Stob Binnien, 20th May 2012.

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Resistance training!

With no available climbing partners (?) i opted for a short day on the Tarmachan Ridge near Ben Lawers.
It was 5c at the carpark so the chances of firm snow were slim!

Looking along the ridge to Meal Garbh from Meal nan Tarmachan. The climb up was pretty hard going on the soft-ish snow and it was a fine line between "crampons or no crampons". In the end it was slightly easier with them and little safer on the steeper sections.

    

Meal Garbh getting closer and looking much more severe than it really is.

 From the summit of Meal Garbh, a short ridge leads off the west. Again this is not as bad as it looks, although the strong winds made it more interesting!

  

Don't have the sound too loud on the video as the wind was a bit wild!

Looking back east along the sprawling ridge to Meal nan Tarmachan on the far left.

Looking back (east) to the so called "bad step", roughly a rising diagonal line - left to right through the broken ground. I descended to the left of the picture due to the dodgy snow. It didn't look anyone had been up or down that way lately as it wasn't stepped out.

All along the ridge there are short gully sections to play in although nothing over grade I and most about 5-10m high. There are some nice looking gully lines on the south of the ridge overlooking Loch Tay, but I suspect they may have been dodgy in todays milder weather.

 

On my descent back to the landrover track which leads back to the car park I had some friends for company.

 

The view of Meal nan Tarmachan (far left) from the landrover track on my way back to the car. Note the two gully lines, centre and right of the picture.    

Guess where?

With the prospect of snow on the A9 to Aviemore and even greater chance of having to wade into Sneachda, we opted for a shorter day somewhere closer to home? Nothing too challenging or technical but in the unlikely chance of a really cold spell and some freeze thaw cycles, this little gully would be great for messing about in!

This final picture should give it away!

Ben Vorlich and Stuc a Chroin, 16th August 2009

Just me and the Guner today trying to get some mileage for Mont Blanc in two weeks time. With the forecast being pants, we opted for the shorter drive to Ardvorlich House on the banks of Loch Earn and north of Ben Vorlich. With 17km and 1200m of height gain, we figured it would make a wothwhile short day instead of driving all the way to Glencoe or the Ben just to get wet! As it was. we were the first people on the hill and had the best of the strong winds and clag that obscured any views until we finally made it to the top! It was a battle of wits as to who would turn round first as we struggled up the long drag to Ben Vorlich's summit at 985m. We were just about on the verge of what it seemed possible to stand up in with the forecast 50/60/70 mph Westerlies on our right shoulders.

After a slight directional miscalculation on the summit, due to being too lazy to look at the map and take a bearing, the clouds cleared so we could finally see where we were!

Looking across to Stuc a Chroin from, err slightly north of the summit of Ben Vorlich.

Still breezy on the summit!

Looking North to the Tarmachans on the left and the Lawers range on the right.

From the sumit of Ben Vorlich, we descended SW to Bealach an Dubh Choirein, before heading up to Stuc a Chroin's summit at 975m. Although it looks like a true scramblers route, there are numerous ways up, all easy, scrambly paths with short rocky sections that are not even graded (a 1/2 if at all). Scrambling isn't the Gunner's first choice of route choice, but this was excellent ground to get a feel for it and he breezed the final two thirds before stopping for a brew on the summit. We then headed back N/NW for about 600m, before locating the small cairn that marks the descent path that skirts below the Eastern crags of Ben Vorlich, and rejoins the ascent path.

Looking back up to Ben Vorlich from Ardvorlich.

Cairngorm weekend, 24th-25th May. Day one, Loch Avon via Carn Etchachan.

Day one of our visit to the Cairngorms, and myself, Gordon and Stevie left the Ski Centre car park about 9am and headed for the Fiacaill Coire an t-Sneachda (The Fiacaill Ridge). As we had two days, with a night in the Glenmore Youth Hostel, we intended on making at least one long day as we wouldn't have to make the long drive back to Edinburgh.

Stevie and Gordon at the start of the Fiacaill Ridge with Coire an t-Sneachda on the left (with a touch of snow left in the Fiacaill Couloir), and Coire an Lochain to the right.

From the ridge, we could see what looked like a guided party climbing the last of the snow to the left of the Goat Track.

Not much snow left in the gullies now in Sneachda!

At the end of the ridge we stopped for cuppa and looked across the plateau towards the tops of Shelter Stone Crag and Carn Etchachan, over two and a half kilometres away to the south. These would be our next objectives after crossing the plateau and keeping above the remaining snow that lay high above the Avon Slabs at the head of Loch Avon (pronounced A'an).

After crossing the Feith Buidhe high up above the slabs, we got our first view of Loch Avon with Stag Rocks on the left and Beinn Mheadoin at 1182m on the right.

Our second "river crossing" was over the Garbh UisageBeag which also flows down over the Avon slabs and into Loch Avon. To the left of the picture is Hell's Lum Crag ('Lum' being the Scots word for chimney), which takes it's name from the huge gully into it's left hand side (as attempted by Dave Macleod).

As we walked along the tops of the crags, the views were impressive, especially looking down into Pinnacle Gully with it's distinctive Forefinger Pinnacle rising up near the top. The gully is a grade I winter climb and one for the future I think, eh Stevie?

Me at the top of Castlegates Gully, also a grade I winter climb, with Loch Avon behind.

Gordon and Stevie, trying to out pose me above Castlegates.

After crossing the tops of the crags, we followed the cliff edges to head south to the "top", Carn Etchachan at 1120m. Looking east over it's crags and gullies we could see some remaining snow with interesting but dangerous formations.

Looking down onto Loch Etchachan as we headed for the 1117m spot, and then south east over easier ground to avoid the crags to pick up the descent path from Ben Macdui and the outflow point of the Loch (top left of picture). From there we went north west to drop down to the Shelter Stone at the head of Loch Avon.

On the way down to the head of the Loch, we passed the bottom of Castlegates Gully which marks the left hand edge of the huge Shelter Stone Crag.

From the Shelter Stone area, we made a remarkably easy crossing of the river and turned north east to follow the rising path up to Coire Raibert. On the way we passed the small sandy beach we saw from the top of Shelter Stone Crag to the left of the picture, with Castlegates Gully on it's left and Pinnacle Gully just visible on it's right. To the right of that, is Garbh Uisage Crag and the the Avon Slabs below the snow.

Stevie climbing the steep (but better than the Coire Domhain route?) path up Coire Raibert to gain the plateau once more and the 1141m point, form where our final ascent of the day would take us to Cairn Gorm at 1245m.

As we reached the Cairn Gorm summit, the weather changed giving us no final views for the day, although the sudden movement of the automated "dustbin lid" on the roof of the weather station gave brief entertainment. From here it was down past the ridiculous cairns and over the tourist steps to the Ptarmigan, then follow the main track back to the Ski Centre car park to complete over 16 miles of fantastic walking!

Beinn Heasgarnich, 1078m and Stevie in a hole!

Today myself and Stevie accompanied John on his 230th Munro, Beinn Heasgarnich at 1078m. Not a particularly inspiring mountian, with bugger all to look at as we climbed NW from the old waterboard road in Glen Lochay. The route was wet and muddy for most of the way up to the subsidiary top of Stob an Fhir-bhogha, and from there slightly better ground from the two distinct burns to the small plateau at the top. The only views we got were occasional glimpses of the head of Loch Lyon the the NE! So after a quick lunch, we descended more or less the same way we came up. On the way up, we noticed various patches of snow still remaining, one with a nice but unstable snow bridge. Luckily we found it on the way down, so we set Stevie to work demonstrating the dangers of trusting a snowbridge this late in the season. Full details are in the video below! (make sure you have the sound on too)

Remember kids. don't try this at home!

Windy in Sneachda!

Today myself, Gordon and Stevie made our way through the fresh snow into Coire an t-Sneachda in the vain hope of finding the gully lines in condition to climb. However after breaking trail for most of the way in , before letting three younger folks take over, it was soon becoming clear from all the spindrift cascading down the Goat Track that there would be lots of loose snow being moved around the corrie in the wind.

Coire an t-Sneachda looked stunning, but this photo doesn't show just how windy it was!

Stevie making his way up from the relative warmth of the sun into the shadows of Sneachda.

As any of the gullies seemed out of the question, we headed up below Jacobs Ladder and the Mess of Pottage to check things out. Aladdin's Couloir can just be seen top left of the photo and the Fiacaill Buttress on the right.

The Fiacaill Ridge and Buttress. We saw a couple of people on the ridge, but not many taking the most exposed line in the wind.

A couple of teams were looking for routes on the Mess of Pottage. Here two guys are checking out the Haston line, left of centre (grade III, 4). Just right of centre there are teams on the Slant which rises to the left, and in the centre you can just see a climber heading for Hidden Chimney. We headed for the edge of the rocks to the left of the Buttress and took a rising traverse up to the broken ground, top left.

Stevie and Gordon traversing below the buttress, before we roped up and pitched up to the broken ground.

Myself, struggling with the wind and a pack full of rope and metalwork!

360 view as we headed down to the ski centre.

By now the wind had increased and walking down above Coire Cas became a little challenging!