Italy - Via Ferrata week - Piz da Lech, 20th July, 2008

For the week, 19th - 26th July, myself, Lorna and Ben went to Arabba in the Italian Dolomites for a week's VF ing! We stayed in Chalet Brigitta as we did ;ast year (2007), courtesy of Colletts Mountain Holidays. Our first route of the week was the 3B, Piz da Lech. A short drive to Corvara, then the cable car and chair lift to the top station, leaves you a twenty minute walk to the start of the VF.

The red line shows the route of the VF.

Ben gearing up in the "cave" just below the start of Piz da Lech.

Looking up at the main wall with the two ladder sections higher up on the right.

Me and Ben on one of the ladders.

When you finish using the cable, it's another twenty minute or so plod to the summit, with huge drops on your left and great views of some of the Sella Massif's towers.

Me and Ben, not looking very macho at the summit cross on Piz da Lech at 2520m! After leaving our comments in the log book, we headed back down via the chair and cable car to Corvara.

Glencoe, Buchaille Etive Mor, North Buttress, 20th June, 2008

Today was down to Myself, Mark and Adam. So with reasonable weather forecast we set off to Glencoe to do the North Buttress on the Buchaille. See map.

This is a great 300m grade 3/moderate climb in places, with loads of holds and excellent protection. So after Adam lead the first pitch, I lead Mark.

And then Mark took over. Even with the showers of rain and hail, this was an excellent way to finish a good week.

Ben Nevis - Ledge Route, 19th June, 2008

Today we set off for the Ben to the Grade 1 Ledge Route. See map.

Gordon heading up the steep scree leading up to No 5 Gully. Apart from the "pea soup", making the corries and gullies quite eerie, I don't think it rained!

We were surprised to find No 5 Gully full of hard snow! So without axes or crampons, we had to kick steps for 100m, with Adam leading up to the exit to the right for the start of the Ledge Route.

High up on the route, with some of the guys in front. Although the route is a grade 1, in bad weather you need to take care, especially crossing "the ledge" at the start. It's also a great place to practice placing runners and belays. At the top we opted not to go to the summit due to the fog and did another team sprint back to the Red Burn, Halfway Lochan and the North Face car park.

Glen Nevis, 18th June, 2008

After watching the rain for two days, we decided to head south to Fort William and hopefully better weather and the chance to do something useful. See map. We spent the afteroon reletaively dry, but not midge free, placing runners and building belays. There was even the chance to do some climbing and looking at leading.

Skye - Indoor training. 17th June, 2008

Today the heavens opened and plenty of people came down off the hills to seek refuge in the bunkhouse (and dry their extremely wet underpants!).

So we lit the fire and practiced different knots and belay setups by anchoring ourselves to various door handles, windows and chair legs, and belaying each other across the room, much to the amusement of the other residents who sat and read their books amongst us!

Skye - Cuillin - Innacesible Pinnacle, 16th June, 2008

As expected the weather started to get worse, so we opted for the Inn Pinn, which we managed, quote Adam, "with only moderately damp underpants!"

I had to steal a photo of the Pinn off the t'internet as we could hardly see it ! The climb is a Moderate, or exposed scramble, fairly straightforward in nice warm sunny weather. Although I think some of the guys were happy not to see the huge drop on the other side!

Me, abseiling off the pinn while Adam freezes!

Willy came down next, before a very cold Adam lead Alan and Mark up the Pinn to do it all again!

Chief Fire Warden, Willy, making sure we had somewhere to dry our moderately damp underpants!

Skye - Cuillin, 15th June, 2008

Myself, Alan, Gordon, Mark, Willy and Adam Hughes of Hughes Mountaineering (Adam also works at the Edinburgh Internationl Climbing Arena at Ratho), went up to Skye to try and do as much scrambling as possible.

Our luxury accommodation; the Sligachan Bunkhouse - midges inclusive!

We headed up Bruach na Frithe to start as the day was reasonabley clear.

We then dropped down to the base of the Lota Collie route.

Mark and Willy climbing one of the many chimneys that lead to the top.

This 300m moderate makes an interesting way to the summit of Am Basteir.

Passing under the Bastier Tooth.

Adam sorting the ropes as we started Sgurr nan Gillean but time, and weather, was geting on so we dropped down into the Basteir corrie and out.

Looking across to the Innaccesible Pinacle, tommorrows objective.

Curved Ridge, Glencoe 31st May, 2008

Myself, my youngest son, Ben and Mark went up to Glencoe today to do Curved Ridge; Ben's first time, and we went with the intention of doing it as a roped scramble. However the weather was so good, and so hot, that the rock was bone dry and no gear was needed! See map.

Our first view of Curved Ridge, just starting on the left, with the Rannoch Wall in the centre.

Ben on the lower sections of Curved Ridge.

Ben showing that we don't need a rope ( for today anyway!).

Ben making light work of the steeper sections!

Looking across to the climbers on "Agags Groove", V-Diff, on the Rannoch Wall.

Myself and Ben near the top of the ridge before heading up Crowberry Tower for lunch! Ben, down climbing the tower into the gap

Looking down Crowberry Gully, with the shadow of the tower and someone (?) against the Rannoch Wall.

Looking out from Glen Etive side of the tower, with pockets of snow still surving in the heat.

View from our lunch spot on top of Crowberry Tower.

Buttermere, Chockstone Ridge, 27th - 29th May, 2008

Having made a snap decision as to where the better weather would be for the week; North to Glencoe, or South to the Lakes, we turned hastily left off the Edinburgh bypass and headed south! See map.

We camped at Syke Farm campsite in the village of Buttermere. The village has two pubs and a small cafe/shop; perfect! We spent two days just doing a couple of walks in the area waiting for a dry day to do some scrambling; High Crag and High Stile one day and another up over the fells and into Honister Pass, with a stop for tea and buns in the not so attractive cafe there!

Finally after two averagely dull, damp days, the sun came out! So we set off from the campsite, heading SE (anti clockwise) round Lake Butteremere, before turning almost due east at the southern end of the lake for the long slog up into Burkness Comb. Our intended destination was the grade 3, Chockstone Ridge, which we thought was the huge buttress in the centre of the above picture! Fortuneatly it wasn't where we were headed. Chockstone Ridge is to the right of the Comb, and after almost a two hour slog the far left of the correct buttress still looked a bit dodgy! We did this as a roped scramble, which although not always neccesaary, there were several times when a slip would've spoilt the day! Also we didn't take many photos en route, I tooke photos later as we descended from the top of High Stile and High Crag.

The ridge is in three sections, the first being Harrow Buttress, graded as a "Diff" climb but turned out to be okay.

The second section (third also in the above photo) was strangely a little trickier. In fact I dropped the guide book at one point so poor Lorna had to downclimb to get it, only to drop it herself a little later on!

There is short section of "V Diff" up a corner near the top that I wished I had done. Instead I opted for the quote, "escape inot the grassy gully on the left to a chockstone, which is turned by a ledge on the right". I didn't know grass could grow on something so steep, so I was glad to get back onto rock where I could at least use some gear! Once up on the large grassy terrace, we packed the rope away for the final section which is well protected.

The above photo shows the whole 150m route to the top of Grey Crag and High Stile.

Lorna descending High Crag, with Haystacks in the centre.

As we walked back SE along the tops to High Crag, we got a great view of Great Gable to end the day.

Lagangarbh Buttress, Glencoe 5th May 2008

Lorna and myself went up to Glencoe today, with an idea to do something on the "Buchaille". See map.

Sitting on the bench at the car park at Lagangarbh, we studied the Cicerone guidebook and decided on Lagangarbh Buttress, graded 2/3 (the buttress is the central one in the pic).

The lower sections are mainly big sloping slabs, separated by grassy terraces. Although not that easy to follow from the guide book, as everything looks the same, with a bit of careful route finding you will eventually get to the top!

Looking down from one of the terraces onto Lagangarbh.

Easier ground appears nearer the top, with just a straightforward walk to the summit shelter at 1022m on Buchaille Etive Mor (Stob Dearg). It is very tempting to walk on the snow at the tops of the gullies, but in ordinary boots a slip on the soft snow could be disastrous, so we stuck to solid ground!

Today we got a rare view of Ben Nevis 1344m, and Carn Mor Dearg 1223m , with it's arete linking the two.

The route back, down through Coire na Tulaich, although straightforward, still had soft snow to negotiate and having an ice axe gave me some security on the traverse across to better ground. Others, including Lorna, who didn't carry an axe had to make do with shortened walking poles or hands for stability!