Information and photos of my mountaineering trips in Scotland,England and Wales:
Including hillwalking,scrambling and easy rock climbing.Also via ferrata, skiing and alpine trips in Europe.
Still a few routes left in condition in Schneachda, but the ones that are (some of the trident gullies) still have big cornices. Alladins Couloir is complete, so is Jacobs Ladder but the edge isn't (or Hidden chimney). Don't think the Mirror or Spiral are complete either, but with soft-ish snow too, they are probably worth avoiding?
Surprisingly the snow wasn't too bad in Jacob's.
Willy removing gear on the way up.
The snow did vary though on the way up and although the cornice was ok in the middle and not overhanging, it was quite soft and might have been different unroped!
Stunning weather in the West Highlands this weekend, perfect for a weekend of skiing at Nevis Range, Aonach Mor, and then The Legde Route on Ben Nevis on Sunday, except... Someone, ie, me, forgot their winter climbing trousers and crampons! So we had no choice but to ski for two days.
Lorna at the top of Aonach Mor by the weather station.
Lots of big cornices over the back corries, which weren't open for skiing sadly.
Ben Nevis and the CMD Arete looked fully loaded with snow which hopefully will last for a few weeks yet.
This was Jon's first "proper" winter mountain trip, so we took the grade 1 route of Aladdins Couloir to go the basics of belaying, using axes and crampons, and all the faff that comes with doing stuff in winter conditions. Luckily we had good weather, although the snow was soft in some places. Everyone seemed to avoid Jacobs Ladder, as it looked to have a very dodgy cornice (which we saw from above later in the day).
Although relatively straightforward, we roped up for Aladdins, and went through the motions to give Jon an idea of what goes on.
Mark and Jon, taking it easy at onr of the belays.
Just before Aladdins Seat, there is a split in the gully, so we headed right to see if could get a view over Aladdins Buttress into the corrie.
Jon enjoying the airy perch above Coire an t-Sneachda.
My belay stance whilst Jon took his pictures before dropping back into the gully.
At Aladdins Seat we stopped for a bite to eat, with cracking views of other climbers topping out above the Fluted Buttress area.
Looking down at our route variation (Left as seen from above) from the belay.
Wide exit slopes with steeper, more interesting options to the left.
Jon and Mark, about to leave Aladdins Seat.
Final belay before topping out.
And Jon and Mark, topping out.
Team of three climbers who appeared from Aladdins Mirror area as we climbed out of the gully.
An absolutely stunning day in Glencoe today with Gordon, Ian and Willy. From what we could gather from various blogs, and information on UKC, the Aonach Eagach seemed to have lost much of it's snow. So we went for the grade II (III ?) Easy Gully (between Curved Ridge and the Rannoch Wall). The path from Lagangarbh was icey in places and some of the rock steps you normally fly up on the way to Curved Ridge were quite tricky with ice, big boots and big gloves! On the way, we passed the Waterslide Slab which had a nice ice curtain on it.
In hindsight, it may have been better to head straight up through various snow patches as if heading for Crowberry Gully, as the normal round-about summer route was a bit of a waste of time! However, we got ourselves up to the crowberry basin and struck left for Easy Gully, with the Rannoch Wall towering above us to the right.
We only saw four people in or around the gully all day. Two headed left onto Curved Ridge itself. The other two joined higher up before the narrow ice pitch and we met them again at the cairn.
Ian and Gordon looking for gear before we headed up to the narrow ice section just right of centre.
Gordon, with Ian just behind (Willy out of shot) above the narrow section with the Rannoch Wall to the left and the A82 way below.
Ian on his way up to the crest of Curved Ridge.
We sat by the cairn marking the end of the ridge and chatted with the two climbers who had left the gully to come up the ridge. After more food, we sorted the gear out and moved together up the snow basin and then right to go up behind Crowberry Tower.
Willy in Crowberry Tower Gap, belaying for Ian.
Gordon heading up to the gap with Glen Etive behind.
Never can find the right name of this gully between the tower and main summit?
Looking over Buachaille Etive Beag towards the Ballachulish Bridge.
Ben Nevis and Carn Mor Dearg Arete in the late afternoon sun.
Sun set, as seen from Buachaille Etive Mor.
Finally the long descent back to the car down Coire na Tulaich.
Ian and Brian at the bottom of the Butcharts Access Poma, listening to AC/DC blasting out of the K2 ski tents pa system! There was a little hil fog around early morning (fourth row of the car park - the best position this year so far!).
Every run was fence to fence and near perfect. Just needed the visisbility to improve...
Looking across to the Cairnwell with the clouds starting to break up and the wind easing off.
Slalom course looking good with a course being set up for some racing.
Carn Aosda run , the best I've seen it for a long time.
And the sun finally break through as we mess about in the Butcharts Coire area and fun park.
Over on Glas Moal it was getting busy as everyone had the same idea to get there for the sun.
Looking down the Glas Moal motorway. Great high level cruising!
