Red Tarn Cove, 31st January 2010

Top day in The Lakes with Lorna today! It was pretty cold, but excellent snow conditions on Striding Edge and Swirral Edge making it possible to keep to the crests most of the way. There was plenty of folk about on the ridges and quite a few teams in the two gullies left of Viking Buttress, the Buttress itself, and the broken ground left of the gullies. There were also folks using the ground left again to gain the end of Striding Edge. This is where we eventually climbed back up the ridge on grade I ground up an unamed (?) gully (maybe II at a push near the top) after descending Swirral from Helvellyn's summit and dropping into Red Tarn Cove and traversing below the main bowl, which no-one seemed to be climbing I assume due to the cornice. We passed below the buttress and the gullies and only came across small patches of windslab.
Once back on the ridge we reversed the route back to the Hole in the Wall and down to Patterdale and the long drive home. 
If only the bloody petrol wasn't so expensive these days! :(

The view from the Hole in the Wall.

Lorna with Striding Edge behind.

Me looking along the ridge to the final slopes up to Helvellyn.

Lorna on the final part of the ridge leading up to the summit.

                                    

The view from the summit shelter of various climber topping out.

                                   

Looking across the cove from Swirral Edge.

                                   

Descending Swirral with Catseyecam in the distance.

360 view from Red Tarn Cove.

                                   

Crossing the main bowl. Note the cornice which some folks insisted on venturing near the edge of!

                                   

From left to right: No2 Gully grade I, Number 1 Gully grade II and Viking Buttress. Hopefully we won't miss the boat with the recent weather and come back, maybe with the rest of the crew (?) and tick these off? 

                                   

Lorna on her way up to the little gully we found near the end of the ridge.

                                   

Me on my way up.

                                   

Me at the top!

Strolling along Striding Edge.

      

On the Edge.

Well it was good to get out eventually after missing the boat a few times recently. As I was solo today, I opted for a trip to The Lakes (same driving time and a bit less tiring?). The Met Office report for Striding Edge was good so I didn't want to miss the boat with this one in case there's a mega thaw. (Apparently cold again at the end of the week).

   
The start of the Edge is a little further on after you pass over Bleaberry Crags and Low Spying How and High Spying How. The snow was pretty much firm from about 600m, just before The Hole in the Wall. (which is still half buried).

Looking back along the ridge, which is possible to cross on it's crest for most of the way.

The way ahead with the ridge rising to Helvellyn's summit at 950m in the cloud.

Looking back at the so called "bad step", just right of centre, which is just a short chimney

easlily climbed down facing in.

                                     

The large memorial to the Manchester artist Charles Gough stands above Striding Edge, close to the summit of Helvellyn. In the spring of 1805 he slipped on ice from a sharp rock and fell to his death from here. The story of his faithful dog, which remained watching over its master's body for three months until it was discovered by a shepherd near Red Tarn, was later immortalised in the poem 'Fidelity' by Wordsworth and by Sir Walter Scott.

The summit shelter didn't provide much shelter today though as it is still full of snow!

The murky view of the descent of Swirral Edge. Later the view improved and I could see several teams of climbers gearing up near Red Tarn, which looks frozen but may be not! Even without a guidebook, I could see plenty of opportunity to find grade I/11 climbs and probably avoid the cornice that is still there.

Soll, Austria, 9th - 16th January 2010.

A selection of photo's from our week in Soll, Austria. This was our fourth time and it gets better and better. As usual we stayed in the excellent Hotel Tulpe, managed by Joe, Linda and Thomas (El Cowboy) the Barman.

The morning view looking out from the balcony over the Hochsoll Gondola station, the "home run", and up to the Hohe Salve at 1829 m.

Halfway down the Hohe Salve looking down the Red run to the Hoch Soll top station. The red gondola on the left is the Hohe Salve lift.

          

            

Skiing down from the Stockl lift.

Daniel and his "class", somewhere in the Ski Welt with the Hohe Salve rising out of the cloud in the distance.

                                    

Inside the bar at the Alpen Igloo Village in Brixen.

          

Martin and me trying to look cool in an iglioo!

                                  

Daniel, Francis and Doreen taking a light refreshment outside the igloo's.

 

Lorna commenting on my 5 Euro Vodka cocktail in a 3 Euro ice glass! You get to keep the glass though.

           

My one and only assisted attempt at the rail in the "funpark" above Soll.

                                    

The Almfreid, tucked away in the trees away from the main runs. The woman that runs it along with her husband are both in their eighties and they cook the food to order whilst you sit in their kitchen!

                                    

The food is amazing but unfortuneatly the toilet (above) is a little basic!

                                    

Lorna and Doreen at the top of Scheffau, with the Wilder Kaider in the background.

                                    

              

Myself, Keefsa, Lorna and Doreen, having "another" drink on the way down to Ellmau.

          

          

Rudi and his band, Insanity Sauce, filmed very badly by me across the bar in the Salvenstadt pub in Soll, Januray 2010.

Salomon - Sexy Boots!

No need for words, just enjoy the photo. Mmm!

These babies, Salomon Impact 8's, will be on show in Austria next week.

Off Piste at Hillend. Januray 2nd 2009.

Another brilliant afternoons skiing at Hillend, with (almost) an alpine feel as we went "off piste".

Looking down the main slope from one of the starting gates.

Myself, filming, and Lorna and Lenny taking the long way down.

Hogmany - Post Holing in the Pentlands.

After two weeks of cold turkey, not the edible kind, I went for a bimble around  Caerketton Crags at a lofty 478m. At the very time I decided to drive up to the  Ski Centre, a minor blizzard started, making the road up inpassable (until they cleared it ten minutes later!). So a steady plod from the Steading Inn car park took me up to the slopes below the crags. Although the pea souper that followed the snow made it impossible to see.

And as with conditions further north, the snow was soft and unconsolidated, with only some small areas of harder snow on any windward slopes.

Not much to look at but it provided a few minutes of loose, snowy scrambling.

Always time for a cuppa and a biscuit though!

Looking across Edinburgh to Aurthurs Seat.

And across to Fife.

Plenty of snow at Hillend Ski Centre with people skiing "off piste" between the gorse bushes!

Unless the weather and snow situation improves over the next few days, if we go out at all it looks like ridges are the safest place to be just now.

Christmas Eve Skiing!

Looks like there's plenty of snow around on the hills and on all of the Scottish ski centres. Plus there could be more to come on the hills over the next few days so it's been a great start to the winter (for those of us who like that kind of stuff). Not only that, but even our very own Hillend Ski Centre has been covered in so much snow that you can only just see the matting!
Today, me and Lenny went up to spend a few hours on Christmas Eve messing about in the snow. Strangely it wasn't too busy but the golf course next door was mobbed with sledgers of all ages and varieties and probably will be over the holiday period. Don't know if we'll get further north, depends on the roads of course and reports of a 3 hour wade into Coire an t-Sneachda in the Cairngorms doesn't sound too appealing just now!

Looking up a very snowy, christmasy Hillend.

 

Lenny just about to get onto the chairlift. Video to follow.

Have a Happy Snowy Christmas :)

      

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!

Jacobs Ladder, 13th December, 2009

Myself and Lorna, braved the nightmare of the A9 through the fog and frozen windscreen washers for the delights of a stunning day in Coire an t-Sneachda. It was about -5/6 when we drove into Aviemore but it warmed (haha) up a little as we drove up to the Ski Centre Car Park. There was a bit of a cloud inversion going on which may have helped? Just before the Lochans at the base of the coire, we headed for left for the open ground below Jacobs Ladder.

Looking up at Jacobs Ladder with a couple of bods peering over the cornice at the top.

This was Lorna's first time using crampons so we bimbled around on the snow for a while so she could get used to them. We then headed for Jacobs Ladder intending this to be her first roped Grade I winter climb. However at the foot of the gully, despite my reservations about the cornice, she said she was confident enough to solo it!

As we reached the top of the gully I noticed there was an "interesting" cornice to negotiate. Having opted not to rope up we took a look to see if it would be a problem.

Looking up to the double cornice.

As you can see from the above picture, there was this "rip curl" effect, almost another cornice, below the top cornice and my concern was having to put weight on the lower one to get over the top one! However after some squeezing through a channel on the left and placing an axe over the top of the upper cornice, we both managed to safely get through and over the top.

 

Once we were at the top we headed back along the top of the climbs, stopping for a quick bite, before dropping down from Windy Col into the coire. From the top of the crags we could see climbers in some of the Fiacaill Buttresses along with folks traversing the ridge itself.

We could also see right over to Cairn Toul at 1291m and Sgor an Lochain Uaine at 1258m.

 

After crossing under the crags back towards Alladins Couloir, we opted not to climb it as it being Lornas's first day on crampons and traversing being uncomfortable at the best of times, we descended to the coire floor and back to the car park (and cafe for a hot chocolate). However from the photo above the couloir appeared in good nick, although there was a fair bit of snow built up on the left (so much that we couldn't see down it from the top) but from the bottom we  saw a few folks topping out on the right hand side.

Also the whole area was buzzing with teams of folks loads of routes on the Trident Gullies area and a few of the more serious routes.