The Cairngorms, Skye, The Cullins and West coast sea cliffs

I'm 'between computers at the moment and so haven't been updating this blog. Ive been in a variety of places recently, the heat (and the midge) drove me to the high cairngorms where there are still decent size snow patches in the north facing corries. The biggest is on the west flank of Corrie an Lochain. The picture shows the corries of Brariach.

Other venues that i have been going to have been the sea cliffs of Reiff and Rhue just north of Ullapool. These short sandstone cliffs can provide pretty fierce challenges, quite similar in many ways to gritstone.

I've also been over to Skye where is has been in the high 20's C and climbing in the high corries has been pretty warm. I've been teaching multipitch lead climbing and have also been guiding classic routes on the magnificent 300m high face of Shron na Ciche, including as Arrow Route, Wall works route and the Cioch.

I'm going to be in the Lakes till the 10th July, but will try and post when I'm there if Internet access is available. Whether the weather will hold i can't say, it feels like we will be due a big thunder storm in the Highlands at the moment.

Dodging the raindrops

It has been a mixed week weather wise; sunshine bright enough to hurt your eyes followed by torrential rain in some places. In other places we were chased off the cliffs by the midge!

However, one is generally onto a winner at places like Reiff and the Stone Pig cliffs. These perfect hard sandstone cliffs are 30mins north of Ullapool and have hundreds of fantastic lines from 8 to 40+m.

Pictures show me (yellow helmet) leading up a new route at the Stone Pig cliffs. Man and Buoy, 20m is just left of the E5 Clatterbridge on the concave face that gently overhangs at the top. The route was not climbed on sight unfortunatly as i had to abb down and push off a very large block to make it safe but was done ground up on the lead without any practice.

The other picture shows Martin Hind seconding with a buoy tied to his harness just to demonstrate that he is much stronger than i am!

Training for the Cullin Ridge

Ive been working with James recently preparing him for a forth coming trip to Skye. We focused mainly on good practice in abseiling completing several single abseils then a more complicated 3 pitch abseil descent down the crag. Oh, and we also climbed several routes in the process!

'Summer' Navigation in the Cairngorms

Plans for Summer navigation practice up on the tops were re drafted with the fresh snow we have had in the Cairngorms over the last few days. What a contrast to last week where the temperature has been in the high 20's.
Instead we switched to low and medium level altitudes and suffered hail and rain rather than sleet and snow. Thank heavens for little mercies. I'm teaching rock climbing and absailing and personal rock climbing this week hopefully we may see the sun again this week.

Skye ridge and the Cullin traverse

More perfect weather and sunshine in the Cullins. Ive been doing the sections of ridge on different days rather than the whole thing in a push. This allows for a more relaxed approach and, perhaps more importantly the chance for a hot bath and a couple of pints each evening!

Ive heard a rumor that the weather will break mid week, I'm hoping that it is unfounded as the weather makes the Ridge one of the best places in Europe at the moment.

I'm over there again this week and will try and report back at the week end.

NW Scrambling

The weather has been quite variable this week in the North West. We have had sunshine and snow on the the tops, sometimes within the same hour. There are very very few small snow patches up high now as heavy rain has mostly washed them away.

The forecast looks to improve for the next few days. I'm out again in the NW on Sunday onwards.

Pictures are from scrambling on Slioch, where we took a more interesting way to the top of this munro.

Skye ridge Munros

The weather at the weekend was much better than forecast. It stayed reasonably dry on the whole and the wind, though strong, was not too bad.

We visited many of the Munros and tops on the southern end including the Inaccessible Pinnacle which we had to our selves on Saturday (amazingly!).

I'm out again midweek, i'll report back towards the end of the week hopefully. The forecast could go either way as it is very difficult to say exactly where the low pressure system will track as it moves across.

Cullin Ridge Traverse (Skye)

The weather has been getting better and better since the weekend. I havejust done my second successful traverse of the season and the weather looks like it may hold till the weekend. I'm out again on Skye at the weekend so I'll report back next week.

The air has been incredibly clear giving fantastic views over to the Cairngorms and Ben Nevis (which looks like there might still be some easier winter/alpine style climbing to be had on it as it was a big white blob on the horizon).

Anyhow, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves; who needs the expense of the Alps when you can go to Skye?!

NW and Skye

The picture is looking over to the west from Ben Wyvis (near Dingwall)

This week the weather has been very unsettles. There has been snow in places down to 600m at night but this hasn't lingered there more than a few hours before being chased back up the mountain by the warmth of the day.

There is still snow in the gullies in the Northern Corries, the majority of the Cairngorms snow in on Breriach, rather than on Cairngorm. The fresh snow didn't make it as far as An Teallach which was bare today, but there is still a healthy amount on the high hills south of there. I have been out and about in the NW but am on Skye next week for a ridge traverse course.

I have began 'summerising' the web site and filling in the details of the summer courses and guiding. They are not all there yet, in the mean time give me an email, of leave a message on my phone. The weather is looking very promising for the coming week, it got steadily worse apparently since i left Skye last weekend (i was pleased to find out!).

Skye Munros

Photos are: Looking over to An Stac in corrie Laggan, Near the 'Bad Step' on Am Basteir and Crossing the new bridge near the Sligachan at the North end of the Cullins.

Ive been on Skye again lately, scrambling on various Munros. The long spell of fine dry weather was interrupted last week and the weather was quite wild and wintry. It was quite quiet this bank holiday weekend and the In Pinn has not seen its usual queues of late (it could be something to do with the snow at the weekend!).

However it was typical Skye weather on occasion with snow on the tops, rain and cloud in the corries and sunshine in the valley!

I currently have two free days on Skye this coming Saturday and Sunday if anybody wants to experience some of the best scrambling in the British Isles.

Skye and the Cullin Ridge Traverse

I was on Skye last week and the weather was amazing. I completed my first traverse of this season and enjoyed sunshine, dry rock and a gentle cooling breeze (Kevin, email me for the photo's). The ridge was very quiet and no queues were encountered. The settled weather seems to be continuing till Wednesday where a front will pass over and then, fingers crossed, more good weather behind it.

I'm endeavoring to get the summer courses up this week... in the mean time email me for details.

Scrambling and New Snow

I was scrambling with Andy today on Creag Ghlas in Strathconon. This is a great crag and has fantastic climbing from VS upwards. We weaved around East buttress which can be a grade 2/3 scramble or a VS depending on the line you take. We tagged the summit at 686m and then scrambled down and back up another line before finally heading down. We looked at all aspects of ropework and quick efficient movement adapting our style to suit the terrain.

The weather was mostly dry and the rock started to dry off in the afternoon. Note the rock here is very very slippy in the wet.

We saw evidence of quite localised snow fall on the distant mountains. There was nothing near where we were and nothing to the East of us but over to the SW on Sgurr Fhuar -thuill 1049m and the surrounding areas seemed to have a very healthy covering (see picture). There are some high crags in that vicinity so there may be a short coda on this winters song, but i'm off tomorrow to go and help with the Lambing over the Easter w/e. Hopefully next week will either be full on winter, or lovely dry sunshine for summer climbing!

Escape and Evasion

Today, i amazed myself and managed to stay dry all day and found dry rock. I was at Duntelchaig and was climbing with Andy who was brushing up on rescue and problem solving in a single pitch and multy-pitch setting. We looked at simple problems such as a second can't get a runner out through to rescuing an unconscious climber and taking them down the crag in a multy pitch abseiling scenario.

I hope you will admire the very '80's' camera angle on one of the shots (80's = lots of tilt!)

Spring is released!

Since Tuesday it has been sunglasses and t-shirt weather in the NW. Ive been rock climbing and getting 'a bit of a dab on' hill walking this past week. It's been fun getting to grips with the rock again at the start of the rock season; if only strong legs and the ability to walk with a heavy pack all day could get us up those E grades! Alas, it's time to get strong again.

The snow cover on the NW hills has greatly reduced and in the Cairngorms many of the rivers are very high indeed and the usual crossing places now require care and attention.

There is talk of it getting colder this w/e and perhaps in several days but for my money the Fat Lady has sung in the final act of this years Winter opera.

As a parthian shot here is an image of Iain Small on the Cranium start to the first winter ascent of Metamorphosis. I'm looking forward to next winter already.

Northern Cairngorms conditions

Today we attempted to beat the warm front that was coming on from the West. We got up early and were the first into Sneachda, but we had our sights on the top tier of Carn Etchachan. The snow was starting to go slushy at about 8am and the video taken in Sneachda on the way there and on the way back shows the effect of the hot air on the buttresses. We wandered / rambled (explored? ;p) up down across and up the cliff then decided to finish up the top section of Route Major. The turf was excellent on the the cliff but the ice was falling off and the buttresses became blacker by the hour and were running with water by then end of the day.

On the way out we saw a party on Pygmy Ridge and a couple of steps going up an easy gully but it was a probably quiet in the corries.

There isn't going to be a freeze for several days so i'm going rock climbing and hill walking till it gets colder again.

North West Conditions Update

I was on AnTeallach on Saturday and was pleasantly surprised by the amount of snow (see picture). The main gullies are all complete and the corries and ridges are really snowy. The turf was quite variable but the neve was excellent.

Also on Saturday, a winter ascent was made on Ben Nevis by Iain Small and Gareth Hughes based on the E2 Metamorphosis with the Cranium start. It sounded hard.

Today i was out walking in the local hills, preparing for summer navigation courses that i'll hopefully have on the site at some time in the future...

I'm in the Cairngorms tomorrow and reports from today spoke of heavy rime in Corrie an Lochain, but unfortunately loose blocks on the steep parts of No.3 buttress. It is warming slowly tomorrow but an early start should find good conditions.

Conditions in Cairngorms, West and NW

Ive been roving around this last week. Last night the temperature dropped and the rain that fell at my house near the sea in Conon Bridge fell as snow down to about 600m on The surrounding hills. This snow fall would have been patchy in the NW and some hills will have received more than others. However this is great news as things were getting pretty bare outside the easy grade I gullies in the NW. Now for the next few days mixed buttress climbing is an option, but a careful route choice is needed as the turf isn't frozen in the NW.

Iv'e been doing more micro navigation instruction courses and again was out in the evening in Strathconon doing night nav. It was pretty Spring like and things are starting to grow again at lower levels and the dawn chorus is singing the praises of Spring.

The Cairngorms have also received some much needed snow, the rock has either been bare or dripping recently, but the new snow on the buttresses will bring the hard mixed climbs back in. The turf wasn't frozen in Sneachda a few days ago and the steps in the easy gullies and getting bigger and bigger but some of the bigger patches of turf in Lochain were ok; choose your mixed route carefully and get on one that doesn't have any turf.

I spent Saturday and Sunday guiding steep ice on Ben Nevis (well looking for it anyway). Leaving the car park at 9am on Saturday i think that there were 70+ cars. Not really suprising as Annoch Mor is reported to be fairly poor, with only the deep slots in the shade holding any ice according my freinds who went. They opted for the shadier Annoch beag north Face and found some stepper ice there but nothing to get too excited about. On the way up we met many parties coming down as they failed to find their desired route in the heavy mist. Our 'late' start meant that we missed all the queues and got on Green gully finding good, but wet and chopped up ice. The sky cleared and we lolled about the summit in the sunshine and walked down (see video). My clients both had sunglasses - i didn't and regretted it!

On Sunday we again met many parties heading down as we went up (it was raining heavily and warm to be fair). We never the less continued and went to have a look at Indicator wall. This was streaming with water and what i could see of it in the thick mist looked thin. We instead opted for Good Friday Climb on soggy snow and good ice at the steep bits and scuttled off the summit double quick (it was at least +3 on the summit and raining). A couple of friends of mine opted for Tower Scoop and aside from a party that followed us up Good Friday Climb no one else was climbing in that area (a party backed of Hadrian's Wall Direct).

I'm having a couple of days off and having got the passwords for the website (cheers Geoff!) am going to sort the 'Summer' pages out. However, given my lack of computer skill it could be the Autumn before they are ready!

NW and Cairngorm Conditions update

Ive been out and about in the NW and the Cairngorms these past few days doing a mixture of guiding and teaching navigation. The weather has been warm with the freezing level generally over or just at the summits. We have had rain slowly washing away the snow, but much remains in the usual easy gully lines in the NW and the Gorms.

At the w/e the Norries were very quiet, and on Saturday we found winds gusting 90 and rain as we ascended spiral gully on great ice and snow.

Sunday was a quieter day from a weather point of view and it was slightly colder with the freezing level just about the top. We opted for the higher crag of Lochain and climbed milky way under great ice, snow and amazingly well frozen turf. Another party were on Astroturfer on good snow. Other parties were in the gullies, y gully right hand appeared to have a droopy cornice, take care if the F.L. stays high there.

I'm out and about here and there this week, but it doesn't look like there will be much of a change till the w/e where the long range forecast mentions a lowering of the F.L. , hopefully in time to correspond with some steep ice guiding i'm doing at the w/e. Fingers crossed.

Apologies to the two people that emiled me to ask when i was putting more articles on the main site - i have lost the site password and Geoff if you are reading this can you email it to me please!