Langdale, 22 - 24 July 2009. Friday - Middlefell Buttress.

Another amazing weekend of May sunshine in The Lake District! Lorna and myself camped at Baysbrown Farm this time as The National Trust campsite at Great Langdale was full (we didn't realise it was an English school holiday). However this campsite is just as good, and although the New and Old Dungeon Ghyll hotels and pubs are a little further away, Wainwrights pub in Chapel Stile, is less than ten minutes walk via a path that avoids the road.

As we arrived (on Thursday ), the view down the valley to Pavey Ark and Harrison Stickle on it's left was quite atmospheric with low cloud hanging over Stickle Tarn (out of view).

On friday we walked along the valley to the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel and then up to Raven Crag and Middlefell Buttress, graded "D" although I couldn't remember the start and faffed around for a bit until we got going! As we approached there were only two other climbers on it.

Lorna climbing Midlefell Buttress.

After a couple of pitches, we decided to do the 40m abseil off the tree that everyone seems to use. There is some abseil tat already there in the form of rope and slings so we made sure that our rope (now doubled as I lugged the other 50m rope up in the heat!) was through all of them!

Lorna abseiling off the tree into Great Gully (I think it's called?).

Me dropping down into the gully, before heading down to the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel for a pint!

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!

Bike and Hike Wilder Kaiser - Austria

Just a quick post to say that our friend Rudi, based in Soll, Austria, has his new website up and running - Bike and Hike Wilder Kaiser - offering selected biking and hiking tours with various levels of difficulty, around the Soll/Wilder Kaiser area.

Fiacaill Couloir - Is this the end of winter?

What a difference from our last visit to Coire an t-Sneachda! We were down to base layers as we sweated our way from the base of the corrie up the start of the Fiacaill Coulior which is hidden away on the side of the Fiacaill Buttress.

From here we weren't too sure of how much snow was in the couloir itself but as a grade II/III we thought it would make a good end to the season (if it is the end!).

As far as we could tell, Central Gully was complete; The Runnel looked bare in the chimney (?), not sure if Central Left Hand, Crotched or Spiral were complete. Jacobs Ladder and Aladdins Coulior (not in picture) looked ok.

Willy, leading the way up to the base of the Fiacaill Buttress.

Almost alpine conitions as Gordon makes his way up the approach slopes to the couloir.

Viewed from the Fiacaill Ridge, which we descend, the couloir looks deceptively steep and patchy, which it was (patchy that is). I remember looking at it last year as we came up the ridge and thought, "What kind of idiots go up there!" Ahem.

Looking back into the couloir from further down the ridge, with Coire an Lochan over to the right.

All in all a hard (for us) but enjoyable day, despite the snow/ice conditions (or lack of in some places), and we managed to stay fastened to the mountain by some means for 99.9% of the time!!!

Hopefully we will make it back next year and climb it earlier in the season!

Blackford Quarry, 13th April 2009

Today myself, Gordon and Mark, spent a few hours in Blackford Quarry (Edinburgh) enjoying the Easter Bank Holiday sunshine.

We top roped for a couple of climbs followed by some abseiling.

We then moved the anchor points for the top rope higher up the quarry for a longer climb, and then practised belaying a second using an Italian Hitch, indirectly (more like the kind of belay we might use on a winter gully).

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!

Central Gully and Crothched Gully - Sneachda

Myself, Mark and willy met Adam of Hughes Mountaineering again as we gearded up in Coire an t-Sneachda. I'm sure Adam smells food from 500m! (although he was unlucky this time). After Adam and his client set off for Central Gully, we were behind the team behind him. We pitched Central Gully and used it as prcatice for placing protection and belaying. We then dropped back down to the corrie and set off for The Runnel but it was quite busy so we settled for Crotched Gully practicing moving together (oh o!) and placing runners (ah ha), oh and a bit of gardening in the middle!

About 1 pitch from the top, we stopped using runners and I set up a belay form Mark and Willy. Crotched Gully is a grade I/II, so with the short steep (gardening) section with no snow, and a choice of steeper exits at the top, it felt about right to our limited experience.

We walked back through the incoming fog and used the wind to blow us back to car park at the ski centre.

Northern Corries

Today myself, Gordon and Willy had a great day out in Coire an t-Sneachda, with none of the crowds of last week.

Having decent weather helped, as you can see form this shot of the Fiacaill Ridge in the centre and the Goat Track on the left. We climbed Jacobs Ladder ( Gordon and Willy's, first trip up it ) as practice with the rope, placing and removing protection and belaying. Even managed a "stomper" belay at the top this time!

A deserted Jacobs Ladder with Gordon and Willy waiting to come up from the last belay point. We only saw a handful of people climb it and two of those were descending! At the top we turned right (West) and walked back along the top of the corrie, checking out the exits of any complete routes and enjoying the views.

As we walked along we passed the top of Aladdin's Couloir which was tempting to descend but there were quite a few people coming up so we decided not to get in the way

We also checked out the area at the top of Central Left Hand, Central Gully and The Runnel, with teams topping out on most of them.

Willy near the top of Aladdin's Couloir with the Fiacaill Ridge in the distance. We dropped down into the corrie just short of the Goat Track where there is a well worn path through the snow below the buttresses, right down to the stretcher box. We stayed high and had lunch in the snow bay at the start of Central Left Hand, Central Gully, The Runnel and Crotched Gully (the Trident Gullies). A couple of teams passed on their way up the various routes, so after checking the Cicerone guide book, we chose Central Gully.

Gordon climbing Central Gully, a straightforward grade 1 so we didn't rope up. Central Left Hand to our left had a team in it and looked very icy for a grade 1 with quite a fat bulge of ice that required them to get the rope out.

Willy and Gordon at the top of Central Gully, just as the snow started. We chose a line to exit at the left of the gully which was quite thin in places with grass showing through. In hindsight the right hand side may have been better, but with more snow forecast this week everything should still be in place for the weekend.

Bumped into Adam of Hughes Mountaineering in the Ski centre car park. He told us he had been over at Hell's Lum with a couple of clients, but it didn't take him long to scran some food off us!