Dr Noe, VI,6**

Last weekend was forecast to be a cold weekend wedged in-between periods of warm weather. After considering all the options Robbie, Arno and I decided to go again to Ben Cruachan to climb on the North facing crag which is just to the West of the Cruachan summit. The routes are mostly well protected and whilst they are short they put up a fight. The walk in is 3 h. 

Here we just reach the dam of the Cruachan reservoir with Ben Cruachan in the sunlight behind.

The clouds lifted during the approach and few things beat spring-like sun and snow.

Here is Arno on the inital approach.

Higher up was a snow bowl and whilst we were nervous about avalanches it turned out to be perfect neve. So we decided to put the crampons on, get the ice axes out and climb directly to the summit. Fantastic mountaineering...

...

Here is Arno topping out with the Cruachan horseshoe and the highlands behind him.

From the Ben Cruachan summit the buttress was visible with two climbers on it. They turned out to be Stuart the Postie and French Erick not only of UKC fame but also with impressive winter climbing ability.

It just takes 5-10 min to reach the buttress from the summit.

Our plan A line, Goldfinger VII,7*** was too lean but Dr. Noe, VI,6** to the right had caught plenty of snow during the previous days to justify an ascent. It was first climbed by Simon Richardson and Chris Cartwright in poor weather just before a trip to Patagonia. Here is Robbie, sans helmet (we make forgetting things a bit of a habit these days) demonstrating the 3D climbing that is typical for the Cruachan climbs.

Here he is higher up on pitch one.

Pitch 2 did look OK from below but was a right facing corner with three three steps each time with little for  feet. As a result laybacking and careful footwork is required. Here is step one.

The crux was the third steepening. It involved stepping up onto a small edge with a good hook on the roof and some gear once unearthed. I took me ages but I got a sling around an iced up, small chockstone. The corner was smooth, steep and succumbed to Ninja-like climbing involving a chin up, throwing my foot for a heel hook on the right and then a pull onto the neve above. Very good value tech 6 or maybe harder. Robbie took over again and despatched the last trickier move in style. Instead of walking around the corner he went straight up with good hooks and gear.

On the way down of course some bum glissading, a necessity for these old legs. Here is Robbie finishing a good one...

Cruachan is an excellent venue for those that are fit and enjoy the mountaineering bit of the day as much as the climbing bit. It is especially good for folk that climb V,6 or want to push their grade.

HW

Glen Clova without boots

Robbie, James, Andrew, Gunnar and myself met in Glen Clova for a short day. And then I realised that I had not packed my boots. No boots = no crampons = no Wild Cat Wall, V,6**, our first objective. I followed Andrew and Gunnar into corrie Fee. Their revised objective was to climb Look C gully IV,4***, the classic of the glen which had some ice on the crucial ice pitch but it was unclear whether it was enough.

I decided to climb a buttress to the left at maybe grade II. A few slightly steeper bits but the fell running shoes had sufficient grip to get up these bits. Here is the view over lovely Glen Clova from higher up.

I then continued to Driesh and some blue skies emerged.

From the trig point I went East and descended via bum glissade into winter corrie where I saw Robbie and James on the second pitch of Diagonal Gully, III***.

Here is a picture of James zoomed in showing the ice that had formed over the last, cold week.

I decided to climb an easier gully to the left and saw John Wilson and Jim (?) on Backdoor Gully II. Here is John climbing a small ice step, the trickiest bit of the route.

Sans crampons it was a good opportunity to practice step cutting, the technique before front pointing changed ice climbing. It all went well and soon I passed the Aberdeen team to meet a surprised Robbie and James in the basin. Here is Robbie ascending to reach the steeper upper section of Diagonal Gully.

Sans crampons & sans harness I decided to better follow backdoor gully which crosses Diagonal Gully in the basin and then follows a heathery/turfy line to the right which is much more suited to climbing without crampons than ice and hard neve. Here is Robbie climbing the steeper finish of Diagonal Gully...

... and here is Jim topping out of backdoor gully with James belaying Robbie in Diagonal Gully below.
Diagonal gully had a small cornice which Robbie is climbing here in an exposed position...

...and James is following.

At the end everyone managed to climb something and it is good to know that no boots does not always mean no climbing!
HW

Beinn a Bhuird: Jason’s chimney, V,6**

At last a no wind and cloud MWIS Cairngorms weather forecast for the East coincided with no other commitments. Robbie and I decided to make this ticket count and decided on Beinn a Bhuird. This time we went without bikes and did not take a tent as there was no other car in the car park suggesting that we would be the only ones around. However, soon after setting off we noted the traces of mountain bike tyres in the snow and readied ourselves for a night under the skies. We reached the empty howff in sub two hours at 11 pm and spent a comfortable night in our winter sleeping bags.

A welcome change for Robbie who had shivered through previous nights in a bag that was made for summer nights on the Costa del Sol. We got up at 6 h, started walking at 7 h and after a red dawn ...

...whilst ascending the Northern flank of Coire nan Clach ...

...we dropped into Garbh Choire to have a look at our objectives. Objectives 1 and 2 were bare lower down but white higher up but to be honest objective 1 looked far more intimidating than in the guidebook and some very large cams would come in handy.

Thus we chose to climb back out and to walk over into Coire na Ciche...

... in spring-like light...

...

...for our original objective number 1 which was Jason’s chimney, a V,6**. It was first climbed on the 31st of March 1974 by M. Freeman and N.D. Keir. We saved time by a long and fast (but not lethally fast) bumslide into Coire nan Clach and reached Coire na Ciche at noon and started climbing at 12.30 h.

There was little snow on the rock but Jason’s chimney was, as the name suggests, a corner-chimney line which holds snow, ice and neve well and additionally has turf. It is the second chimney line to the right of hourglass buttress. I did the first pitch which was good tech 4 climbing and Robbie then the crux above which was a squeeze chimney.

The understated warning in the guidebook says a ‘traditional Cairngorms-style climb’ which translates into something that is comparable to wrestling with a wild boar covered in vaseline. At times I only saw Robbies right, cramponed foot scraping on the rounded granite but after a while he reappeared reborn above and soon reached a belay.

I initially tried to climb with rucksack but after getting stuck I sensibly tied the rucksack into the blue rope, squeezed through the chimney alone and then pulled the rucksack up. The third pitch was a short step onto a rib ...

...

...and then an easy traverse into the corner of Sickle ...

...and below a chockstone out onto the windless plateau.

...

We first walked the steep bit into the corrie and then bum-glissaded from half way up the corrie head wall...

...got our gear together and walked over frozen, heathery ground towards the burn where we saw a solitary walker with skis on his back, the first person all day. It was Adrian Crofton who had skinned and skied a Southern corrie three times. We walked to together to near the secret howff, collected our sleeping bags and with heavy rucksacks walked into the dusk ...

...to reach the cars at 18.30 h.

Beinn a Bhuird had delivered again. Jason’s chimney is a good climb well worth the walk in but only three pitches and in the Northern Corries there are many climbs of similar quality. However it is the wide spaces, wilderness, solitude and commitment that add an additional two stars to any climb in the corries of this great mountain.
HW

Aonach Eagach

The forecast for the weekend was good and bad because on the one hand the sun would shine but on the other hand only some ice routes on the Ben and maybe Braeriach would be in decent condition. So Robbie and I opted for a short-ish and sharp-ish training session over the Aonach Eagach. This Glen Coe ridge is a scramble and a grade II in winter route and was first climbed in 1895 by A.R. Wilson, A.W. Russell and A. Fraser. We expected and found spring conditions with some snow on the Northern apects whilst there was spring on the Southern side.

Here is a video of our Aonach Eagach traverse, showing some of the best scrambles.

We parked in the small car park near Allt-na-reigh and ascended often with a heart rate of around 160 bpm (yes, I took a heart rate monitor) to the summit of the Munro Am Bodach. Here I am half way up with Stob Coire nan Lochain and Bidean nam Bian on the Southern side of Glen Coe.

Some good neve higher up but overall very little snow for January.

Here is Robbie tackling the ridge proper whilst I did some interval training: take a photo and then sprint to catch up with Robbie.

Soon the first descent: a steep drop of about 20 m but all on big holds with some snow. We descended quickly but did neither break records nor bones. Here is Robbie also wearing crampons for the only time.

Some easier sections and here I am catching up with Robbie once again.

Good views and easy progress...

... and easy, in places wintry scrambling.

Finally the highlight of the ridge, the crazy pinnacles. Unfortunately no snow here.

After us team red demonstrating the eposure of this section and also the winter-spring contrast.

After the pinnacles the ridge is easier with a final rise to Sgorr nam Fiannaidh, the second Munro. Here we descended directly and then eastwards...

... to reach the car after 4 h 59 min. A good training day but not the climbing we wanted to do mid January!

HW