Friday, May 14, 2010

Skye, Ben Nevis and Rock climbing






Nearly a month since the last blog. I am a bad man!

Iv'e been over Ben Nevis way, the NW and on Skye these last few weeks, oh and a final tour on the planks in the Cairngorms just so i can be in the May club! Indeed speaking of the May club, Point 5 has recieved at least 2 ascents in May this year, sadly not by me though. The other climbable ice ice route has been Good Friday climb which has seen several more ascents. The grade 1 gullies will still be there for a bit more if you are looking for some alpine lung busting preporation. Speaking of Alpine prep, Tower ridge has been very good lately also with dry rock till the little tower then crampons on for the rest.

However, this past week or so things have changed with precipitation at night falling as snow sometimes down to 300 - 400m and being a good inch or so up top. This has mostly burnt off each day but it has lingered in the shade. The MWIS forcast has showed its limitations in predicting this snow fall and plans for a Skye ridge traverse with two folk were curtailed when we realised that we were looking at pretty good winter conditions! We did in the end lighten the sacks and opt for a quasi winter ascent of the In Pinn.

Cragging at various NW locations has been a better option and venues such as Diabaig, Seana Mheallan, Ardheslaig etc have been good options if at times cold when the sun hasn't been on them.

The weather should improve next week and i'll blog again soon (ish)

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