Go Skiing...

After a week of summer temperatures and rock climbing in t-shirts at 3000m...

Voie Contimine on Pointe Lachenal - 6b 250m 

...winter conditions returned to Chamonix with a 30-40cm dump of snow down to ~1500m. Andy had been down visiting Dave and Lara down in Gap but was due to return on Monday morning with an eye for skiing some of Chamonix's well known steeps. After a 05:30 start to drop Monica off at the airport and a nice drive through the sunny Aosta valley, he arrived in a decidedly damp and dank Chamonix. All skiing plans for the day were ditched in favour of bolt clipping in Aosta...so back through the Tunnel du Mont Blanc again!

I was working at 03:45 the next day, so Andy went up to ski the Col du Cristeux with Sandy Simpson, Ross and Michele. Ross's details from the day: http://rosshewittblog.wordpress.com/2013/04/23/col-de-cristaux/

Despite having 900m of ascent and 500m of 45°+ descent in his legs, Andy was up for more!  With word of good conditions on the North East Face of Les Courtes, the plan was set. Alarms set, dinner eaten, bags packed and off to bed. 

Braaaap...brraaaap... text arrives from Andy at 07:57  "on your way........?" 

Huh?

Oh shit, I've set the alarm for 07:45 instead of 06:45. Hmmm....woops!

Finally got to the queue for Grands Montets around 08:30, not quite awake but fed and caffeinated. Up, across, up some more and we're at the start of the skin track leading its way up to the bergschrund and the start of the bootpack. 10 people in front of us, damn. Me to Andy - " apologies for the inevitable sluffing from the people ahead". Doing my best to make up for the late start we catch half of the people ahead on the bootpack and the rest are only just ahead when we make it to the col at around 12:15.

A short wait for the first few people to make their way tentatively down the top 50m of 50° bumpy, crusty snow and we get our chance to ski this intimidating face. I go first and just side slip and step down through the narrows until the face widens and snow improves, Andy comes behind daring to make a couple of jump turns. At this point the 5 or so people just ahead seem to be in no rush so we just continue past them before cutting left on the the more east facing side of the wide couloir, hoping for less tracks and maybe some sun softened snow?

Our luck is in and we get 600m of perfect spring snow, allowing us to let off the brakes and get some wider, more flowing turns in. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking:

Andy on the Bootpack with the Argentiére Basin in the background.

The final few hundred metres of bootpacking in the midday heat.

Andy getting in the groove on the spring snow.

Soloing on the Ben

Anyone who climbs with me regularly will know that (a) I'm a bit of a coward, and (b) I'm crap on ice. It will probably come as a surprise to hear that I went for a bit of an ice soloing trip at the weekend.

I've had the idea of soloing Zero Gully at the back of my mind for a couple of years. It famously has little gear and poor belays, so soloing it is almost safer than climbing it on a rope. Since none of my regular partners were around at the weekend, and this was probably my last chance to get out this winter, I decided now was the time to give it a try.

Despite a fairly early start from Glasgow and a quick march to the crag (the benefits of a light pack), I arrived at the base of Zero to find two teams ahead of me. I really didn't want to be following people up the route, pushing past people or waiting around, so a plan B was required. Soloing grade V is a scary enough prospect for me, so I'm not quite sure what inspired me to look up at Slav Route. But as I did, friends' stories of climbing it came back to me - "pretty straight-forward..." "it felt about grade IV..." "we just moved together most of the way...". I could also see that the crux was in good, fat condition and that it was low enough to effect a retreat with the minimal gear I'd brought (30m of rope, 2 screws, some tat and a threader). I half-joked to the party at the back of the Zero queue that I'd probably be down-climbing again in a minute, and set off up the route.

The first section up icy slabs was quite straight-forward, and I could feel my confidence building. My the time I reached the icicle, I was feeling good. I considered getting the rope out and rigging a back-rope to the in-situ pegs, but decided that I was better staying 100% focused on the climbing. I spent a minute or two psyching myself up, then started upwards. The route had seen some traffic so the steepest section had a few convenient hooks, and before I knew it, I was established on the slabs above. This was both a relief and a worry, as retreat from here would be interesting to say the least!

More easy ground followed above, and I made fairly rapid progress up the face. My regular partners will confirm that speed is not my forte, but soloing allows for much more constant and flowing movement. Clouds came and went, and in the clearer spells, I judged my progress by picking out the familiar features of Tower Ridge to my right. Reaching a point level with the Great Tower, I knew that the vast majority of the height gain was done, but was still nervous about the tricky-sounding exit pitch. When that section finally came into view, I knew I had been right to be nervous! 3 options presented themselves: a steep, snow-encrusted rib, an awkward-looking icy chimney and a similarly awkward-looking corner. None looked particularly appealing, but I was well and truly committed now so had a look at the least bad option, the left-hand corner. This had some good torques in rock to counteract the cruddier sections of ice, and after a bit of a gibber, I pulled over the top onto the crest of North-East Buttress, relieved and delighted.

After a celebratory bagel at the summit shelter, I looked at my watch. 11am - probably too early to just drive home again! But those two teams on Zero should be well up the route by now - maybe I could go and do Plan A as well? I set off down the Carn Mor Dearg arête in minimal visibility, dropped into the coire and traversed across towards the base of NE Buttress. Of course, in the poor visibility, I made the classic mistake of traversing too high and ending up above the highest rock band at the base of the buttress. However, I soon realised where I was, downclimbed, and coaxed reluctant legs to break trail back up towards Zero again.

The weather cleared a little at this point, and I could see a team seemingly in the distance near the top of the route. I stopped for another bite to eat whilst watching to check there wasn't a torrent of debris coming down the steeper section. Suitably refuelled, I set off. The route was so hooked out, I barely had to swing a tool! I've never seen ice like it in Scotland. However, this meant that again, I was moving quite quickly and, to my surprise, I was barely 150m up the route when I spotted another team not far in front. This was the same team of 3 that had been gearing up at the base of Zero when  I'd arrived three hours earlier. They'd been held up waiting for the team in front to get up the first couple of pitches, then going through the inevitable faff of climbing as a 3, but I still felt a little sheepish as I passed them. Even more surprisingly, I then passed the pair in front about 100m short of the top.

I topped out around 1:30 into another pea-souper on the plateau and wandered back over towards the shelter, where I met a group of boys who'd just arrived on the summit. They asked me to take their photo, which I was happy to do, although I didn't realise at first that they were planning to strip to their boxers for the shoot! Fortunately, clothes were put back on before any serious frostbite could take hold...

I was pretty tired by this point, but thought I could probably manage one more route as long as it was shorter & easier than what had gone before. Green Gully seemed like a good option, so I descended No 4 and traversed across to the base. I couldn't see anyone above, but this turned out to be mainly due to the continuing clag, and I passed another team about 100m up it. Again, the crux was very hooked out, making for reassuringly secure climbing, and before long, I was on the plateau for a third time. By this time, I was out of food and water, and feeling mentally and physically pretty drained, so descended No 4 and walked out.

The feeling of confidence and comfort on ice is one I thought I'd never experience. Because of the clag, the camera didn't come out of my bag all day. But soloing 1000m of classic Scottish ice in a day will live long in my memory.

Easter Sun in the NW

My wife Elizabeth and I had a great Easter weekend in the NW, the highlight of which was a traverse of Liathach in truly alpine conditions. Clear blue skies, good snow & ice, gorgeous views as far as the eye can see... Sometimes Scotland really is the best place on earth!

New Route in Stob Coire nan Lochain

Andy and I headed to Glen Coe last week to attempt a long-standing mixed objective. Unfortunately, the crag had caught the sun and Plans A, B and C all featured far too much bare rock. We traversed across to the Twisting Gully area to have a look at Simon Yearsley and Malcolm Bass's new route Twisted. But higher up, we spotted a couple of obvious lines which weren't in the guidebook. Time for a bit of an adventure!

A gorgeous morning in Glen Coe

 

We opted for a steep corner rising from the ramp of Moonshadow.  This gave about about 30m of good, steep, independent climbing, plus of course a pleasant start up Twisting Gully Right Hand and the start of the Moonshadow ramp. It was probably VI,7 - quite sustained Tech 7, but never quite touching Tech 8 and not long enough to justify more than VI overall. Asking around, it seems this is indeed a new route, so we decided to call it Moonshine. It's definitely worth a star or two, and would make a good option when the lower buttresses are stripped.

Me half-way up the steep corner

Canadian Ice

Andy and I had a great 2-week trip to the Rockies earlier this month. Ticked lots of classics - Polar Circus, Curtain Call, Ice 9, Louise Falls, French Reality, Whiteman Falls... Rather than give a blow-by-blow description, here are a few photos of the highlights.

First route of the trip - Weeping Wall in glorious sunshine

 

Steep featured ice on P1 of curtain call

 

More steep ice on curtain call - heading for the ice roof where the pillar has split & re-frozen

Exciting abseil back down again

The first of the steeper pitches on Polar Circus

Skiing across Lake Louise heading for Louise Falls

Andy on the mixed pitch on French Reality

Me starting up the steep ice pitch on French Reality

Still steep...

Starting up Whiteman Falls

Euro Ice Climbing

Its been a while since I have had (made) time to update the blog, so with no work today (!) and still feeling sore from a training session and sufferfest (turbotrainer group suffering) yesterday, excuses are running low.

Having quit my job in January to persue a few months of climbing and skiing, it seems to have been quite productive so far..... trips to the NW and west coast to do routes and visit places I have longed to experience came to fruition.... Beinn Bhan, Beinn Eighe, Tilt, Shanghigh, Postern, Blood Sweat and Frozen Tears (maybe the best scottish winter route I have done). All brilliant, memorable days out in great company!

Since then 3 weeks of dotting round europe to Cogne, Chamonix, Kandersteg and Monaco (what you've never heard of the awesome ice climbing on the cote d'azur!) have maintained a feeling of transition and shifting objectives. The initial focus of trying to remember how to climb ice efficiently quickly drifting away to be replaced by the steeper, harder mindset..... well except for Monaco sport climbing which proved somewhat of a reminder that polished limestone and no finger strength is a horrible combination for me!!!

Anyway, with a crap camera that detests the cold, and an affinity for shaky pictures, I managed a couple of ok shots, so rather than another 2,000 words, here's a few pictures from the last few weeks with Ally Fulton, Ally Swinton and Alastair Robertson....

Lillaz Gully (Cogne) and the village of Lillaz

 

Alastair on Lau Bij (Cogne)

 

 

 Sogno di Gnomo (Cogne), the right facing corner line that might have been slightly out of condition...! Avalanche stopped play after (on) the 3rd pitch!

 

 

  Tradimento Direct (Cogne) - No pictures of the crux pillar although in more sporting conditions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E78XVqeT1g&feature=youtu.be

Flash Estivo (Colonne Centrale)

Foehn wind loading up the slopes above (and firing the temp up!)

Repentence Super (brilliant route!) on the left and Flash Estivo on the right

Stella Artice (not a bad fall back route for the day) - Cogne

 

 

Ally abseil into the classic Nuit Blanche (Argentiere)

 

Rattenpissoir (Kandersteg) - Polish and French teams creating a proper mess..... nice to see the euros can do it as well as the brits! ;-) Properly wet first pitch resulted in 4 hours of drying kit in the van in the afternoon.

Ally with Rattenpissoir in the background (the pillar)

Ally taking a shower on Grimm/Haizahne, backed off and did it the next day instead after doing another 4 pitch WI5+ which made for some tired arms!

All that remains now is to finalise a few things then get on a plane to the Rockies! Hello Canmore!

Having spent years flicking through Sean Isaac's book Mixed Climbs in the Canadian Rockies, its so exciting being able to get on a plane and go experience a few of the classic venues! Few other places have such inspiring/terrifying/intriguing route names..... nemesis, terminator, nightmare on wolfe street, sea of vapours, riptide, the list is endless. Should be a blast!

Before and After

The Shelter Stone in winter is a beautiful, intimidating and fickle venue. After a few days of whispered plans and obsessive weather-watching, Jim and I found ourselves once again crossing the Cairngorm plateau in the dark, in the clag, on a bearing for this magical place. Approaching the top of Pinnacle Gully as dawn came, we dropped below the cloud and were greeted with exactly the sight we'd hoped for - gleaming white rime on the steep upper cliffs of the Shelter Stone and Carn Etchachan. It's in nick! We geared up excitedly and descended to the base of the crag ready to start up one of our dream routes - the Needle.

There was, however, one minor problem. It was warm.  For the moment, we ignored this fact. The lower turfy grooves were well frozen and had plenty snow cover, the upper section was plastered with rime and the middle section held more than enough whiteness to justify an ascent. Why should a little thing like temperature get in the way? Anyway, were were probably just warm from the walk-in - it'll be fine once we get a bit higher.

Jim on the Terrace, approaching our high point

At the start of the fourth summer pitch, we couldn't fool ourselves any longer. We were racing a major thaw up the crag, and the thaw was winning. We were both soaked and the crag's winter plumage was visibly receeding. The next pitch would have been close to dry-tooling (well, wet-tooling) and neither of us could justify going any further, particularly on such a classic route that meant so much to us both.

It was time to go down, but we'll be back...



... and after

Before...



Scottish Winter Climbing Meet & Avenging Angel Direct

Jim and I had a great weekend at the Scottish Winter Climbing meet in Fort William, organised by Richard Bentley (http://www.scottishwinterclimbing.co.uk/). It was an excellent opportunity to meet a load of other keen winter climbers, exchange stories & plans and (on Saturday at least) get some routes in in perfect weather.

Jim & I headed out together for a long-standing objective of Jim's - Avenging Angel Direct on Creag Coire na Ciste. This is a combination of two existing routes - the lower two pitches of Iain Small and Tony Stone's route Angels with Dirty Faces, and the upper two pitches of Nick Bullock's Avenging Angel. This combination makes for a great straight-up line, as Simon Richardson pointed out in his write-up of Iain and Tony's route (http://www.scottishwinter.com/?p=1762), but as far as we know, it hadn't been done this way before.

With so little prior knowledge of either route, we knew we were in for an adventure! But the weather was kind, with blue skies and hardly any wind. Coire na Ciste was well rimed but not utterly blootered, so we had no excuses.

The route takes the big central corner  just left of the pillar in the lower section of the buttress, then steps left up the steep corners above. Jim won the toss for pitch one, which turned out to be really quite bold and technical. There was no obvious sign of panic from Jim when he was on lead, so it was a shock when seconding to find out how hard this pitch really was!

The second pitch took another steep corner, this time with an offwidth-cum-chimney in it. I grunted and scrabbled by way up this to the point where the right wall steepened and I found I could no longer just wedge myself in the crag and hope for the best! Committing out onto hooks and turf was strenuous and off-balance, but the climbing soon eased, leading across to the next steep corner which marked the junction with the original line of Avenging Angels.

Jim got this next pitch, which culminated in an unlikely-looking capping roof which fortunately held good hooks and gear (including some fixed gear from the first ascent). This led to a belay below the final short corner. The corner itself turned out to be completely blind, so I made a thin traverse left and went up cracks on the steep wall. I'm not very good at committing to steep moves above gear so this involved a lot of strenuous procrastination, over and above the handing around required to find & clear out the hooks & gear placements. Eventually, after much huffing and puffing, I managed to pull over. The cornice above was an unexpected bonus which I could have done without, but it only took a few minutes of digging to demolish a path through it, so I suppose I got off lightly.

This direct line gives four pitches of excellent climbing so is highly recommended for anyone looking for something challenging that's not on the standard tick-list of Ben Nevis mixed classics.

The day was topped off with continuing festivities of the Scottish Winter Climbing meet at the Ben Nevis Inn in Achintee. Stovies were served, pints were drunk and stories from the day were exchanged. Simon Richardson gave an excellent talk on some of his Scottish winter climbing experiences, and took great interest in what we'd all been up to too.

Simon Frost and I hatched an ambitious plan to get out again today, but after seeing the updated weather forecast he later texted me to call off. I supposed I should have been disappointed, but it was a relief to be able to switch the alarm off and go back to sleep to rest aching muscles. With wind, rain and warm temperatures today, I don't think we missed anything!

The meet seemed to be a great success, and I hope it continues to run in future years. Thanks to Richard for organising it, and thanks to everyone I met there for the good company and inspiration.

The wind doth blow...

Malcolm on the initial icy groove

Three years ago I took my first leap of faith down Beinn Eighe's West Central Wall with Graham Briffett, intent on finding and climbing "Mistral", a summer E1 5b that saw its first winter ascent by the ubiquitous Davidson & Nisbet partnership in 1991. Our interest had been piqued by the relatively amenable grade proferred by the first ascentionists (VII 7) and that, to our knowledge, it remained unrepeated. A few weeks before our own sortee, another local team had drawn a blank under a large overhang, high on the third (crux) pitch. Graeme and I faired no better, following the same line but being unable to fit it to the guidebook description. I've thought about this route on and off over the proceeding seasons. After all, there are not too many routes that are of exceptionally high quality, are often in condition, but have not seen a second ascent after more than 20 years! 

Malcolm Bass and I had this weekend marked in our diaries for some time. Like me, Malcolm doesn't have the flexibility of climbing mid-week and so, with everything crossed, we made plans. The preceeding week had been stellar but, typically, as our play-date drew nigh, the weather forecast provided reason to be concerned. Gale force south easterlies are not necessarily a winter climber's best friend! We opted for West Central Gully and, as anticipated, it offered full respite from the icy wind scouring the summit plateau. On a wall where route names have traditionally paid homage to wind, it seemed fitting that I was heading back to "Mistral". 

Jim approaching the first belay

Malcolm gaining the fabulous belay ledge after pitch 2

Our ascent epitomized the dogged persistance often needed to claim the winter prize. A 5am start into an icy gale and a wayward ascent of Beinn Eighe's southern slope saw us reach the summit plateau almost opposite West Central Gully, with weary legs and a day lit sky which belied our early start. Inevitably our ropes then got stuck on the heart-in-mouth abseil down the dog-legged last pitch of Blood Sweat and Fozen Tears, requiring some jiggery-pokery to set them free. At last, by late morning, and having experienced highs and lows in equal measure, we were stood beneath the initial icy groove of Mistral. Following success or failure, this particular episode would have a moon-lit finale!

Jim starting the crux pitch 3

An efficient couple of pitches brought us to the fabulous belay ledge beneath the crux 35m third pitch on which I had failed three years previous. This time I took a more direct line slightly further right, heading for the smaller of two capping roofs with the final V groove clearly visible beyond. This was it! 

Jim high on the crux pitch aiming for the small V notch in the sky-line

The pitch was steep, often tenuous and hard won.I have to say it was the most sustained winter pitch I have ever climbed. What a belter! Pulling into the V groove belay was a particularly joyous moment for me. I even let out a feable squeal in celebration which is particularly unusual for this quiet man! As darkness enveloped us Malcolm displayed steely determination in seconding the pitch, even climbing one of the crux sections twice having dropped, then retrieved, his head-torch.

The happy couple at 9pm

We topped out at 9pm having finished up the Wall of the Winds chimney as per the first ascent (note - the V groove of Mistral still awaits a winter ascent).


As Malcolm later said, according to the new Yorkshire winter grading system the crux pitch was "reet 'ard" but, going with convention, we will suggest "very sustained VII 8" with the route definitely worthy of three stars. A memorable day!

Jim