Petestack Blog

Today was supposed to be the climbing day I’d ‘earned’ after another tough week’s running but, with my prospective partner’s legs apparently screaming/shot from skiing yesterday and me not fancying yet another run on some purgatorially snow-compromised local off-road course, I had to find something else to do. So I headed up to the Quoich Dam (about 60 miles drive to the NW) for a walk up the good looking, isolated little Munro of Gairich, which I found largely bare of snow lower down, but properly wintry with good snow cover (and poor visibility) over the top 200m or so. Now of course it was worthwhile and I enjoyed it (have had my eye on Gairich for a while), but I’m still wanting to climb and sincerely hoping for the right combination of conditions and partner(s) next weekend!

Today Jamie B and I headed to the North-East Corrie of Beinn an Dothaidh in search of some sensible mixed climbing in conditions where serious avalanche risk following this week’s dumps of snow over surface hoar still ruled out many of the more ‘traditional’ venues. And it soon became obvious on our approach to The Skraeling (IV,5) that scoured slopes and deep deposits of snow were vying for supremacy on a very localised basis…

Soloing up the initial pitches of Grade IIish ground to get the meat of the climb, we were slightly surprised to spy a party of three below us apparently heading for the gully of Taxus (III), but lost sight of them as we belayed below the ‘obvious roof’ and Jamie set about the first pitch proper. Which seemed to be going smoothly at first before grinding to a long halt and leading to his reappearance abseiling over the initial wall an hour-and-a-half later, by which time I was pretty well as cold as I was curious! Hard to say exactly what he found up there when I couldn’t see it and we were unable to communicate for most of that time, but I’m thinking he told me that the buttress was in surprisingly lean condition and his attempts to reach the corner above consequently foundered on unexpectedly committing ground. At which point, with me needing warming up and the climb gone, we simply coiled the ropes and beat it out of there, noting as we descended that the trio seen earlier had already negotiated the main body of Taxus in good time and were now engaged on the Icefall Finish.

And that’s about that, except to say that it’s been an expensive day with one of my pegs and one of Jamie’s wires sacrified to facilitate his safe return and a pair of mixed picks now also ordered for the Vipers I reluctantly left at home rather than start trashing their beautiful icefall picks on rock first time out! So I used neither the Vipers nor the Terminators (similarly left for the good of their ice points and uncertainty about those controversial mixed points) today, but obviously hope to get them all going soon.

Just back (last night) from Winter Mountain Leader Training at Glenmore Lodge with instructors Eric Pirie, David Haygarth and (for one day) John Armstrong. Don’t know when I last saw (or dug!) so much snow, but there was plenty to play with in conditions ranging from spectacularly clear to total whiteout, the standard of instruction was (as always with the Lodge) top class and the crack from instructors and fellow trainees alike was great.

Hard to summarise it all in a short post (and I do want to keep this short), but…

• I’m thinking some further self-arrest practice (a skill I’d maybe started taking for granted) might be good after taking an awkward knock to my ribs on my first or second (deliberate!) slide on the first day.
• It was a nice wee bonus to pick up a new Corbett I should have done before (Meall a’ Bhuachaille, where there’s a popular hill race I’ve never run) during some ‘pea soup’ navigation on the second day.
• I was looking forward to going over all those snow anchors (bucket seats, bollards, buried/reinforced/T-axes, stompers etc.) that I should be using more as a winter climber, so particularly enjoyed the sessions where we worked with these (imagine John Armstrong hurling ice axes off the side of the Fiacaill Ridge with a ‘whoops, he’s dropped his axe, what are you going to do about that?’).
• Having speculated whether the snow saw I carried to our snow hole site at the top of the Garbh Uisge Beag (shadowy cleft above red rucksack/below North Top of Ben Macdui in final photo) might prove to be the most/least useful thing I’d taken up a mountain, I have to say it was most certainly worth its weight and can’t now see myself heading out for some planned snow-holing (is anyone really daft enough for that?) without one!
• Despite really enjoying the course, it was a huge relief to finally be able to extract my van from the Lodge car park and get off down the road (returning to find a much lower-lying Kinlochleven also under snow) without any real difficulty.
• Having got used to courses where you come out of the final interview thankful to have passed, something feels ‘missing’ on finishing one where that’s not the final (hoped-for) outcome and I’m really fired up to keep getting out, working at things and return for Assessment this time next year.

Must also thank John McGilp for letting me take two in-service days and two teaching days to do this, and state my hope that those further in-service days following next year’s February break will produce a qualified Winter ML ready to start bringing winter skills to the school.

Long before I ever saw myself climbing Grade Vs (when I was climbing before, didn’t go out so much in winter and was basically walking or soloing Is and IIs when I did), SC Gully on Stob Coire nan Lochan was probably close to the summit of my realistic winter aspirations as a classic Grade III line of dramatic appearance and unimpeachable integrity (a straight, deep cleft between two buttresses). So, when Matt managed to tempt me into a day out on a half-term Friday (yesterday) when I had much else to be getting on with, that was the climb (still missing from my ‘CV’) that I most wanted to do. And we found it in superb condition, waiting for one team who got there before us but overtaking another two on the walk-in…

Looking at Matt’s photo of the whole climb below (note also the figure in yellow to the right of the two climbers in the gully on the Grade VII Central Grooves!), there’s much straightforward snow climbing with the two main areas of difficulty being an initial ice pitch up the first narrows to the right of the tapering buttress at the bottom and the moves right (the guidebook crux) to the next icefall about halfway up. So I led in two pitches up to and beyond the crux (which I did offer to Matt) before turning over the lead for a final snow pitch, finding the crux traverse a delightful little mixed sequence (apparently it varies a lot!) and the first ice pitch possibly harder on the day. With a nice slot already cut through the cornice and sunshine to greet us on top, it really was a chance well taken to enjoy this lovely, classic route that I’ve waited so long to do.

Teams also out on Twisting Gully (Guy & Gordon, Sean & Paul), Moonshadow, East Face Route and Central Grooves, and considerably more cornicing than when we did Twisting three weeks ago (the summit pyramid of Stob Coire nan Lochan also looks absolutely laden in places). Happy that I’m able to access and stow my ice screws comfortably at last with my new Ice Flutes working well (just need to fine tune my method of attaching them to my double bandolier now), and at the point of ordering a pair of Vipers after trying Matt’s on the way down. Also went to see Andy Kirkpatrick at the Fort William Mountain Festival in the evening, and have to say the guy’s very, very funny!

So here I was yesterday, starting up this Grade V ice pitch, close to fulfilling a cherished dream and possibly somewhere well along the scale from quite excited to ******* terrified… but just how did I come to find myself at the sharp end on The Wand (V,5) on Creag Meagaidh?

Well, it’s got to be largely serendipity in this case because I wasn’t even thinking about trying to arrange a climb when I dropped into The Ice Factor (as I often do) on my way home from an evening run last week. But Dan had been up Organ Pipe Wall on Ben Udlaidh that day, I asked the grade, got told V,5 and mentioned that I’d never done a V yet but intended to get my first soon. At which point Jamie B chirped in with ‘no prizes for guessing which one’, I replied that, sure, I’d been talking about a couple on the Ben (Point Five and Indicator Wall) but was now also considering the likes of South Post Direct and The Pumpkin on Creag Meagaidh… and Jamie came straight out with ‘do you want to do one of them this Sunday?’

So that was that, and we were off first thing Sunday, but even our 5:00am departure from Kinlochleven and 6:30am walk-in wasn’t enough to beat the queue for The Pumpkin, so what next? Having already gained the Inner Corrie, South Post Direct was no longer so convenient, and Diadem’s been downgraded to IV in the 2008 Scottish Winter Climbs, so The Wand was the obvious choice and we soloed up the start of The Sash to get to it in company with a Diadem-bound, fellow Pumpkin-thwarted pair who’d already done it the previous day.

Now, The Wand starts with an impressive icefall described as varying in height between 45m and 60m, and certainly at the upper end of that yesterday (although sporting altogether more modest umbrellas than the spectacular crop shown in the Scottish Winter Climbs cover photo of Blair Fyffe on the route). So we split this in two, Jamie led off and I arrived to join him at the cave belay with an attack of full-blown hot aches of the briefly dizzy/queasy kind. At which point I had the option of leading through or getting him to rearrange the belay for me, chose the former in the belief that the ground above didn’t look quite as steep as what we’d just come up, but very quickly discovered that it was! So I had one early wobbly moment when I thought I was letting go of both axes and about to come off, but a combination of Jamie’s repeated reminders to shake out (it works!) and my survival instinct (simply can’t fall here…) saw me back in control and I think I led the remainder of the pitch in reasonable style. Except that I arrived at the belay believing myself to be out of screws and spent ages digging for non-existent rock gear before placing a peg, threading an icicle and finally discovering two more screws on an inaccessible clipper (things that have been almost nothing but trouble to me!) way round towards my back. After which there remained another, somewhat easier ice pitch (which Jamie led) and a straightforward snow pitch (mine) to the plateau, followed by a tortuous descent to the Window in the mother of all whiteouts.

So that was that and I’m still half-dazed by the realisation that I’ve not just been on Grade V ice for the first time but led it as well. Which doesn’t mean that I’m about to start indiscriminately launching myself at every V in the book, but does give me the confidence to believe I can do it again, retain my composure in the knowledge that I survived the first, and add some extra ‘headroom’ for those IIIs and IVs. As for those ice clippers, I’m afraid that, with some mysterious loss-through-spontaneous-unclipping incidents and difficulty arranging them in positions I find both accessible (which they have to be) and secure, they just haven’t worked out for me so far. But that’s alright because the Petzl Ice Flutes I’d already ordered (and should be able to arrange quite nicely on my double bandolier) arrived today and can get a whirl next time out. If I tell you that I’m also suddenly finding myself close to ordering a new pair of axes when I swore to stick by my modified Flys for a while longer, it’s Jamie who’s been tempting me there… but I’m thinking I’ll have to let him off if I do take the plunge for this milestone climb that I didn’t expect to get quite when I did! :-)

Today I climbed Italian Right-Hand (IV,4) on Ben Nevis with Stephan Mors. While we’d been hoping that Harrison’s Climb Direct (same grade) on Carn Dearg might be in, what we could see of it looked quite bare and unformed as we walked past so the search for another route was on. And Italian Right-Hand proved to be a good choice on the day with its north-westerly aspect being diametrically opposed to the wide south-easterly danger zone suggested by the SAIS Lochaber forecast and not too much cruddy snow to contend with when the Italian Climb area is also noted for avalanche danger in some conditions. Be warned, however, that it’s much longer than the guidebook 150m if followed (as it should be) to the crest of Tower Ridge, and we took six pitches of alternating leads (of which at least three were 55m+) to reach the top. So I got the first and Stephan got the big Right-Hand pitch, but there was something of interest on every pitch amongst much easier ground and quite a spicy mixed finish by the route we took up the last section to the crest. After which we descended Tower Ridge rather than finish upwards, but found this really quite time-consuming under surprisingly heavy snow cover.

Dunno what was done elsewhere on the Ben, but Vanishing Gully, Italian Climb (normal route), Garadh Gully and Glover’s Chimney certainly all saw ascents.

PS (2 February)… just got some photos from Stephan to augment my solitary shot (not uploaded before), so here we go. Nothing too dramatic because most of the best action shots weren’t options when safeguarding the other climber, dodging spindrift or both, but you can see me topping out from the RH pitch and leading higher up towards the ridge (think the ‘book’ route goes left there, but I chose the steeper, less heavily-laden slopes) and the pair of us preparing to abseil from the last level section of Tower Ridge towards Observatory Gully in snowly [sic.] deteriorating visibility.

Just had a great weekend with my brother Angus when we climbed the classic Twisting Gully (III,4) on Stob Coire nan Lochan yesterday and went mountain biking all round the Torlundy/Leanachan area today.

Had headed to SCNL with Original/Raeburn’s Route in mind, but changed our objective when it became apparent that we’d have to wait some time to get started on that. So lined up behind one other party (not apparent as we left the foot of Raeburn’s) on Twisting, which proved to be a lovely route with the main difficulties concentrated low down and over quite quickly, but quite bold for the grade at the crux on the day with most of the obvious gear well buried. Have to say the Coire was busy with Glen Coe looking the place to be from MWIS and SAIS forecasts, but still good to see most of the more amenable classics getting climbed with Original/Raeburn’s, SC Gully, Moonshadow, Twisting Gully, Twisting Grooves, Dorsal Arete (mobbed as usual, although we could have been first on if we’d wanted it!), Boomerang Gully (+ Arete?) and maybe more seeing ascents. Helicopter also spied buzzing up and down Coire Gabhail as we returned over Stob Coire nan Lochan, but believed to be on exercise?

So that was Twisting, but how about the turning? Well, I’m afraid that’s just some silly alliteration (maybe something to do with pedalling?) that popped into my head while trying to tie today’s mountain bike ride into the same blog post. Which means I can now tell you that I took my nice new bike, we borrowed a bike for Angus (his is in Seattle!) from Noel, and went riding for a good three hours. During which we met some friends at the finish of the Lochaber AC Leanachan Race (on today), I learned a lot (like I’m pretty fit but a novice rider, both of which I already knew) and probably looked like a complete noob except that nobody except Angus was there to see most of the time!

Sorry the MTB photo isn’t even slightly sharp, but the only sharp ‘action’ shot of the batch was also the least dynamic…

When Isi texted me yesterday (while I was out running to the Dam) to ask if I fancied a climb today ‘before all this lovely ice disappears’, the first routes that crossed my mind were The Posse and What’s the Story above Caolasnacon (scene of last Sunday’s misdirected search for ice in the wrong place). So that’s where we went today, although we only had time for the one route in the end…

Now, The Posse (IV, John Grieve 1971) and What’s the Story (III/IV, Davy Gunn 2001) are two cracking looking, accessible, low-level icefall routes, although friends who’ve done both this week say the gradings are probably the wrong way round. On which note, I’d agree that the bulging third pitch crux of The Posse, despite being briefly quite steep and exciting above the great sweep of ice below, is basically all there and pretty soft for IV.

While I’d hoped to get Isi leading one of the earlier pitches, she managed to persuade me to take the whole of the lower sweep (in two long II/III pitches) as well as the steeper crux (which, as Al Halewood has observed on his blog, really is a ‘wee treat’). But revenge was at hand, because there was a nice 40m Grade II pitch (not really described in the guide) above that to finish things off tidily, so I sent her up that and she made a nice job of leading it.

Might just add that these Caolasnacon routes are very worthwhile (genuinely comparable in scale to An Steall Ban) and I’m happy to admit to defecting to the (leashless!) ‘dark side’ after taking off my clippers and climbing today with my new Black Diamond Spinners. :-)

With thanks to Isi for the photo of me on the crux pitch and a great day out!

See also Davy Gunn’s comment of 9 February.

This afternoon I took a wander up the frozen watercourse spilling from Coire an t-Sionnaich (high on the N flank of Garbh Bheinn) to the bridge at the top of the viaduct above Kinlochleven. While this is unnamed even on the OS and Harvey 1:25,000 maps, I’d take a fair guess at Allt Coire an t-Sionnaich, but please don’t quote me on that in case I’m wrong!

Anyway, it’s evidently been proving quite popular this week with true roadside ice climbing (barely out of the village!) in its lower reaches, and I know of at least four other parties on it today with Chuck and Dan (soloing), Magnus and Fiona (roped) and another pair up there at various times this morning and a roped pair ahead of me this afternoon who left it to descend after the first few pitches just before I caught them. Don’t think anyone else had been as high as me, though, because there was no evidence of earlier traffic in my final section.

It starts with several entertaining short Grade II (ish) pitches with steps of III and a more substantial one that’s definitely III (Magnus thinks maybe IV, but you can make your own armchair judgements from ‘ice3′ photo below!) before a long, fairly level section leads to some more fun. Above this (and above where the pair ahead of me stopped) is an obvious fork where I believe Chuck and Dan went left, so I went right (‘fork’ photo), then some more short pitches and level stuff with potential for wet feet before an obvious kind of deep cauldron with two steep, icy possibilities in a spectacular-looking cascade of icicles in the back left corner and a slightly shorter right wall. Now the light was starting to go and the left cascade looked quite meaty, so I took the right wall (foreground of ‘cauldron’ photo), found myself totally committed to a kind of steep mixed groove thing with poor hooks, no footholds and no frozen turf where the ice started to run out, and have to say that felt harder and more insecure than anything I’ve led (making it at least IV). Think everything starts to lie back above that into a shallower scoop leading up to the ridge, but can’t be sure because it was time to turn back for the road in the fading light (best descent probably down the faint ridge on the east bank, which I followed after starting down the west side and crossing). Looking at the photos tonight I’m wondering whether there might actually have been an easier/safer line snaking its way up the left side of the cascade at the back of the cauldron, but who knows? However, you don’t have to do the cauldron or even go that far, and the bottom few pitches (up to and including the good Grade III one) before the first level section would make a great little roadside outing on their own.

Might just be worth adding that I climbed the whole route with my modified DMM Flys in full leashless mode, felt comfortable with that and enjoyed it.