Late Skiing

Leaving Sneachda

End of the line for Winter 09/10 for me

Top of Aladdins Couloir

Line rather kindly drawn in by Andy

Random in Jacobs Ladder

Winter finally came to an end with a visit to Cairngorm, on 15th May.. A good forecast, heaps of spring snow and a gully to be ticked were worth the lenghty drive north. And a chance to see if Andy's skiing skills have improved after a season in Val..

Andy packing up to walk out

Me speeding down Aladdins

Sunshine

Looking over to Coronation Wall

Looking up the Cas tow

Verdict? Top day out. Alladins Couloir skied in about the easiest condition that you'll ever find it, perfect deep spring snow for opening up the speed, enough on piste action to keep you happy (for mid May) with some bumps forming, and cracking weather. Coronation wall was well worth the hike a couple of times too. And Andy's skiing has improved!

Ice Photo Dump!

Way too much climbing going on to write up, so picture tells a thousand words and all that.. Its cold here in Scotland..

Perfect training for El Chorro next week!

Sundown from Beinn Udalaih

Eas Anie

Eas Anie

Top of Sunshine Gully

Sunshine Gully

Beinn Udalaih vista

Random on Quartzvein Scoop

Paul atop Beinn Udalaih

Peter Pan Direct looking good

South Gully of the Black Wall

Quartzvein Scoop

Quartzvein Scoop p2

Al on a wet Oui Oui

Oui Oui

Travels in the fridge

Al takes (another) tumble

Powder turns above the home road - this is usually full of boulders the size of cars

Hoping the fragile ice holds up on the Steall Falls - 1st time climbable in 8 years

Steall Falls 2nd Jan

Steall Falls

Steall Falls first pitch

Steall again

Dave atop the Falls

Steall Falls 3rd pitch

Pete and Dave come up second pitch at Steall

Top pitch on Steall Falls - note water

Monolith Grooves Crux

The Monolith

Monolith Grooves pitch 2

A fine peak - Beinn an Lochan

Early season scratching

Finally winter has arrived, and with plenty of free time on the cards at the moment there will be no excuses.. hopefully.

Firstly, things I will miss about working in Edinburgh:

1. It was a nice cycle when it wasn't pissing down with rain.

2. It was nice having some expendable cash.

3. Edinburgh is a decent enough city, looks better than Glasgow and there's not so many neds kicking about.

4. Bouldering at Sailsbury Crags after work was pleasant, for the 3 weeks before it was too dark.

5. Women are more attractive in Edinburgh - Fact.

6. There was a shop that sold nice baked potatoes with huge fillings at a reasonable price.

Secondly, things I will not miss about working in Edinburgh:

1. It was a long cycle when pissing down with rain

2. 4hrs travel to and from work everyday is way too much. That's 20 hrs a week - almost a day a week spent getting to and from work!

3. Getting my bike stolen that I've had for 5 years - junkie scumbag.

4. Driving in Edinburgh is like taking a step down the evolutionary ladder.

5. Pedestrians who shout at you whilst you are cycling on the road, nowhere near them. Why? Are they special because they 'live in the capital'?

6. General incompetence of motorists driving around bikes.

7. Working in a pretty wasteful company, that seemed a little lost in its direction..

But that's all by the by. This stuff has arrived, by the bucketload:

Winter comes to the Cairngorms

After a few too many indoor sessions, and stupid amounts of rain, it's been time to get out on the hill. Last weekend was the winter season kicked off properly, with loads of high mixed routes coming into condition. Of to the Gorms for the weekend and predictably into the Northern Corries to start things off. Al decided the best way for me to get my head into leading harder mixed routes was to lead me up some Cairngorm classics, Fingers Ridge IV, 4, and The Message, IV,6.

Fingers Ridge was easy enough, with decent weather, and the Message gave Al a good struggle and myself pondering winter climbers sanity. We abbed of above the main difficulties as the weather was closing in and the light was going, and beat a retreat back to the car park, with Al falling through some semi frozen small lochs on the way. Won't be leading IV,6 for a while, that's for sure.. An entertaining weekend and a good start to the winter.

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Nice weather on Fingers Ridge

Winter is here..

Al's not so comfortable van

Crux on 'The Message'

Winter climbing is bad for you

Also had a wild walk in Glencoe a few days later with good old Jamie, master of forgetting the map. Crazy windy weather and blowing snow up high put a stop to any climbing, but it was good to be out, and the Kingshouse hotel does a mean venison burger..

Snow is building up and starting to consolidate, and the beginnings of a base could be forming - The ski centres are looking good for the time of year, lets hope its a good season!

The intimidating East face of Anoch Dubh

This photo has not been desaturated, it really was as grey as this!

Not enough free time!

Not convinced I'm cut out for the 9-5, with 20 hrs of travelling a week. Eats into way too much free time, and gets in the way of more pleasant activities. Oh well, don't think this jobs going to last for ever, so best stash the cash for now and get the head down.. I'm pretty sure free time won't be a problem soon!

Have been out occasionally, not enough, but its always good to get out cragging. Was taking advantage of being next to the Salisbury Crags for a while, convenience bouldering in the centre of Edinburgh, and perfect for some post work de-stressing. Black Wall traverse out of the way at a soft font 6c+, and plenty of easy traversing/soloing done before the nights drew in.

View from Salisbury Crags, Edinburgh. Pic from Internet, never had a camera up there!

Headed up to Dunkeld some time in September, on a cracking day, and was completely shut down on Hamish Teds, a pretty impressive (for Scotland) F7b+. Long, pretty sustained and technical, this one will take some work. Just a pity its so far away, otherwise would make a cracking project..

Random on Hamish Teds Excellent Adventure, F7b+ doing it properly..

Also on the cards was a weekend trip to the Aviemore area with Jamie, and a visit to Creag Dhu, a crag I'd only ever climbed on once before, and a damn long time ago too. Chilly weather meant we stuck to the lower grades, climbing 'Brute' and 'King Bee' both pretty good value at V.S. 5a.. must be going soft. Next day Al joined us, and we headed over to Hell's Lum, in the Loch Avon basin in the Cairngorms. Excellent place, always impressive no matter how many times I go..

We climbed 'The Clean Sweep', again only V.S., but with a very sustained long crux pitch, which I managed to blag/was lumped with. Been a while since V.S. has felt that hard.. But all good fun, and was a great day out in a remote setting. Need to get some winter routes done over there this winter..

The impressive 'Hells Lum' crag in the Cairngorms

Jamie strikes a pose

Next up, after an obscene amount of time with hardly any climbing, (about 3 weeks), a Saturday with an excellent forecast appeared, and full advantage was taken. Dougie and myself headed up to the Etive Slabs, first trip there this year.. Why?? The Slabs were pretty busy, with teams on alot of the routes, including Swastika, our intended route. We decided on 'The Valkyrie' as it looked driest, and had a couple of stars in the Guide. However, at E2/3 5b, and 210m long, it was going to be a long day.. After much gardening, sketching on unprotected slabs, falling of overlaps, wet feet and mild hypothermia, we finally found a way out at the top, just as it was getting dark, and proceeded to sketch down the pretty dodgy descent path in the dark. An excellent day out, and some much needed adventure. Funny how climbs like this always seem better in retrospect?

Escaping the Slabs, through the choss at the top (almost..)

Always a nice view at the belays

Sepia belay view

While it was still warm..

Morning view, Loch Etive

Na, one headtorch will be fine...

Dougie fiddling in the most useless psychological bit of gear ever

And that is that. Autumn is not exactly the best time of year for climbing in Scotland, however you can snatch good days here and there. Now is a good time to make the most of the dark nights and get indoors, i suppose, and get strong again. Have been trying to get to Ratho regularly, hopefully this will continue.. And here's hoping to a good cold snowy winter! Bring it on..

Part of the cycle commute

The Glasgow Science tower, way home from 9-5