to be dodgy getting to the base of the route.  Only one way to find out!
I picked H up in Dundee at 5am and we drove up to Glencoe after a garage stop, arriving around 7.30am.  The walk in to SCNL was a slog and I really struggled carrying a full 60m rope and half a full winter rack but I wasn't minimising my rack when I was pushing my grade.  Thankfully, folk had been up there all week and there was a trail through the knee deep snow into the corrie and the boulder were folk were gearing up.  There were 8 people in before us and I was sure someone must be going for our route as it's a classic.  But all 8 people were going for the infamous Dorsal Arete, a route that I shall refuse point blank to climb out of principle!  H and I dumped a sack at the boulder, donned crampons and harness but bunged the ropes and gear into the other sack and set off up hill.
The snow was deep but it seemed stable enough and I didn't once feel jittery or unsafe even when it got deeper and deeper than deeper still!  All trails to Central Buttress had been blown in and snowed over and we were wading through knee deep snow from the word go from the boulder.  As we got higher, we were sinking down to our waist and in a few places I was up to my chest in snow.  That's the deepest I've ever waded before and it was hard work!  The walk up to the routes is short though so it didn't take too long before we arrived.  We had been advised by a friend of mine and manager of The Ice Factor, that getting as close to the climbing as possible would enable us to run out the full 60m of rope and get up onto the ridge to belay.  Only problem was that gear was a bit sparse there!  H managed to unearth a big hex placement and I reckoned that would do as I could get gear in once moving up and a few moves up I could see some insitu tat.
We had a faff with my new ropes which were all knotted again.  They are a pair of Tendon ropes which I bought from Tiso and so far they have been a tangle of knots and kinks!  But they are slowly improving.  Another couple came up behind us as H was untangling the 2nd rope and I warned them that this was my 1st IV lead and I might be quite slow.  The guy said it was going to be his first IV lead too.  I had thought about asking if he was competent at leading IV and offering them to go first, but sod it, we had done all the hard work breaking trail that I deserved to go first, no matter how slow I was going to be.
I was so nervous!  A part of me wanting to back out of it, it was going to be too scary, I was kidding myself that I could lead IV!  I didn't want to hang about too long and talk myself out of it, so I started off tentatively.  After the 1st move up, I got my crampons caught in my powerstretch tights, aaaaaaarrrrggggggg!  I'd stupidly forgotten my overtrousers but there was no way I wasn't climbing so decided just to climb in my thermals and tights and suffer if it was cold and windy.  I'd ripped a big massive hole in them when slogging through all that snow and now my crampon had snagged in the hole.  Shit and botheration!  I had to balance with one crampon and one axe to untangle myself and start off again.  If I felt nervous initially, I was crapping it now!  Deep breath, tell myself to chill and off I go again.  Get myself into an okay position and get my first bit of gear in.  My calf is hurting though and I keep having to shake it out.  It makes me even more nervous that I'm not going to manage this.  After a couple more moves though, I'm relaxed and enjoying it.  I can do this, oh yes!
Reach and check out the insitu tat.  One bit looks pretty much brand new so I clip in and move up.  Things get interesting.  The first pitch involves going up a chimney to a cul de sac and then breaking out right of the chimney to follow a groove up onto a ridge.  The chimney has some really nice climbing in it and is well protected.  In fact, the whole first pitch has more gear than you can shake a stick at and I don't think I've ever placed so much gear on one pitch before!  At one point I was wedged into the chimney for a nice rest and decided this was the point where I should break out right as there was only steep rock above and no snow.  Getting out of the chimney was the crux of the first pitch and it felt really balancy and committing and it took me a while of resting and thinking about things to go for it.  I ended up on a ledge, decided that I didn't like the look of the snow between the ledge and the upper groove, so manage to downclimb onto a lower ledge and precariously make my way across and up to the groove.  Those moves felt all a bit sketchy due to the snow being so deep.
The next part up the groove was easy enough just very time consuming due to the snow and also because I was getting a lot of drag on my ropes.  I'd extended one of the ropes with a sling before traversing out but in hindsight, I maybe should have extended both ropes as it was getting to the point where I was having to pull up lots of rope before I could move off again.  I eventually got up onto the ridge though and found a belay further along.  Woohoo, I'd done it!  The rest should be easier now, hah!  Fat chance, the next bit was desperate!
There was a pillar that you had to climb behind and then go up a narrow chimney.  That was really good fun, so funky!  Then there was a gap between the pillar and a wall.  I took the easiest break on the left of the wall and moved up.  Hmmmm, this isn't easy!  I was a few metres up the wall, with one nut placement in a well worn grooved crack so I knew I wasn't off line.  But damned if I knew where to go next!  I thought about heading left and shuffled along a bit.  There was nothing for my axes that I could find at all and I recalled the guide book mentioning that the 2nd pitch was hard under snow.  They weren't joking!  I was there for ages, pondering and wondering the best way to go.  There was a bottomless groove to my left that looked okay once you got into it.  But how to get into it?  It would have involved a swing around a bulging bit of rock and I just couldn't find anything at all for my axes to make that move with and that nut placement didn't seem so great anymore.
I dug away the snow from the wall above me, blank.  I dug away the snow from the wall to the right of me. Aha!  I found a small edge that I could precariously hook one axe onto.  I then dug away the snow and tried to flatten it with my foot, balancing as I had nothing up above to hold onto.  The snow was falling away beneath my foot into the air below, eeeek!  I could see gaps of air and light through the snow and knew it wasn't very stable.  But I didn't have any choice!  I checked out my fall options.  If I fell, I was going a few metres onto a big snowy ledge before so at least I wasn't going to die and my iffy bits of gear might slow me down too.  Oh well, it was now or never!  I slithered across, heart in my mouth when the snow crumbled away beneath me then held again!  I hooked my left axe on that tiny edge, stepped over the dodgy, airy bit of snow and scraped in the snow praying, praying, praying for a good purchase.  Not great but it would have to do!  I moved across and bingo, got my other axe into a better placement!  And relax!  That was the hardest thing I'd ever led before and at no point did I know what the outcome was going to be, it was pure and utter commitment!  Wow, who'd have thought I could do that and keep calm and collected!
It wasn't over though.  I had to dig away some ledges for my feet so I could get up and over the wall on my right as I just couldn't reach properly over the edge with my axes.  I managed to unearth a big blog of turf and hammer in an iffy bulldog.  It might not have held but it sure made me feel good!  Then it was a case of digging out the snow on the edge of the wall, getting my axes secure, moving up on those foot holds I'd found and then I had to mantle on my axes.  I'm sure I gave a woop once I was over as I could see easy ground ahead.  It was a sheer, 'thank feck for that' moment!  More snowy ground followed with lots of digging, so tiring!  I came to a good spot and rather than go ahead up the easy finish, I decided to bring H up, where I could hear how she was getting on with the scary bit and give a tight rope and help if need be.
I'm sure she squeeled a little on the scary bit as the snow was giving away and she said she didn't enjoy it too much once she was up.  It was pretty horrible and insecure!  Poor H had an awful headache too and didn't look well at all.  I said I'd lead the last easy pitch so she didn't have to as she was in pain and again it involved more clearing of snow, but no desperate ground thankfully, just a few big steps but they were easy enough.  H had said that the guy below had poked his head over the ridge and gone back down and they'd abbed off.  I'm unsure if it was whether we were being so slow or whether it was due to the conditions.
I was soon up at the top and ended up setting up a belay and sitting down.  Bad mistake!  By the time H came up, my bottom was numb with cold and the wind was picking up and I was freezing.  We quickly sorted the ropes and headed back down into the corrie for the other sack.  The light was going that dull way as we got into the corrie and I knew it was going to get dark soon.  I was in no rush though, happy to have done my much lusted after route and in no mood to rush as my feet were now hurting going down in my new boots.  We kept crampons on for a while and I gave H the keys for the car as she was moving much faster.  My knee was giving me a bit of grief and my legs felt like jelly.  Now that I'm home I discovered a massive bruise on my knee, joys of winter climbing and udging up on knees.  My toes were hurting in my boots but not as bad as they have been.  I still cursed and grumbled my way down the hill though, stopping to take crampons off and jacket off, and hat, gloves and buff, then my windproof too!  It was really mild.  It got dark just as we were approaching the bridge and I thought the carpark wasn't far from the bridge.  But there was still a wee bit to go and then an evil, evil, evil up hill bit!  Getting back to the car was bliss and taking off my boots was even better.  I joked to H that sod the actual routes, the only reason I go climbing is for that orgasmic relief of taking your boots off at the end of a long day.

Sneachda - 26th/27th Jan

Not long back from 2 days climbing in Coire an t-Sneachda, my least favourite climbing ever.  But midweek it is actually not too bad.  Still busy, but not hoaching!  And an early start on both days meant we were first on our chosen routes.
We had planned to go to Hell's Lum on Wednesday but it was raining heavily on the drive up to Andy's house and we reckoned that would be falling as snow high up, still we were hopeful.  But it dawned clagged in and drizzly and the winds were strong from the North to North East, so I decided not to risk it and just go in to Sneachda instead.
Andy had been leading clients up Spiral Gully the day before and said that conditions were really good on it, with Red Gully not being so good.  Red Gully is only one pitch really then a plod to the top, so we decided to do Spiral.  I'm happy doing easy gullies and ice routes for the time being as being more of a mixed climber, I rarely climb ice or gullies and they make me a bit nervous, but I'm determined to get used to them!
Once in the Coire, I spoke to someone who regularly reads my blog and that was nice, in fact, the whole day was quite sociable, with stops every now and then to blether to various different folk, though I was happy when a group of 3 decided to go up Wavelength rather than Spiral.  Wavelength looks a really nice route.
I led the 1st pitch of Spiral, a bit of a snow plod, but with icy bits nearer to the top of the pitch.  Right from the word go we were having trouble with my new ropes.  They are seriously kinked, often happens with new ropes, but I've never had ropes kink like this before, they were constantly jamming up in the belay device and I was having to stop every so often so H could sort it out.  I was certainly glad we had chosen something easy under the circumstances!  I carried on leading the 2nd pitch and was having trouble with the ropes too when belaying H up.  I took the left icy groove on the 2nd pitch which looked marginally more interesting, followed by a wee groove to the right of the normal route.  H led the 3rd pitch, up and round the diagonal part of the gully and then I led the last wee smidgeon to the top.  It was an okay route, but I found it pretty easy really, low end grade II and didn't think it worth 2 stars, though the top pitch had okay scenery.
I'd been climbing in my new pair of boots, Nepale Extremes and was finding them pretty sore on the walk out, ugh!  But my new axes are fantastic and we managed to place one new ice screw.  We went to descend via the Goat Track but it was blowing a hoolie at the top, so much so that the wind and needle like snow was blinding me.  Got my goggles out, only to find out that Lidl's cheap goggles are completely and utterly gaff!  As soon as I put them on they were misting up and I couldn't see a thing, so I was blinded either way!  In the end we decided to just walk around the top and it wasn't that windy up there anyway.  It was pretty pea soup though so we had to take a bearing off point 1141, walk on it for about 500m, then I reckoned we should bear more to the right to meet the ski tows.  I don't think we went right enough though as we met up with the ski tows and never once saw the main track down, but that was okay.

The next day we set off early again, but I was so slow it was unbelievable!  I can't believe I was actually struggling to get into Sneachda!  I get this weird thing because of the irritation to my spinal cord, where my legs go wonky and I feel like I have to think about how to walk and how to move my legs, rather than just automatically walking.  My legs feel weird and weak and my balance and proprioception goes all a bit wonky.  But we got there eventually, and cut off towards Fiacaill Buttress to go up Fiacaill Couloir.  We had to don crampons fairly early on on the traverse round as the ground got pretty icy and then it was a total slog up to the base of the route.  It didn't help that it was a clear and sunny day and I had on base layer, fluffy and cozy fleece, windproof and gortex jacket!  I was like a boil in the bag Sonya!  It was torture and wasn't helped by the fact that I was getting sciatica in my upper leg and my upper back was sore with my sack.  Things only got worse after that.
The 1st pitch looked easy, so I said I'd do that, so H could try leading some harder bits.  I ended up having quite a hard time, burning pain in my leg because of my back and weakness in my arms, not helped my horrible calf burn either!  It was awful and I was grunting and groaning and 'ughing and arrging' all the way up the pitch.  I felt bad for those below as I was making an awful racket!  The 1st pitch is seriously run out and even though there were bits were I probably could have scraped away to find some gear, I just couldn't stop there as there were no ledgy bits and the snow and ice was rock solid.  The ice was pretty horrible on the 1st pitch, really brittle in places, but okay in others.  I ended up running out the whole 60m without placing one bit of gear, but I just had to keep moving to get up to a good belay ledge where I could stand in comfort and easy my back and legs.

The 1st belay was palatial and a total luxury, but I was struggling with the ropes again bring H up, grrrr!  I asked H if she would lead the next pitch so I could have a rest and she maanged to get in 3 bits of gear, 2 slings and an ice screw.  The 2nd pitch finished up a snowy bit barred by a chockstone.  H was belayed just a little under the chockstone and to the left and we got ourselves organised so that H could lead the next pitch again.  The 3rd pitch was fun!  And I was kicking myself for resting as it was more like mixed climbing than a straight forward gully.  The chockstone was great fun!  There wasn't much build up under or over the stone but luckily the crack between the chockstone and the right wall was filled with useable ice.  The ice on top of the stone was hopeless however.  H slipped a little but got up just fine after that and then disappeared out of view, shouting down that she was going to take the direct grade III finish.
A while later it was my turn to go.  You had to get right up to the chockstone, reach over into that crack on the right, then bridge up onto a ledge on the right wall.  Almost doing the splits, I then had to get my left foot up, but typical, I didn't have the flexibility to get my weight over onto that high foot.  I matched my axes in the crack and just sort of leaped across and up, praying my axes would hold, which they did!  I could see that H had decided against the III finish and had decided against going down to the left also.  She had traversed upwards and leftwards instead.  She said that the icy wall at the start of the direct finish had horrible thin ice on it and no gear, so had decided against it.  The other way was nice though.  You traversed up and leftwards, then down a little groove for about 10 feet, then traversed up and left again and round a corner to an easy finish.  I climbed past H and pulled the ropes up over the top, giving H a body belay up the last leg.
It was stunning up there!  Clear blue skies with an inversion below, not much wind at all and crisp, clear air.  We were happy sitting around for a while, eating and drinking.  I was parched and starving, having forgotten to take any nibbles in my pockets for the belays.
The Goat Track was a doddle today, with soft snow all the way down so you could just walk down outwards.  I had wondered where Andy had gotten to, as we had seen him with his clients on Invernookie but it turned out he'd already finished and was bring his clients up the 1st pitch of Goat Track Gully as we headed past!
The walk out was hell, worse than yesterday!  B3 boots are evil, evil, evil to walk in and the bottoms of my feet were throbbing and my old ankle injury kept searing too.  I felt old and crooked today and annoyed at my bodies failings ruining what would have been a perfect day otherwise.    I sure hope those boots break in quickly!

Lochnagar - 17th Jan '11

At last I've been out climbing again and boy have I gotten seriously unfit!  4 weeks of not being out in the hills or doing any running has turned me into a slob!  So much so that what should have been 2 days at Lochnagar turned into just 1 day because I couldn't face walking up again in the wind after a windy day previously.  And the wind wasn't even all that bad, just it was NW rather than SW so we wouldn't have been totally sheltered.  I'm getting soft, soft, soft and need to harden myself up again.  Time for some physical torture in the form of running again to toughen myself up!
Anyway, H and I drove up to Lochnagar in the van on Friday evening, arriving in time to pop up a tent for H as I've been plagued by insomnia of late and would probably end up kicking and shoving her out of the cramped van bed.  We had a blether for a while, a cuppy, sorted the gear and then crashed pretty early for a 6am alarm.
It was blowin' a hoolie all night long and was blowin' a hoolie in the morning but it didn't take long to warm up on the walk in and strip off some layers and I was thankful that most of the ice on the path could be avoided, lest it make me grumpy!  We arrived at the Col in around 2hrs where we stopped to don crampons whilst being nearly blown over several times, then dropped down into the Corrie.  I was really surprised by how much snow was left.  The tops of the routes looked really snowy and the rocks were looking pretty wintery too!  We weren't getting the shelter I had hoped we would in the Corrie though and after much discussion we decided to do one of the shorter routes in the Southern sector and check out conditions on the route.  If they were really good then we would do a longer route, or Raeburn's Gully the next day.
As it was, as we got higher towards the Southern sector, the more we got out of the wind and it was amazingly calm at the bottom of the routes!  We would have been fine going for something longer, but we were there now.  I was peering over towards Central Buttress as it's always taken my fancy but I'm not entirely sure where the route is supposed to start.
We decided on a ** grade II called The Gift and I asked H if she wanted to lead the first pitch seen as she didn't get to lead much when she was out with me before.  She cruised it fine and placed the first bit of gear about 20m up after I reminded her she had a warthog she could place in turf.  I hadn't bothered with the ice screws and I'm not sure the ice on the first pitch was thick enough anyway, but my new stubby might have gone in.  H was laughing at me, saying I had all this nice new gear, my boots particularly and I wasn't using it.  I joked that maybe I never would as it would be a shame to get my new expensive boots dirty!  H's boots are a nice brown colour now, rather than the bright yellow they used to be.

As per usual, H and I had a rope faffing moment!  I'd decided after our previous escapades to bring 2 ropes, but unfortunately one rope is only 40-45m and the other is 60.  So of course, H had nearly run out all of the shorter rope before she found a suitable belay.  I untied from the shorter rope and left her on the longer one as I could see she had the longer rope clipped into gear, although her top 2 bits of gear were on the shorter!  In the end it was fine, as me untying allowed her to climb another wee bit and spot a good belay, and I think there was around 10cm of shorter rope left in the belay device!  That got pulled through as she set up the belay and when she was safe and I was good to go, I just climbed up a couple of moves and tied back into the rope.
The ice on the first pitch was good in places and cruddy in others but the turf was stonking!  It felt pretty steep going for grade II and was really nice where the groove narrowed.  I was always making sure that my heels were down, I was keeping my legs relaxed and trying to climb in an 'A' shape.  The 'A' shape thing I liked but still my calfs were hurting and it was always good to get to a bit of softer snow or a more ledgy bit to stand more side on with feet.
I thought H had the meat of the route and there just seemed to be a wee snow slope to the top, so I just said I'd grab the nuts and be off, grabbing a couple of quickdraws as an afterthough, thinking there's no way I'd place even 2 bits of gear.  That was wrong!  Carrying up the slope, I saw that the top was further than it looked and there was an overhanging cornice, eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!
'Holy sh*t!'  I deliberated, 'hmmmmmm.........'
I decided to climb up onto the tower of rock to the left instead, up a wee, steep groove and onto a snowy ledge.  Well the snowy ledge was a bank of snow that dropped into air below, but I decided not to look down again and just get a move on, albeit carefully!  I turned a slight corner, aiming for the top rocks, but first I had to get up onto another snowy mound to the right.  Once up there, I managed to bung a big cam in a crack, phew!  Then I decided that the rock there was too steep with not much for feet.  The rock to the left looked even steeper with a big granite bulge but underneath that there was a ledge for my feet burried in the snow.  I worked my axes up the big bank of soft snow above, careful not to weight them too much, working my feet up throught the soft now at the same time, a wee traverse back to the left, prayed my axes wouldn't rip through the soft snow, swing leg up onto the foot hold that I'd previously cleared of snow.  Worked up axes again, got my weight right over that good foot and felt safe, phew again!  Axes over the top and onto some bomber turf and there was a huge block waiting for me to belay H from.
It was far, far too windy to communicate so after pulling in the rope and giving 3 mighty tugs on the ropes, I felt that H was on the move.  'Oh my!' she said when she topped out, 'that top bit was scary!'
'Aye, tell me about it!'

We bunged things in the sack quickly to get out of the wind, took crampons off as it was so wind scoured on top, but then decided to put them on again going down the 'ladder' path as it was so icy.  I kept them on until nearing the point where you start uphill again onto the main path and was glad I didn't have my new, sharp crampons on as there were rocky bits to cross too, but I managed to stick to mostly snow and ice.  We were back at the van in good time, for a cuppie and Jaffa Cakes.

We set the alarm for 5.30am the next morning, thinking that if the wind had died down we would do a longer route.  I was still hesitant about Raeburns, scared of the guide description of having to avoid a massive cornice!  And I became confused about the start of Central Buttress.  The guide says it starts up Shallow Gully but the topo diagram has it starting on the opposite side of the buttress!  So we decided to give it a miss until I could ask Andy about where the route started.  We thought we'd just go and do one of the shorter routes again and H was keen to have a look at a starred III called Gael Force Groove.

I was tired the next morning, but it dawned dry and there didn't seem to be any wind, so off we went.  The path was far more icy than it had been the previous morning and I wasn't sure if that was just because it was earlier or whether it was because it had been colder through the night, but I think it had been colder as it had seemed freezing sleeping in the van until I hunkered under 2 down quilts and my base layer and fleece jammies and down jacket and down booties (thank you Andy, I love those booties!)

I was finding the walk tough though.  My legs were hurting from the day before and the wind was hurting my face and making me feel dizzy and I had a slight headache from not drinking enough the day before, I'll never learn!  The wind was blowing fiercer, the higher we got and I realised not long after that the reason we hadn't noticed it below and the reason it seemed fiercer higher was because it had changed from a SW to a NW.  Big puffy clouds were puffing up over the Cairngorms and I thought it looked like it might even snow at some point.  My heart sank a little.  If the day hadn't been windy then I'd have kept going, but I just couldn't be bothered having to fight against the wind in the Corrie and being all cold and blustered on the route as it wouldn't have been as sheltered on a NW'erly.  We decided to head back down.  H was totally cool about it as she had plenty of work to get on with at home and knew we'd be heading out next week to do something good.

I've been kicking myself all day though!  The wind wasn't that bad at all really, I was just being really lazy and I felt worse when we passed 2 teams going up as we were coming down!  Not to worry though, I did one nice route, even if it was too short!  And I'm hoping to head NW next week, forecast willing.

Lomond and Lui - 18th and 19th Dec

Well, that's me finished Uni for the xmas hols and it's exams after xmas so the next few weeks will be spent studying my backside off as I want A's for everything, swot that I am!  But this weekend was reserved for getting a final hit of some winter climbing before getting down to hard work.

Andy and I were keeping a keen eye on the forecasts and the snow radar as a fair dump of snow was forecast for the North and the East on Thurs eve/Fri and into Sat and Sunday in the east.  Looking at the forecasts and radars, it looked like the SW hadn't really had much snow to speak of so we decided that we'd head back to Ben Lomond for the weekend.  The main worry was that there actually wouldn't be enough snow!  But I didn't think it would need that much.  The turf would still be frozen and as long as there was a dusting then that was enough for me as Lomond is predominantaly a steep and turfy venue.

We'd considered driving over on Saturday morning and then camping out and climbing Sunday too, but my period announced its arrival on Friday so there was no way I was wanting to camp with bad Menorrhagia, climbing with it is bad enough!  So we decided to see if a local hotel had a room for the night, dependant on where we wanted to go on the Sunday.

Andy arrived at mine on Friday evening and we were up at 4.30am for the long drive across to Rowardennan carpark for Ben Lomond.  Think we were off around 8ish or just a bit later than that.  The walk up to Lomond is a long one and the path through the forest at the start was treachorously icy!  Great!  We stuck to the grassy bits at the side of the path pretty much the whole way up, putting on crampons for the last steeper leg.  The tops were free of cloud when we set off and I commented that this would be the first time at Lomond that we'd had cloud free climbing.  Well, I must have jinxed the day because not long after, a front came in from the east, the wind picked up and it started snowing.  Not just a wee flurry as forecast but that was it pretty much snowing all day long.  I was concerned about getting back home, but Andy was concerned about not getting a route in!

It was absolutely baltic up there!  We had to find a relatively sheltered spot to put more layers on and it's the first time ever in my years of winter climbing that its ever been so cold where I've had to wak in with my Montane Extreme on!  But on it went, along with balaclava, hat and buff, I felt I was going out exploring the Arctic!  We finally arrived up at the top of the descent gully which only had patchy snow at the top.  There was more lower down though, some of the crust was breaking and sliding away in slabs of snow which was a bit disconcerting, but it wasn't deep enough to be of much worry.

We'd decided to try a line a few routes to the left of Lomond Corner.  The snowy groove looked steepish but when you were on it, it was actually not that steep at all.  Andy led the first pitch seen as he had all the gear and when I reached him, we were only about 15m from the top of the actual cliff!  Oh!  Disappointing!  I led off up the final wee bit and belayed Andy up off a fence post which was fun.  We decided that seen as that route had been so short, we would go down and do another on the cliff we'd done our routes on last year.  The first year we'd gone to Lomond the turf wasn't frozen enough to attempt any of the routes on this cliff as it's damn steep and totally turf dependant.  The first pitch went without much difficulty and the 2nd pitch was an utter joy to climb!  I was so nervous though belaying Andy.  He'd spent ages at the crux and I was starting to gibber inside thinking it must be desperate to stop Andy in his tracks.  I was thinking about peg and warthog belays and would they be good enough to hold me if I fell.  I looked down to the bottom of the first pitch, wondering if I could survive a fall down there.  Get a grip!

As it turns out, the crux was tricky (IV 5) but not desperate and Andy had taken so long as he wanted some good gear as the only gear in was the belay about 20m below.  It was actually superb climbing!  Really steep and technical but on absolutely amazingly big flakes and lumps of turf.  I've never climbed something that was overhanging like that but on brilliant enough holds to make it easy enough to be tech 5.  Andy called the route Flake Dance (as opposed to Break Dance) and it's very appropriate!  I was absolutely gushing and buzzing when we topped out it was such nice climbing!

Alas, it was time for the long slog out however and the going was rough.  There was a lot more snow than there had been in the morning and it was covering over all the ice on the path.  I kept my crampons on and was constantly going over my ankle or stubbing my toe and cursing.  Took crampons off to stick to the grass but didn't really find that any fast going so stopped and put crampons on again and just put up with the misery.  Torches came out on the way down and we were back at the car around 6ish. 

We stayed in a cheap hotel in Tyndrum for the night with the intention of going to have a look at the cliffs on Stob Garbh of Ben Lui.  Someone had climbed a gradeII gully there years back and it looked like there might be a route beside the gully.  It was a bit of a gamble as it was hard to tell whether it would by worthwhile or not and upon approaching the cliff it all looked a bit scrappy.  Turned out to be much better than it looked though!  I was so slow going today though.  My period had started in earnest the night before and I had awful stomach cramps and back ache and was feeling all tired and grumpy.  My legs were aching after the day before too which didn't help.

We took the best and steepest looking line to the right of the gully which followed a groove up to a really steep wall.  Andy led the 1st pitch which was much steeper than it looked and on ice.  Well, my calf protested very badly to front pointing when I had too by going into a full cramp!  It was utter agony!  I managed to release the total tetanus of the muscle but it remained tight through out the whole of the icy section.  I'm really frustrated with my legs at the moment.  My calf muscle seems to cramp up at the slightest stretch or tightening and it's related to all the nerve issues in my neck it would seem.  Anyway, that ice section is a blurr of pain.  I was a mess, back aching, neck and arms aching and calf cramping up, wasn't very nice at all!  I could see this little turfy ledge above the ice and I concentrated all my focus on reaching that ledge so I could rest my calf, cursing all the while!

Andy asked if I wanted to rest my leg and he'd lead on and it was very tempting, but I decided to lead through and ended up having to do an 80m pitch as there was only one bit of gear at around 40m then everytime I found something that might suffice for a belay, I didn't have the right gear.  Andy had to dismantle his belay and climb up to my one runner and belay me from there until I found another belay.  I finally managed to bash in a peg and that had to do.  The next 60m pitch took us to a steep band in the rock and I handed the lead back to Andy as it looked hard to me.  Andy ended up traversing leftwards around the left edge of the steep band and taking it direct from there.  Time for me to get nervous again!  I was thinking, 'eeeek, steep and scary, gearless traverse!'

It was pretty dubious and sketchy looking but was easier than it looked.  There was a good flake to hook your axe over and bomber turf so although it was very exposed it was in balance and just a small awkward move at the end.  The next move however I found pretty desperate.  It was totally overhanging!  A really off balance move, which then put you into a bulging position where I managed to scrabble about for something with my axe, get my foot up onto an overhanging detached flake and then, 'aaaarrrgggg!' My axe pinged off and I was left dangling with one foot and one axe, big vertical drop down to the gully below!  My heart leaped up into my mouth, I gave a squeal, scrabbled about some more, wacked my axe back in frantically and was up and over!  Phew!  Took me a moment to compose myself! 

By this point it had started to snow quite heavily and the cloud was down.  I wanted to lead the next pitch which looked steep and interesting but Andy thought it would be harder than it looked and said he should lead it for quickness sake.  I was pretty miffed because I was getting all the boring pitches and he was getting all the good climbing!  But he did have a point about time as it was getting on and we still had a good way to go, the route was really long!  In the end I was quite happy as it was pretty steep and there was no gear whatsoever.  The climbing was good though, steep but bridging up a corner and totally in balance.  I led the next pitch which apart from a tiny scrambly section was pretty much just walking.  There seemed to be another steep wall above, but it was really just the top summit of Stob Garbh and a short walk took us onto the summit ridge.  We just packed up our gear and dropped down the other side of the ridge into Coire Gaothach and down to the Ben Lui path. 

Again the path was an icy nightmare and I kept my crampons on, going over my ankle a few times.  It seemed to take forever to reach the river and the good track where I could take my crampons off but I finally got there and it was a relief to get them off.  Andy seemed to think that it was only a 5k hour back to the car but I was sure it was much longer than that and I was right.  Remembering what a slog it was after I was there the last time!  It took an hour and 40mins to get back to the car and was 4.5 miles back, not 3miles.  I was slow going too as my ankle was seizing up and really hurting.  I resorted to counting the minutes go by in my head I was so tired, I would count to 60 again and again, letting 10minutes or so go past.  Too tired for conversation, think Andy tried a few times, but I just grunted in response.  The walk out was hellish.  I'm so unfit just now, that was my first time this winter of 2hill days in a row, 9-10 hrs for the 1st day and 11 hrs for the second day.  Think it's the most tired and sore I've ever been after a day out climbing.  And today I hurt and ache all over, so tired and dehydrated.  And I've got a session indoors at the wall this evening!  I can see an evening of toproping 4's and 5's ahead!

Ben Chonzie - Sunday 12th

D and I went munro bagging on Sunday up to Ben Chonzie.  Just the one hill today as RB was doing kayaking skills and we had to pick her up early so didn't have time for a jaunt further afield.  But as D reminded me, I still had to do Chonzie at some point so it may as well be this weekend and it might be nicer under snow.

Hmmm, sure it is nicer under snow, however it was horrible verglass and ice all the way up to around 500m and if there's anything I hate as much as boulder fields then it's icy paths!  It's nice when you're hillwalking to be able to just switch off and enjoy the walk and surroundings, but when it's so icy underfoot then concentration is required and it just makes me grumpy if I slide around too much and can't switch off.  Thankfully, once we were higher and there was deeper snow, the going was better and crossing round to the SE spur was nice with firm snow. 

There wasn't really any snow to speak of on the top and it's amazing to think how burried the country was just a week before.  It was a stunning day out though, not a breath of wind, clear, crisp and icy blue sky all around with a distant mist and haze obscuring the peaks to the far North.  It was freezing on top though and I was getting cold, must have sweated too much in my Merino top as I was still cold after putting on another 3 layers!  We didn't hang around for too long and by the time we were going down, the sun had melted the snow and ice somewhat and the going down was loads better than going up, with the snow nice and soft and just a little ice nearer the bottom.

That's munro number 127, so nearly half way there now.

Stairway to Heaven - 4th Dec

Yesterday I picked up H at 5.30am for a drive west to Beinn a Dothaidh.  This is a superb venue, with steep, turfy routes, just the sort of stuff I love!  I'd been worried that we might not get anything done at all though.  The east coast has seen a phenomenal amount of snow over the past week and the radar had shown that the west coast was receiving a dump on the Friday evening.  But I was thinking that the Bridge of Orchy area looked like the cut off line for the more heavy snow showers so might be okay.  And I was correct, it was superb!

The roads were okay, but I was slow driving anyway, due to the dark and the chat and after a garage stop, it was around 8ish I think when we arrived.  Got our stuff together and started the slog in.  Jeeze, I'm so unfit just now, it's unbelievable!  I really need to get back out running and biking again and get out on the hill more, just walking and try to get some fitness back.  Even though there was a trail all the way, I was still slow and puffing and panting.

We got there eventually though and our chosen route, Stairway to Heaven was free of other climbers.  I'd chosen this route as it looked nice on the topo and had no technical grade and seemed straight forward enough.  Well, it should have been straight forward!  We had a bit of a rope issue though!  I'd deliberated over taking 1 rope or 2 ropes but in the end just went for one rope, as my 2nd half rope is only 45m and I couldn't be bothered with short pitches.  Bad mistake!

The first pitch started at the foot of a triangular shaped buttress and there was a steep start to begin with.  I'd shoved in a hex for the belay, then some gear at the steep step, then more gear above the steep step which was off to the left.  Already I was feeling a bit of drag in the rope.  Moved up again for a while then got in some more gear way out to the left before moving up and right.  The drag was getting worse!  Ended up at another steep section which felt overhanging, it was bulging out so much!  There was an excellent block out to the right that I was able to hook my axe around but I just couldn't reach the good turf over the top of the bulge.  I kept popping up for it, but the bulge would just through me down again, it was getting annoying!

2 guys had shown up at the bottom of the route and I shouted down that they shouldn't wait as I'd be there for some time.  I decided to try and turn the bulgy bit on the right, which involved a sketchy traverse, then a section where I crawled along a ledge and dropped down a step, then moved up and over the steep bit.  That was funky!  Unfortunately, I'd placed a sling around that original block and then the rope seemed to snag on blobs of turf and no matter how I tried I just couldn't free it!  I was in a pickle now!  I couldn't budge an inch and couldn't seem to free the rope, and there was no way I was downclimbing what I'd just done!

It was a nightmare!  I was thankfully in a good position and was able to heave on the rope with all my might with both hands, so much so that I was almost pulling myself off the route at times!  Slowy, inch by inch I managed to pull up a few metres so I could make some more moves.  Then I had to repeat the process again, then again, then again until I could find a suitable belay.  The gear had been amazing below but was becoming sparser!  I had around 5m of rope left before I got a suitable belay.  I wanted a stonking one as I thought H might find the pitch difficult.  The belay wasn't perfect, but was adequate.  H had to climb the start of the pitch with some slack in the rope until the rope had freed some and I could pull it in.  She managed the pitch really well, finding it easy which was great and I was really impressed!  Thus ended the faff of the 1st pitch.

2nd pitch faff.  H reckoned she could lead the 2nd pitch which looked a lot easier than the 1st, up another short step, then what looked like a snowy ramp above to antother steepening.  Off she went, until I could see her going up a snowy steepening over to all the steep rocks on the left hand side of the buttress.  'Um, H,' I shouted, 'I think you need to be more right, away from all the steep bits.  But she had thought she could go right up to the steep bits and then traverse rightwards at the top.  It didn't look probable to me, but I should have trusted her more, after all she was the one up there and was able to see things more than I could down at the belay!  I shouted up that she really had to go rightwards lower down, but she didn't like the look of that, so came back down and said I should try it.

After sorting the rope and gear, I set off over the wee step and onto a flat snowy section.  It looked like you go up the snowy bit, then cut round to right.  I could see why H had thought it looked scary as there was a big drop below and no gear.  But the snow was soft enough to kick into and firm enough that it wasn't all falling away which made the traverse across nice and easy.  Then it was just a case of heading up a snowy ramp to a belay.  Again the belay wasn't the best, but adequate and I brought H up.  We had another rope moment, with the rope getting snagged somewhere.  H couldn't free it, even when she went back.  I think it had dropped down a gully as she'd come up the flat bit and snagged down there.  Anyway, to solve the problem, H clipped herself into some gear I'd place en route, untied, pulled the rope through, then tied back in.  Of course, communication was hard as she was too far away and I was clueless as to what was going on, wondering why she was taking so long on what was really easy ground.  I think both of us were getting fed up of shouting, so I just waited to see what was going on.  Eventually the rope ran fast again and she was across, explaining what had happened.

We decided that I should lead the last pitch as the guide had said there was a crux on the second steepening.  But it was a doddle!  I think the first pitch was harder than that!  There was one steep section, where you had to make another traverse again and that was it.  But I think I'd just gotten used to all the traversing about by now and the little steepenings that it seemed really easy.  And H found it easy too, surprised that it hadn't been harder as she could have led it fine.  Time was getting on though and the light was fading, due to all the rope snagging faff.  After bringing H up the last bit, there was just an easy scramble to the top, so we just packed away the rope and soloed up the 20m or so.  The fog was thick and H thought there was a big cornice at the top.  I explained how the mist and fading light was making it look deceptive and there wasn't really a cornice there at all, remembering the time Andy and I took RB up Central Gully in Sneachda only to be faced with a humungous cornice in the mist, wind and spindrift which turned out to be not so big and you could go around it!

We shoved stuff in our bag, deliberated whether we should descend West gully, decided against it as it was getting dark and set off for the path down.  The mist had cleared and it seemed to get loads lighter which made things easier and we found the path no problem, not needing the map.  From previous visits I remembered a steeping at the top of the descent then straight forward after that.  By the time we'd gotten about half way down the the ridgey bit you descend down, the dark had well and trully set it.  Looking up to the cliffs, we could see some headtorches still on the West Buttress.  A couple of guys had passed us as we stopped on the approach up to the cliffs, to have something to eat.  One guy said hello and the other guy blanked us completely.  Who knows whether he was nervous of the day ahead, and keeping himself to himself, or just plain ignorant!  Anyway, we reckoned it was them up there and there was slow movement and I think they were on one of the V's, so we assumed they knew what they were doing and carried on down.

It had gotten misty again and we got to a section where there seemed to be a bit of a drop and we were hesitant to fumble on in the dark and mist again.  Out came the map and H had her GPS to confirm where we were.  It seemed we could go due West to avoid the steepening, but then we'd have to traverse right round again.  The couple of bloked who'd been waiting for us on the route, and had then decided to go do Taxus instead, over took us on the descent, hesitated at the steep bit but then carried on down.  I admit to being a bit sheepish here and following them.  But we could see there headtorches down there and it seemed that the ground wasn't as steep as it looked, just the dark and mist making it deceptive again.

The going was quite slippery though, soft, fluffy powdery snow over frozen rock and I'm not sure which of all of us fell onto our backsides more!  At one point when I slipped, my foot got snagged on something and my whole body fell downwards, but my leg stayed behind.  Aaaarg!  &*^%%^&  that was sore!  I'd pulled a muscle at the top of my leg, lay on the ground groaning for a moment, then picked myself up.  It twinged and ached for quite a while, but I could walk on it just fine and by the time we'd gotten back down to the car it had loosened off again.  Then began the drive home.

Ace day though and at least we managed to finish our route this time, in spite of all the rope snagging/drag problems.

Awesome Walls Open Youth Comp - 27th Nov

On Friday afternoon I drove RB down to Liverpool for another competition.  It took us around 5hours to drive to our hotel from Dundee, dump out stuff and straight to the hotel restaurant for tea (which was dire by the way, I'll never stay in Premier Inn again!)  The room was cold but we blasted the heater up and then went for an early night, to get up at 6.30am.  I had to bring our own breakfast as the hotel didn't serve breakfast before 8am!

It took us a while to find Awesome Walls, getting a bit lost (rubbish directions on the wall website) but we were really impressed with the wall once we got there.  It's an ace looking wall with a good bouldering area, steep leading walls and a featured tower, slabs, top roping walls.

RB's age group started off on a crimpy and technical route (not sure of the route) and RB did amazingly well on this one, slapping the top hold.  2 GB team members topped out and another team member and RB came joint 3rd.  The second route went up the back overhanging wall which starts off slightly overhanging, becomes really overhanging and convex, then eases back to less overhanging.  A few girls managed to top out on this route, both RB and the girl she was neck to neck with fell off 5 holds from the top.  It meant that RB was knocked down to 5th position, but was still into the final.

The kids went into isolation for some time, but luckily RB's group was out first to check out their final route.  I wasn't able to speak to RB so was praying that she was noticing where all the holds were and that she'd do good.  Because 2 girls were drawing for 1st place, and RB was drawing with someone else for 5th place, it meant that 10 girls went through to the final and RB was up 5th to climb.

I was gutted for RB, she didn't manage to climb as well as she normally does.  I don't know what happened to her, but she seemed to get a touch of 'tunnel vision' and couldn't see a foot hold out on the left wall (it was a corner route)  I was silently willing her to see the hold and work her feet up the wall, but she just didn't seem to spot the hold at all.  The next handhold up was too much of a reach without that foothold and RB fell off.  She was really upset, as she knew that the girls she'd beaten previously had gotten to a higher point and we were both confident that she can normally do better than she had done. I tried to console her, sometimes it just happens, you miss a hold, you have an off day, your foot slips, happens to the best of them.

Anyway, that was RB knocked down into 7th place but she put on a brave face and soon cheered up.  I could see she was hiding her disappointment, but she coped well and went off to have some post comp fun with some of the other competitors, which I believe involved locking someone up in one of the lockers!

I went out for a short walk to stretch my back, but the biting cold soon forced me back and the fact that there wasn't much to see!  We didn't stay until the end as I was eager to get off early, get some tea, an early night and be home early to try and miss the bad weather forecast.

Hah!  That wasn't to be!  What an epic getting home!  Signs up the M6 were saying that the A9 was shut at Dunblane, but a phone call to D suggested that the road was clear now.  We hit the first of the snow at the Lakes, but the roads were still fine, hitting snow on the roads once we were near Glasgow.  Once passed Glasgow, the going was really slow and at one point folk were driving through a gap in traffic cones to get into a faster mover lane so I decided to join them.  There was a huge dip in the gap and I was glad of my winter tyres!   More signs that the A9 was shut at Dunblane and D checking Traffic Scotland website who were still saying it was open.  We stopped at services in Stirling for lunch and a hot drink then went on our way, only to find that surprise, surprise, the A9 was shut at Dunblane!  Rats!

Drove into Dunblane and tried to get back onto the A9 at the other side.  Other folk were having the same idea and there was a massive queue of traffic through the town.  A couple of pedestrians were walking up the snowy road at the side of the cars so I asked them how long the queue went on for, only to be told that it went right to the roundabout at the end of the road but folk seemed to be turning back round again.  Sod waiting for that!  I did a U-turn on the snowy road (thank god for the tyres again!) and headed back to the roundabout where the A9 was closed, preparing myself for a long wait.  I got RB to text D and my Dad to see if the road between Stirling and Edinburgh was open, looks good.  Shot off down past Stirling and onto the M90, road was good.  Before the Forth Road Bridge we heard on the radio that the M90 was shut before Perth due to an accident, aarrrgggggh!  Decided to risk the A92 through Fife and was amazed at how black this road was in comparison to the major roads.

Hit Dundee, then stopped by my folks for something to eat and another hot drink then went on our way.  Traffic Scotland said the A90 North of Dundee was shut due to another accident (jeeze, folk don't know how to drive in snow!)  They said there was a local diversion in place so we went anyway.  Um, where's the diversion?  We ended up driving through all these side streets in Fintry, me hopelessly lost!  Eventually found my way back to the dual only to see a car heading up the road past the 'Road Closed' signs.  Followed and found the diversion.  A policeman standing out in the cold wind and snow telling folk where to go.

We had to take the Arbroath road home and again this road was brilliant in comparison to the main roads but once we left Arbroath and onto the Brechin road, it quickly deteriorated (thank god for winter tyres, take 3!)  9 hours later and we were home and cozy.

Ben Lui - Sun 14th Nov

Out of the blue I managed to find a climbing partner for this weekend.  When taking RB to the wall, I had sometimes climbed with a lass from the wall and she just happened to mention a previous trip to the Alps and I asked curiously whether she did any Scottish winter stuff, only to be met with much enthusiasm.  Brilliant!  I wanted to do something easy seen as it was our first time out together and was deliberating between Dothaidh, Glen Coe and Ben Lui.  The day I'd went up Central Gully on Lui, I thought it a bit dull and thought the rib next door looked far nicer, so I decided we could give that a go.
I picked H up at 5.30am and we left the carpark at 8am.  The walk in was fine, really pretty with the mist swirling all around, so pretty that I went to take a photo only to realise that the camera batteries were flat.  Gutted!  So no pics today, and there could have been some corkers too!
The walk up into the gully is a slog, my arthritis is protesting more and more about these steep walks.  Helena offered to take some weight, but I'm far, far too proud and stubborn for that.  When the day comes that I'm unable to carry my own share, is the day that I should give up.  And the sack wasn't too bad as it was a very small rack of just some nuts and slings, and just the one rope.
We got to the bottom of South Rib eventually and I started off up a snowy ramp.  I'd climbed up just over 30m and there was no gear whatsover.  I'd not thought about the rock here being schist at all, so it was very compact, no cracks for nuts and I hadn't brought any pegs, thinking I wouldn't need anything like that with it only being a grade II.  I came to a steep section of turfy ledges up a steep wall.  It was probably only around 10-12m high, but the turf I'd come across so far wasn't frozen at all and the snow completely unconsolidated.  There's no way I wanted to try and go up that steep wall without the turf being frozen enough, as it was just off vertical, and didn't even seem like gradeII territory, and there was no gear to speak of!
So I climbed back down to H, we shortened the rope and moved higher up the left side of the rib to tackle it a little higher up.  That was much more friendly and seemed much more like grade II ground!  And it seemed more frozen too.  The going was still slow though, I was having to sweep away lots of snow for nearly every axe placement and I was constantly on the look out for gear.  A bank of cloud and wind was passing through and I wondered how much rope I had left but I couldn't hear any reply from H when I shouted down.
I came across a ledge that actually had a rocky bit with a crack so decided I'd stop there to belay.  Got in one good nut, and one pretty crappy one, but it was better than nought.  I'd only run out around 40m, which was a bit annoying as time must have been ticking on, having wasted time climbing up and down that first bit earlier.  H didn't want to lead as she wasn't sure where the route went.  I remember feeling the same when I first started leading in winter, that unless I could see ahead of me where the route went, then I didn't feel confident enough to do it.
The next 2 pitches were standard grade II, lots of easy grade I bits with the odd step off steeper II.  The going was getting slow again though, the snow was getting deeper and I think I placed around 3 bits of gear in the whole 120 metres.  All the bits I did find were totally bomber though, so that was reassuring.  Eventually got to a steepening which looked fun and I reckoned the angle would ease after that and it would be another easy ropes length to the summit.  How wrong I was!  Tackled the steepening by going rightwards, then cutting back left and then came to a flat and level section barred by a high overhang.  Hmmmmm.  I was wary of the snow on the flat section, it looked so flat and uniform that it seemed a bit weird and there was a big hole in the middle of it, that I carefully avoided!  I peered over the right edge.  If I could scrabble down a little, then there was a system of vertical ledges round on the right of the overhang.  They were above a massive drop and there was no gear whatsover to protect me.  I toyed with trying it, but I'd run out alot of rope with no gear and was faced with a huge fall into space if I came off.
I decided against that option and went over to the left side of the overhang and peered down.  I could see that if you climbed down a snowy ramp, then you could access another less steep wall to the left of the overhang.  I thought about that for a while then turned back to look at the overhang instead, maybe I was thinking it was harder than it looked.  On the left side was a smooth and blank looking vertical wall.  On the right was a series of overhangs.  There were cracks here and it did look do-able to me by someone that can climb overhanging rock with axes.  Now I've climbed plenty bulges and a couple of roofyesque type moves on grade IV ground, but this looked harder than anything I'd ever done before.  There was no way I could contemplate that, I'd never even seconded anything that looked like that before!
I thought I would bring H up and explain the situation to her.  So I dug around in the snow and managed to unearth a small block to belay from.  As I was working, I was planning a way out of our situation.  I'm not used to being the more experienced one but it felt good and I felt in total control. I was thinking about trying the option of going left, but the light was starting to turn that way when you just know it's going to start getting dark any minute.  I toyed with the idea all the same.  I've been caught out by the dark on several occasions and it doesn't bother me, but I've always been finishing the route at the time and can see the actual top, or it's just been walking off in the dark.  The cloud had parted briefly beforehand and I could see that the summit was still some way away, around 100m.  My main concern was that we were on the wrong route.  I couldn't understand it though!  There was only that one rib that came down into the corrie on the left hand side so it couldn't be wrong, could it?  I was scared of climbing up and being faced with another overhanging section like that, or climbing msyelf into a spot where I couldn't make anymore upward process and where there would be no gear to speak of to make an abseil.  Hmmmmm.  It was decision time!
If we downclimbed the snowy ramp, then a series of ramps would take us leftwards off the cliff and down into South Gully which didn't look too bad.  There had been lots of evidence of the snow sloughing off previously, I'd seen bits and bobs of wind slab around, not much to be too worried about, but the snow was pretty deep and unstable in places.  I took note that there had been lots of graupel around, but wasn't too worried about that as it was only on the top layer of snow and not underneath, but it was handy to note it was in the area for the future snow pack.
Once H was up, I explained the situation to her, was tempted to joke that she could lead the next pitch and point her towards the overhang, but decided against it as time was getting on.  The going looked easy going down the snowy ramps and H is confident on that sort of ground, having done a lot of ski mountaineering in the Alps, so we just headed down ropeless, which was safer anyway as there was no gear!  The light was fading fast and it was getting difficult to judge how steep the ground was below us.  We got to a point where it seemed that the ground seemed to drop away lower down and I was wary about going further. It looked more inviting to head into the gully.  Still, because of the snow, I was a litte wary, but that seemed the best option in the end.
There was a small wall beside the gully which had a perfect crack in it (where were they on the route itself!)
It was hard to see what the gully was going to be like, whether there would be any steps in it at all.  H wanted me to go first so I could find some gear lower down if need be.   I told her she wouldn't be very well protected coming down though, but if that it was hard then I would come back up and protect her from above.  Luckily it was a doddle.  It was barely even grade I and H had been more than happy coming down the steeper ramp above with a rope.  So I told her to just untie and slide the rope down and I'd pack it away.  We went down seperately though, to keep an eye on each other and before long the angle eased again.  We both fell into holes quite a few times and it was so tempting to start bum sliding down the rest of the way.  But it was getting pretty dark by this point and I had bad memories of smashing against a big rock when bum sliding in the dark one winter previously.
Once we were out of harms way, we stopped to sort our sacks and I gave D a phone as I knew he'd be worrying as I hadn't texted him at all and it was around 5ish.  Getting down to the landrover track was a slog.  The path was all verglassed and we had to go on the grassy bits beside the path.  We came across footprints going down and then saw a headtorch in the distance, seems we weren't alone on the hill after all.  The walk back to the car seemed to take forever and a day and my ankle was starting to seize up a little.  I'd always scoffed at people taking bikes into Ben Lui as it never seemed that far to me when I'd been up there before.  But last time I was up, we'd walked over the next 2munros along and came down off the hill that way.  But the slog along the road took ages and the carpark never seemed to be coming!
We got there eventually though, it was 7.40pm, nearly 12hrs out on the hill for an unfinished grade II, brilliant!

Pygmy Ridge - Sun 24th Oct

It's Saturday and I'm debating whether it's a good idea to try and get out winter climbing.  Forecast isn't great, snow showers and winds of 40mph with gusts to 55-60mph.  I'm exhausted, not sleeping enough and have so much Uni work to do and half of me just can't be bothered going out in crappy weather.

Start packing my sack though and the enthusiasm builds until the lack of motivation goes and I'm feeling really excited!  Winter, snow, spindrift, woohoo, yay!
Drove up to Andy's on Saturday night, we reckoned nowhere much would be snowy other than the Cairngorms, but also that Sneachda might be busy with folk after the dry tooling competition at Glenmore Lodge.  Decided on a late start nonetheless and were up at 7.30am which seemed quite blissful after my 6.15am Uni starts at 5.45am starts for a pre Uni run!
Seemed a bit mildish at first but it's cold in the carpark, some snow low down, clag down though so can't see much.  We walk in pretty quickly and easily and at the boulder field, hear a
'Hello!'
It's Mel and Fiona, they were doing the comp yesterday and are quite sore, but keen!  There are some footprints meandering off in the direction of Mess of Pottage area but no sign of anyone else in the corrie that we can make out.  The weather isn't as bad as forecast so all those who wimped out are missing out on cliffs thick with rime and snow, proper winter!
Andy and I are first at Pygmy so we gear up for that and Fiona and Mel gear up for Saturation Point, the harder route to the right.  It looks hard!  Andy is up the first pitch of Pygmy fairly quickly and I can tell he's done it before as he seems to know where all the axe placements are!  I find the first pitch pretty hard.  The chimney has a good flake and chockstone but I can't reach up to either of them!  I have to torque my axe behind a lower flake, edge my feet up and totally wedge myself into the chimney to stop myself falling out and keep in balance while I finally reach up.  Hook that chockstone, then it's thuggy, awkward and strenuous, but just a few moves.  The top bit isn't a push over either!  We had to clear every placement of snow and I was finding things a bit reachy or balancy.
I led the 2nd pitch up a steep chimney/corner.  Better holds in this one but I looked down in dismay to see my sling lift off a flake, followed by a nut which I had been sure was bomber!  Rats!  Hesitate now!  Next move feels even more committing without any gear!  There's a nice ledge to soften my landing if I fall.  Don't think about falling stupid cow!  Get some more gear in!  Scrape about, unburry another flake, a better one, fling another sling round, only one left now!  Try to figure the move.  There is a huge detached flake on the right wall but I can't reach my foot or my knee up to it.  I need a foot in the chimney on a dubious sloping hold to move up.  It goes okay though.  Scrape round for another hold and I'm up onto a terrace.  Mel is there, belaying Fiona, as their route joined ours on the 2nd pitch. 
I'm not sure what to do!  I've already led the meat of my pitch but I wanted to reach the pinnacles and carry on a full ropes length, but feel it would be a bit rude to climb through Mel and Fiona.  Deliberate for a second or two and decide to belay Andy from there and by the time he has come up, Mel has started off, seconding Fiona up the next pitch.  It's blowing a hoolie by this point and the spindrift is blinding!  At one point, a lump of ice flies into my mouth and down my throat and has me chocking!  Above us, Fiona's ropes have blown off route and poor Mel has to climb up an awkward way, but Andy is impatient enough to get out the cold, climb around her and pull the ropes through.  He goes off a different way though, so as not to climb through them and belays me a short way from the top, out of the wind.
I led up a final groove and over some really easy ground, round Mel and Fiona who are packing their sacks away from the plateau and gave Andy a quick body belay up.  We threw everything into our sacks higgeldy piggeldy, then stopped at a sheltered hollow to sort our stuff and take crampons etc off as the snow was still quite soft on top.  Then trudged up to point 1141 and stopped again for food and coffee.  It was fast going down, then with a brief stop at the start of the road to take off some layers, we were soon down.
What an ace day!  Superb getting out and very surprised there wasn't more folk out.  Andy reckons we are in for another good winter and I hope he's right.
For all you snowboarders though ;o)  too many rocks were poking through the snow I'm afraid.
Looks like all the snow will probably melt in this weeks SW's too.

British Lead Climbing Comp - 9th October '10

RB competed in the BLCC's on Saturday.  She was a bit nervous about it as she hadn't been training as much as she should have, mainly due to me starting Uni and being too knackered in the evenings to get out doing extra with her on non climbing days.  But she'd recently redpointed a 7a+ at AVW which is no easy thing seen as the AVW grades are really stiff due to it being a short wall.  So she wasn't going too badly!

We were up at 6am to get ready for the drive through to Edinburgh and arrived there just after 8, a little tired and bleary eyed.  The qualifying routes looked hard!  A yellow route up the old comp wall to start and then a pink route up the steep comp wall.  When the starting list was put up, RB was disappointed to learn she had to go 2nd, somebody has to go first though.  The girl who went 1st fell off and jumped for a hold before falling and then it was RB's go.  RB got to the hold above that 1st girl and then stopped, unable to move rightwards.  She was at that hold for a good minute, swapping her feet around, trying to get her weight over right.  It all ended when she matched her hands on the hold and then tried to move across and fell off.
The next girl up was in the British Team and was amazing to watch, very small, light and so bendy and fluid at climbing, really something!  She managed the move that RB fell off just fine, by holding the hold below the one RB had, walking her feet up right and then rocking over, made it look so simple.  Unfortunately, now that everybody saw how it was done, it was easy for everyone else to do the same.  I knew this didn't bode well for RB.  As it was 6 girls got past that point, with one topping out and 2 other girls got to exactly the same point as RB.  This made RB in joint 7th place so still in with a chance for the finals if she did well in the 2nd route.

Imagine our shock then, when the scores came through and the judge had put RB into 2nd last place.  WHAT???   We were both extremely puzzled!  How the BLEEP can a judge mistake holding onto a hold for as long as a minute, with holding the hold below it.  I was utterly furious!  We spoke to the head judge, who then spoke to the 2 judges who were watching the route.  Both of them insisted that RB fell off before the girl who went before her.  I was stunned!  Were they f-ing blind!  I ranted at the head judge for ages, what the hell is the point in even having a head judge if he won't do anything about judges who must be utterly blind and can't judge properly!  When the judge in question tried to speak to me later, I couldn't even speak to him, I was so angry.  I had to walk away as I didn't want to start shouting at him and losing it.  I was so annoyed!  RB has worked so hard and is so determined to do well that this was extremely unfair on her.  I know the judges all volunteer to do what they do and it's great, but if you're going to judge, then bloomin well do it properly!  So, they refused to look into it, adamant that they were right and I was wrong.  Unfortunately the BMC hadn't been filming the qualifiers as they said they didn't have enough cameras and even if I had filmed her climbing they wouldn't accept that as proof, which is utterly stupid.  I hadn't filmed it anyway, and had stopped taking photos at this point as I was too busy watching RB on that final hold, which is why I know what hold she was on as she held onto it for ages!
So, RB was listed to do the 2nd route 8th which was good.  She was going to have to climb exceedingly well to get into the final and I feared that with the competition being so stiff she just wouldn't be able to make up for the judges error in putting her into 2nd last place. 
As it was, she damn well climbed like the wind!  She cruised that 2nd route, getting to a really high point, just 2 moves away from the top before falling.  This put her into joint 3rd place with one of the Team members and only 1 girl getting ahead of that, and one girl topping out.  Things were getting exciting!  We watched as everyone fell off below that point, meaning that RB just scraped through to the finals and no more.  As it was, even if the judging had been done efficiently and correctly, RB would still have only got 5th place, possibly getting 4th.  I'm unsure as I can't make head nor tail of how they mark these routes.  The final position is supposed to be the ranking score of route 1 x the ranking score of route 2, and then you take the square root of that number.  But I did that on my calculator and the numbers didn't match up.  I know that if there are folk who draw in ranking position then something else happens to the score, but it's not clear at all to me.
In the end though, she got through to the final, so we were both happy again.
They were in isolation for some time, as the final routes were put up.  RB's final route was the same route as one of the qualifiers for the boys, but holds had been added to the top of the route to take it to the very top of the steep comp wall.  The mid section look hard and the top looked desperate!  RB's age group was in the 2nd category to come and do the final route, and RB was on first, seen as she had been put into 6th position and not 5th like she should have been.  It doesn't really matter in the final as you don't get to watch anyone climb the route before you anyway.
I was so nervous!  RB started off really well, had a wee moment a bit higher where she switched feet a bit to get her balance to clip and I thought she might come off.  But she moved upwards up towards the point where some holds on the edge of the overhang were round an arete.  I was hoping she would remember they were there!  She did, and made some really powerful moves to get them!  She then was back onto the face and had to heel hook onto holds round the arete.  She struggled a little here getting her foot into position.  Her 5.10's are slightly baggy at the heel and not the most sensitive for this kind of move but she managed it (really need to get her new shoes pronto as the ones she has are just ever so slightly too big and they have a masive hole so her big toe is pretty much gaping out now!)
Next came a volume and more hooking and then up to the 2nd volume.  RB needed to take a big swing across to reach a hold on the volume, only got the edge of it, then managed to quickly adjust and get a proper hold of it.  She then swung across and tried to clip, but couldn't.  She shifted her weight, tried to clip again, but then her feet cut loose.  She got her feet back on, tried to clip again, feet cut loose again.  That was it for her.  All the cutting loose just tired her arms too much and she was off, taking a wipper into space!
The next girl on came to exactly the same point as RB and fell off but the next girls got the stalactite above and the winner got past the stalactite and nearly topped out, was quite something!
RB was berating herself a little for not being able to clip, but I thought she did amazingly well in her 1st BLCC!  Because RB was marked wrongly for the 1st route though, it did mean she got 6th place overall, whereas she really was 5th.  Well, we both know she was 5th, so she was happy with that.
And know it's time to get some hard training in for the next comp down in Liverpool on the 27th Nov.