Wickerman, Friday 24th-Saturday 25th July 2009

No mountains this weekend, just music, beer and dancing at the Wickerman Festival near Dundrennan (near Kircudbright).

First time at Wicker for myself and Lorna, plus Ben and his pal Chris. We all enjoyed almost everything; even stuff your'e not into is worth a listen and some polite applause :)

In no paticular order of "jumping around on the spot-abilty" were;

Zion Train Human League

More from Jim (twice)

UK Subs (not a single swear word - that i noticed - fair play)

Counterfiet Clash

Bad Manners

Billy Bragg (more a sitting thing)

Burn the negative

Idlewild

Utah Saints

and everynight finished in the Headphone Disco!!!

If we had a gripe, and I know you shouldn't expect much sleep, but maybe swapping the Acoustic Tent with The Bass Camp would keep the noise over by the young folks in their field, and a little less noise for us slightly older persons???

Prices? Well £3.20 for a pint isn't over the top but a little less would go a long way. Maybe that would stop people bringing their own, which shouldn't be a problem anyway.

Food was also on the "ok we're on holiday type thing, but could easily be on the cheaper side", and I'm sure the traders will still survive!

However, all in all we had a great time and hope to be back next year :)

Making something to drink?

Main stage, bar and Headphone disco tent.

The jobby truck doing his rounds!

Idlewild on the main stage.

Uk Subs in the Scooter tent, with Charlie on fine form and enjoying himself!

A rather blurry Human League.

Three handsome young men!

The Wickerman himself before his burning.

Everybody dancing to the Utah Saints.

Ben and Chris trying to look cool in the Headphone Disco.

Lorna (left) and the rest of the tent doing their thing in the Headphone Disco.

The Wickerman finally "gets it!"

Ben, the lightweight, clearly breaching road safety laws on the way home.

Coniston; Raven Tor, Thursday 9th July 2009

With a reasonable forecast for the day, we opted for climbing the grade 4 scramble of Raven Tor, which lies just south east of Levers Water, rather than Easy Terrace on Dow Crag as we 'd been there before.

As usual the Cicerone guides can be difficult to interptret sometimes, with things like "obvious red scree shute" and "a small (non existant to us) cairn marks the start of the route".

However we set off up what we thought was the correct "rib of rock on a central buttress", only to find it a little too easy as it should've been harder - for us!

Although it looks steep , which it was in certain places, the rock has plenty of holds and you do get a sense of being on a big crag. However it just didn't seem difficult enough!

As the guide says though, scrappy scrambling can be found almost anywhere and made as easy or as hard as you like. So, after we finished we went back down and selected another possible candidate for the correct route and tried that!

Coniston, Great Carrs and back, Tuesday 7th July 20090

With the forecasts being so unpredicatable, myself and Lorna decided to head for the hills, starting once again at the Walna Scar road car park. From there we went north, up past The Pudding Stone and on past Levers Water, up to Black Sails, the point between Swirl How and Wetherlam.

Looking back over Levers Water on our way up to Black Sails, with Raven Tor on the right. From Black Sails, we went west up the rocky path on the Prison Band to the summit of Swirl How at 804m, and then north again to Great Carrs at 788m.

On the summit of Great Carrs stands a memorial to the crew of a Halifax Bomber that crashed in 1944, with what remains of the wreckage.

The eight crew members are named on the memorial with the youngest being just 19.

The view of the Langdales with Pavey Ark centre of the picture.

Looking south again to our next stop; the top of Dow Crag at 778m over to the right, with Brim Fell and Coniston Old Man on the left. After Dow Crag it was down to the old Walna Scar road and then east back to the car park.

Coniston, Sunday July 5th 2009; scrambling on The Bell

This was Tam and Susannes first visit to the Lakes and also their first scramble on the grade I "The Bell", a short walk from the car park at the top of the Walna Scar road out of Coniston.

The Bell as seen from the car park.

Tam and Susanne making light work of their first scramble! From the top we made our way back to the car park and then headed out towards Goats Water below Dow Crag. We stopped just short of Goats Water for a bite before Lorna, Tam and Susanne headed back to the car, whilst I headed up past Dow Crag.

Dow Crag with the grade III, Easy Terrace starting left of the blue stretcher box up a right slanting rake.

A closer view of Easy Terrace and two climbers on D Buttress. From Goats Water I climbed the steep path up to Goats Hause before turning South East to make for the summit of Coniston Old Man at 803m.

Looking across from the Old Man trig point to the Scafell's.

Looking down over Low Water, with Levers Water just visible behind the southern side of Raven Tor (sloping down from left to right). Above and left of Raven Tor is Great How Crags 776m, Swirl How 804m and Great Carrs 788m respectively. High on the right is Wetherlam at 762m.

Afterthought Arete, Stag Rocks, Sunday 21st June

With better weather forecast for the east, myself and Lorna headed up to the Cainrgorms. From the Ski Centre car park we went up and over the Fiacaill Ridge and on to the plateau.

As usual, the ridge offers grade I scrambling in great surroundings with a choice of lines.

We crossed the plateau and descended the Coire Raibert path to Loch Avon. From there we walked along under Stag Rocks until we could see Afterthought Arete at their left hand edge, a grade IIIs or Moderate rock climb depending on which guide book you read, on the skyline. Foolishly we headed up from the Loch through the heather, instead of taking the path lower down to a point below the arete, and then climbing up to the start! This would've also helped us find the correct start point. We opted (mistakenly)for the more difficult, dodgy loose rock and heather start about 20m to the right!

Fortunately Mountain Rescue Services weren't required as I luckily discovered the correct route, albeit having missed about 40m it, to our left. We promptly crossed over to it and continued up.

I wish we'd taken more photo's on the arete itself as you don't get the impression of height as the ground eases off at the top. Now that I know where the start is, I will have to go back and do it right, possibly approaching from the Coire Domhain from where I think it is easier to locate, and get to!

Langdale, 22-24 July 2009, Saturday Scrambling

After a scorching hot day yesterday, Lorna and I deceided to travel light and avoid the use of ropes. We rather lazily drove along to The New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel and set off up the Stickle Ghyll path to just after the footbridge. From here, we headed right to the start of the grade 2, Tarn Crag Gill scramble.

Tarn Crag Gill can be seen in the centre of the picture, with the grade 2, East Rib of Tarn Crag high on the left.

The Cicerone guide to scrambles in the Southern Lakes grades the gill as a 2, being reduced to 1 if difficulties are avoided. A couple of the bigger falls were inpassable, so we had to go round, but most could be done on dry-ish rock to the sides.

The scrambling is never to difficult and it's a far more intersting way up to Stickle Tarn.

Lorna, climbing one of the higher falls before the ravine became too mossy and damp to make safe progress, so we exited the gill and headed left to the start of the East Rib of Tarn Crag.

The East Rib seen on profile from the approach from Tarn Crag Gill.

From the top of Tarn Crag, it's a short descent to Stickle Tarn with Pavey Ark towering over it. Today, Pavey Ark was swarming with climbers doing various routes, several of which cross the grade 1 scramble of Jakes Rake, seen rising from right to left across the face of the cliff.

To the left of the tarn is Harrison Stickle with it's grade 1 or 2 scramble up the East Ridge. We had intended to continue over to it, but couldn't be bothered with the approach up the grassy slopes below to the start! So we opted for obligatory visit to the grade 1 Jakes Rake.

Midway up the rake we passed several climbers belaying their leaders up the face. It was quite a sociable journey as we chatted with different climbers about their routes. From the top of Pavey Ark, we walked over to the summit of Harrison Stickle.

The summit gives great views back across the face of Pavey Ark and the climbers on it.

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.