Garbh Bheinn for the budding Alpinist

Declan Lunny, a good friend of Ana and mine (and the rest of Dundee), was back to Scotland from Singapore where he currently works. He revealed that he and some other Irish gentlemen had booked a summer trip up the Finsteraarhorn, Moench and Jungfrau in the Alps with Alan Kimber, probably the best known Alpine guide residing in Scotland. But when Alan sent a list with the equipment required (things such as prussick loops, crampons, harnesses and parachutes) and after I told Declan that AD was the French abbreviation for 'quite difficult' (for seasoned Alpinists that is) it must had dawned on Dec that the planned Alpine trip was different from the usual bothy piss up!

Some preparation was required! So I convinced Dec and his mate John that we should start with some basic rock climbing at Dunkeld. And despite various cop out attempts we stood at the bottom of Polney and Dec climbed Kestrel Crack (severe) and a VDiff with not much of a problem...

... and so did John.

John and I then climbed The Groove (VS), a Dunkeld classic...

... before driving all the way North to the Ardgour peninsula. I can't remember ever having seen that many stars and we woke up to a beautiful day.

We walked into Garbh Bheinn...

... to do Pinnacle Ridge as Alpine practice. The two pinnacles are obvious and to the left is great ridge.

The first Pinnacle is the upper limit for scrambling and good for Alpine rope practice.

Declan had no trouble neither with the climbing nor with the exposure...

... and neither had John who would probably be able to second HVS.

Adam joined us after driving over from Aberdeen in the middle of the night. He picked up John's rucksack which John had thrown down the hill from the first belay. Here are the three of them with snow capped Ben Nevis in the background.

The climb finished up the second pinnacle, which was a bit grassy but again the whole team performed very well. Here is John...

... and here are Declan (smiling after discovering that he is actually quite good at this and that he was still in the genepool) and Adam.

Now things turned lazy. Well over 20 degrees in the Glen, still very warm high up, no wind and views to die for over to Ben Nevis and Glen Coe.

A good rest at the top. The image shows John using the oxygen bottle (of the Glenmorangie variety) and Adam overlooking Loch Linnhe...

... and here is Dec already cocky after playing the big chicken for the previous three days!

Time to enjoy the views...

... and to take photos...

... and more photos...

... of the many views that Scotland has to offer.

Spring has arrived!

HW

Orion Direct to end it all

It is time to say good bye to a good friend, the winter of 2009/2010. A conference in Copenhagen next weekend, Easter in Spain, plenty of work: the chance of doing another climb is remote. This winter Dave MacLeod and Ines Papert have set new benchmarks for males and females, the average level has increased substantially aided by the best winter in more than a decade. As has been said elsewhere, the Scottish winter scene is alive and kicking due to unleashing, better training & adventure addiction even if some UKC Beckmessers and Stevie Haston (promotion by controversy Ltd) think otherwise. Never have I personally regretted the end of a winter more!

Orion Direct was one of the few climbs on my tick list that I didn't manage to climb this season and during the week I e-mailed Robbie whether he was available. He was but due to the mixed forecast we dithered between doing some sport climbing and going to the Ben. After a few e-mail suggestions from helpful insiders we went for it. I got up at 1.30 h, picked up Robbie at 2 h and with renewed motorisation (the old, trusty Highland Express Golf was exchanged with an Audi 'midlife crisis' A3) we reached the Ben at 4.15 h. No speeding officer, honest! The thermometer was below zero most of the time, suggesting that we made the right choice.

The walk in was equally speedy and we switched off the head torches when leaving the forrest so that the guards in the CIC hut would not see the opposition coming. We reached the bottom of the climb at 6.30 h-ish. Here is a photo of Orion Direct from 2007 with two climbers on the upper snowfield below the exit chimneys.

Robbie led the first pitch...

... and I led the next two pitches and we then moved 'Alpine style' through the basin to reach a good belay below the crux. Here I am on the second pitch ...

... and here at the start of the third pitch. All good ice, well frozen after a cold night.

The crux was a traverse right but not having read the guidebook I went up the arete, saw steps further right and then traversed to the likely line. Ben Nevis thin face climbing and a little add on to a climb than needs no add on. Here is Robbie at the top of the arete ready to traverse after having taken a tied off ice screw out.

Grade III climbing on good snow ice with the odd ice screw towards the exit chimneys. It snowed a bit but nothing too bad. Unfortunately no views on a climb that would offer some of the best views in the UK. Plenty of atmosphere though.

Robbie on belay duty (typical Orion belay: ice axes, ice screws that touch rock and optimism)...

... and traversing over to the belay below the exit chimney. Two nuts that had to be loaded in one direction to be safe.

The right line was on the left with trickier, thinner options in the middle and to the right. The exit chimney contained good ice, some rock gear and was just enjoyable, atmospheric climbing.

Robbie then led the final pitch to top out at 13 h. A shot at the summit shelter...

... some tricky navigation on the plateau, back at the car at 15 h, in the Clachlaig Inn at 16 h-ish for some great food to end it all.

HW

Smith's Gully

The weather people had predicted a hard overnight frost, sun and low winds during the day. Plenty of reasons to take the day off. Here is Helen walking into Creag Meagaidh...

... and here is our target, Smith's gully, on Pinnacle Buttress. We overtook a tired team that also wanted to do it but being first at the bottom of the route is what counts. Smith's gully is the cleft to the left of the highest part of the buttress and was climbed by Jimmi Marshall and Grahame Tiso in step cutting style in 1959 and is rated V/VI,5****.

We had heard that the first pitch was the crux at the moment with a lot of steep, sometimes dinnerplating ice followed by an ice chimney. 45 m of lactate producing climbing all the way to the belay.

Helen then led the second pitch with good snow ice...

... to belay half way up...

... and I led the third pitch to the Appolyon ledge. No evidence for a recent Crab Crawl. Helen then led what is normally the crux . It was stepped, the placements were good and Helen climbed very well...

... while I did the easy exit pitch to the sunny plateau. Here again Pinnacle Buttress and behind the fat Post face...

... and here a last shot of the Corrie before leaving the shade which made photographing routes impossible.

On the path there was evidence for large avalanches but today the whole place was well consolidated due to current freeze-thaw cycles.

HW

Snorkeling the Dee & Poachers Fall

Foreword: Have you recently seen a middle aged male snorkeling in the Dee? I hope you have not phoned the police as there is a benign explanation for this incident. It was Mr. D. of Aberdeen who was in the Dee due to problems with his elbow also known as 'tennis elbow'. The story goes: During the summer Mr. D. climbed a lot and unfortunately his elbow got sore and various treatments did not provide relief. So Mr. D. announced that he would miss the winter climbing season. What Mr. D. did not reckognise was that the 2009/2010 winter would be a once in a decade winter and even climbs that rarely form were in condition and climbed by his climbing partners. So Mr. D. became frustrated and threw his ice axes in the Dee after announcing this act in an e-mail to his climbing partners. The elbow, however, got better, the winter continued and Mr. D. changed his mind about not climbing and jumped into the Dee in order to recover his ice axes. The Scottish climbing fraternity notes with great delight that the axes were found and that Mr. D. is climbing once again!

Main text: Here is Brian approaching Poachers Fall V,5****, a now classic climb first climbed by Andy Nisbet and Richard McHardy in 1978, on Liathach.

Below is the bottom of the climb. Poachers Fall is on the right and Salmon Leap is the icefall on the left.

It had thawed on Saturday and we decided to start early allowing us to make best use of the cold temperatures and good ice.

I did pitch two starting with an ice step...

... followed by a steep icefall to a good belay...

... which Brian used to raise his low blood sugar by eating Soreen malt loaf. Nothing works better in winter!

The last pitch started with some mixed climbing...

... and the ice umbrella above can be avoided on the left. A little bit more of ice followed before reaching the easier upper snow field. We then descended out of the mist to be treated to a Torridonian spring view.

And from time to time we a bumslide.

Another brilliant day, this winter keeps on giving! And good to see that Brian is back in the ring!

HW

Labyrinth Direct VII,6****

The Dubh Loch as a winter cliff is not often in condition. It is at the moment and the word is round. Thus the Aberdeen crowd and those that are part of the inner circle of Scottish Winter climbing sneak in to do the classics and new routes. The highlight is Guy Robertson’s and Pete MacPherson’s first winter ascent of ‘King Rat’, renamed ‘Super Rat’ at IX,9, and Ross Hewitt’s ascent of the ‘Mousetrap’ with Tanya Noakes. Other prolific first ascentionists were also active on the cliff but I don't know the climbs they did. The classic of the crag, Labyrinth Direct, had been climbed at least twice, first by an unknown team and then by the Aberdonians Mark Mosgrove and Michael McGhie who also did Hanging Garden Route and Funeral Fall on the same day.

I had Saturday available and managed to recruit Curly Stevo Holmes and Robbie Miller. In order to beat the Aberdonians, who would surely also go for it, we walked in early and with good pace from Glen Clova...

... bagging Broad Cairn as a Munro ...

... to reach the bottom at 10.30 h-ish.

Robbie led pitches one to three which are easy angled snow after a tech3/4 entry and we spotted a team coming in from loch Muick. They were Ross Hewitt, Sandy Simpson and Neil Morrisson (who is the Michael Schumacher of Scottish winter climbing).

Stevo then started a tech 4/5 pitch to the belay in the cul de sac.

At the cul de sac we spent a long time cleaning the rock and got three pegs, a nut, a sling around an ice sheet and additionally attached ourselves to a rotten loop behind a thin flake. No single piece of gear was good but together it did the trick. When seeing the ice smear on the left wall I remembered words such as ‘30 ft of overhanging ice', or ‘An icicle broke off and touched nothing for 200 feet. Unique!’ from Andy Nisbet’s enthusiastic description in ‘Cold Climbs’. Stevo and Robbie took a lot of my gear, I was wearing my thin Marmot gloves, who were not that well insulated but had flexible, grippy leather, did not impair blood flow and were good for dealing with gear quickly. I racked the 13 cm and 16 cm ice screws on the right and the longer and super short ones on the left. After clipping the peg I placed my axes, kicked the frontpoints into the ice and climbed two moves to get my right foot on a flat hold and placed an ice 16 cm ice screw in the thickest ice. Pumped a bit already but a screw was in providing much needed safety.

The placements went in well but for one who has not been at Rjukan or in Cogne it is tricky. I managed to mainly use my technical brain whilst the emotional one kept quiet: ‘straight arms’, ‘aim for the concave bits’, ‘avoid bulges’, ‘relax’ and ‘short shake out’. The large ice umbrella some 10 m above came closer and closer until I could wedge myself into a gap on the side of the umbrella which allowed a semi rest but must have made the belayers nervous as they were standing below the umbrella.

Above the umbrella the ice is still tech 5 but it allows bridging and the mad exposure of the left wall gives way to the comfort of a gully. And then finally, some 20 m higher the ice ends and easier angled snow starts. Another 10 m above there was some decent rock gear and I climbed the loose snow up to the cornice. Unfortunately while on the not very solid cornice the 60 m rope went tight signalling that this was it. A delicate down climb to a belay point on the slope below followed. Robbie and Stevo climbed the pitch as it was getting dark and at the top Ross, a bit short on ice screws, helped with our communication. A long walk back to Glen Clova under a clear, starry sky followed to reach the car about 14 h after we left it.

A serious climb and the exposed ice on the left wall must be one of the best ice pitches in Scotland. We felt elated that we manged to pick this rare plum but I have no idea how Jim Bolton and Paul Arnold managed it during the early days of frontpointing in 1972, before wrist loops, as it says in Cold Climbs.
HW (some photos taken by Curly Stevo)

Hanging Garden Route & Funeral Fall

Ross and I both managed to took a day off to go to the Dubh Loch to look at Vertigo Wall, a Nisbet and Robertson classic but the third pitch held almost no ice which, according to the guidebook, would be required.

After a short discussion we changed plan and walked to the bottom of to the Labyrinth with the aim to do the Hanging Garden Route, another Nisbet & Robertson climb at V,4***. Here we are gearing up ...

... and here is Ross on the first pitch.

Higher up we traversed into the Hanging garden, a snowfield surrounded by iced up cliffs.

Expect scenery but not much gear. Taking a deadman is a good idea.

From the belay a tech4 snow ice gully leads to a Nevis-style belay, not helped by the fact that we only took 5 ice screws of which two were the shortest stubbies available. But the climbing was easy due to the first time placements that we found most of the time. Here Ross is approaching the belay with the Dubh Loch below...

Ross then had the best pitch of the day going up an icy slab to an inverted triangular buttress.

Here Ross is climbing the slab.

The last pitch was an airy traverse and then a climb up to the corniced rim. However, the route had been climbed recently by Steve Addy and Helen Rennard among others and so we just needed to follow the footsteps. Besides, we had blue skies and it must be very different to do this route in the mist not knowing how the cornice can be breached. Here is Ross in the sun on a nearly windless plateau.

We then decided to do Funeral falls because I have little water ice experience while a lot of others had done ice over the Christmas period or have been to Riukan or the Alps. We walked under a 'Mackerel' sky...

... to climb the falls which are an excellent tech 4 ice pitch with good ice screw runners. Take more than 5 screws for maximum enjoyment.

Rjukan-style ice climbing.

Who needs the Alps if conditions are like that. It is a little disappointing that the ice was lacking on Vertigo Wall but we were more than compensated by Hanging Garden Route and Funeral Fall. Happy bunny day!

Finally, thanks to the three blokes who spent the night in the bothy and offered us water and whisky. It made the walk along loch Muick easier.

HW