Scottish Winter Tour

Between new year and coming back to university I've managed to spend the vast majority of my holiday out winter climbing in the Scottish hills. Whilst the bulk of my time has been spent in the Cairngorms I've managed to get some winter climbs done as far North West as Ullapool and spent some time in the Fort William area. Due to the large number of days and that some of them weren't that spectacular I'll Just select my favourites from my time and give them a write up.

The Seam (IV,5): 5/1/16

The season started for me on the 5th of January when I'd organised with Scott G to head into t'sneachda for my first route of the new year. The plan was to head over to Fiacaill buttress with an eye to do either Invernookie or The Seam. In my head I still lacked the confidence to do something as hard as The Seam having at this stage only one mixed climbing lead under my belt and I felt sure I'd rather do Invernookie.

Upon arrival at the buttress Invernookie was typically swarmed with parties keen to get on what is one of the most popular routes in the corrie. If we'd gone for Invernookie we'd have been stuck behind two parties for the duration of the route, which would inevitably end with both of us being very cold and having achieved very little. Scott encouraged me to man up and get on The Seam and I'm I glad he did! It was a brilliant climb and the top pitch felt a lot like summer rock climbing.

Fiacaill Buttress looking busy, this was a different day

Scott lead the easy start up snowy slopes with patches of hollow ice which was soon kicked and hacked to smithereens by all of  the parties heading up the entry gully to all the routes on Fiacaill Buttress. Instead of doing the route in three pitches we opted to go for two longer ones, as a result I got to lead the entirety of the mixed section. I decided to go for the upper pitch under the premise that I was able to stop at any time and make a belay if it all got too hard.

The first couple of metres from the belay are quite thin for the feet and definitely required a certain finesse I wasn't really used to when it came to winter climbing, I gently placed my crampon points in small nooks as opposed to the usual brutal kicking I'd grown accustomed to. The gear was good though and I felt confident enough to keep on moving quickly. The two hard sections on the upper pitch are split by a short slabby section which is where I've seen many pictures of people belaying. Instead of stopping I carried on up the groove to a small cave where I knew Skylar had made it to about a month earlier before getting pumped and setting up the belay. From here I had to make a decision about whether to stop and belay or to carry on instead. Bolstered by Scott's encouragement and the fact I hadn't found the lower section too hard I decided to push on through. 

Post Crux on the seam! Having a great time!

The crux was leaving the cave: a large step out left and a quick foot swap on good hooks allowed me to bridge the chimney and from there the climbing kept on getting easier and easier to the top. I quickly made myself safe at the top, I felt fantastic! Not only had the moves up the route been spectacular but it had felt very manageable from bottom to top. I'd felt dead chuffed to have cruised something which at the bottom I'd felt so unsure about. Confidence boosts like this are so fundamental to my progression in climbing. So I'm glad I got it done so early in the season!

I must have really enjoyed the route anyway, as within a month I was back with Joe doing it all over again, this time Joe took the upper pitch and I took the lower. I climbed it much less elegantly on second, though I often find this to be the case.

Penguin Gully (III,4): 15/1/16

Joe and I had made plans to spend the block from the 15th of January up till the 24th climbing as much as we possibly could. The first route on our list was Penguin Gully on Beinn Dearg which turned out to be quite the adventure all in all. Due to very large amounts of snowfall in the weeks prior to us getting on the route the walk in to the climb was monstrous, what should have taken two hours took us four and a half because at about half way through the walk in the snow reached between knee and thigh deep and it continued at this depth for the remainder of the walk in. The route is also situated at the most distant part of the cliffs adding a noticeable chunk to our walk in. 

The first section of climbing constitutes the crux: It entailed a short steep section of grade III ice which turned out to be very hollow, placing ice screws only slowed Joe down. soon he was out of sight however and was romping up the snow filled gully above to (literally) the only good belay on the entire route. From here the climb continued to get more and more worrying as height was gained. I took the next lead and couldn't find a single piece of rock protection or meaningful ice protection for a full 60 metres, until the two of us were forced to move together up the gully. We stopped moving together every time we reached a steepening in the gully where the underlying (hollow) ice was revealed so that we could try our best to pitch it. The next while of time was spent scrabbling around and digging through snow and ice for ages to discover anything that looked even remotely like it might take gear to allow us to belay. The icy steepening was then climbed without any meaningful gear, for some reason the rock on Beinn Dearg just doesn't form cracks. This definitely made the climb worrying at times, retreat would've been a challenge.

Joe trying his best to place an ice screw

The weather was far from perfect; often you found yourself being battered by heavy spindrift pouring down the gully from above, The one thing that went in our favour was that generally the climbing was no harder than I/II. But when you're as run out as we were and the ice is as poor as it was that's little comfort. I'm loathe to report that in 350 metres of climbing we placed 8 pieces of gear which lies quite far outside my comfort zone. In conditions like they were I'd be more comfortable giving the climb IV,3. The climb was never challenging but always bold. This is definitely a climb that's best after a few freeze thaw cycles when the ice is in good nick.

Joe on the last Pitch, we actually found a peg!

We topped out after spending 5 ish hours on the climb and started the walk of almost immediately as we wanted to spend as little time as possible walking at height in the darkness. We were just descending a large gap between the cliffs to the valley floor when the sun started to go down and we made it to easy navigational ground by the time the last light left the sky.

I did enjoy my time climbing in such a remote location and I imagine it's the sort of route that would likely be awesome if it was in good condition (it does get 4 stars after all, the guidebook also assured us it's a reliable winter option); less like an uphill swimming pool with short icy sections and more like a continuous icy gully. A definite type 2 fun day. The day took 12 hours from car to car and we had to work hard from start to finish to earn it.

Left Twin: (III, though it was in IV nick) 16/1/16

After a long day the day before, we both felt a shorter day was in order. The eastern corries of Aonoch Mor coupled with the ski lifts to the top of the mountain definitely fit the bill. After a late start and a short walk in we found ourselves at the top of the crag ready to abseil in. We followed another party down and reached the bottom in three abseils. We didn't employ the usual descent down easy gully as we were nervous about avalanche conditions. However If we hadn't been following another party down I think the abseiling would've been even scarier, the abseil points were very well hidden and often not directly below the last one which required a certain amount of traversing to reach the next piece of good tat.

Having abseiled down the buttresses it was plain to see that all of them were covered in powder and would without a doubt provide a pretty nightmarish experience to climb. Before we'd reached the bottom instead of doing the original mixed route we'd planned on, we decided to climb whatever looked like it would actually be pleasant. Traversing along the base of the cliff we walked under the gully of left twin which definitely looked nice, unbroken quality ice stretched from bottom to top. We couldn't turn this opportunity down! Unfortunately we didn't have any ice screws with us as we were planning on doing a mixed route, but the rock looked like it would take good protection and there was a few ice pillars which looked slingable on the route.

seconding pitch one.

Joe took the first pitch up some good quality grade three ice and was soon belaying at some good tat. I quickly seconded to where he was and then psyched myself up for the main pitch of the route. I'll profess I'm not as confident on ice as I am on mixed mainly because I never feel as secure as when I have good hooks, and good rock gear. Contrary to my opinions of it was perfect for climbing, my axes sunk nicely into the good ice with one swing and I was able to get secure footing too without too much dinner-plating. I slung an ice pillar low down and continued upwards past a few sections of grade III ice up to the main steepening on the route which was some definite grade IV ice, but surprisingly high quality blue ice unlike that we'd encountered the day before on Beinn Dearg.

Me leading the main pitch on Left Twin.

I reached the belay just before I reached the end of the rope, soon Joe had climbed up to reach me and we were happily above the difficulties on what turned out to be a fantastic climb with surprisingly good ice! Joe took the final lead up the snowy slopes to the top, passing the small cornice to its side and belaying me off of the sign warning skiers of the cliff we'd just climbed.

Joe coming up to the top of the second pitch.

We managed to make it back before the lifts closed and were happily riding them back down to the car park below at about half 3. Once again the weather had been rather Scottish, Large quantities of spindrift often rushed down the route and the visibility was certainly lacking. Though I've come to appreciate the unique experience conditions like this give.

North Buttress Route (IV,4) 17/1/16

After this day I've decided winter climbing on Buchaille Etive Mor is a really fantastic way to cram a long route into a shorter day. The approach takes less than an hour leaving you plenty of time (provided you rise early enough) in the sun to complete your route. The route we'd chosen was the ultra classic north buttress. What a climb it proved to be and how contrasting it was to the previous few days fare of long runouts. Instead we were greeted with strenuous moves on good hooks, with great gear! A wonderful change!

Moving on up!

The route begins with about 100-200 metres of scrambling to the base of a very obvious chimney and groove system where the north buttress rears up. This is where the real climbing begins. We had a party just behind us on the first pitch and I wanted to create some space for the two of us ahead of them so I climbed quickly and was soon at the belay bringing Joe up. The climbing was really wonderful and the snow was well compacted, reports of swimming up sections turned out to be fallacious and for four fantastic pitches we swung leads up the well protected chimneys. Joe got the hardest sections and he climbed them with ease in all cases and was soon bringing me up to him.

Photo courtesy of Alex Slipchuck

After another two more bitty pitches, we decided to un-rope and solo the very easy ground to the top of the mountain.  Having climbed in the cloud all day it made for a pleasant change when the clouds disappeared just as we were approaching the summit. It cleared pretty extensively and we could see the whole of Glencoe and Ben Nevis in the distance, the best views me and Joe had had up till that point!

Plodding along the summit ridge

Only the descent to go, dodgy walking technique. Need to work on it!

Deep Cut Chimney (IV,5): 20/1/16

For this route me and Joe woke at our earliest yet, I think 5am: so that we could be at the routes base as the sun was coming up. We navigated across the plateau in total darkness with low cloud all around and we reached the bowl of Coire Dobhain just as the sun was beginning to creep up.

The first two pitches to reach the base of the chimney itself seemed to be strangely reminiscent on penguin gully, there was little gear and large runouts. Though the climbing was neither steep nor technical, I've come to learn this sort of thing simply comes with the winter climbing. For every pitch of glorious Ice/Mixed you have to wallow up an exhaustingly snowy gully.

The first section in the gully

Once at the chimney the climbing changed dramatically, both the gear and climbing improved tenfold and it turned into one of the safest, but definitely most challenging routes we've done in winter together. Joe lead a section of grade IV ice followed by some of the back and footing the route is famous for. the day before Joe had decided he wanted me to do the infamous top pitch up and out of the gully, like in most things I said I'd give it a bash. Before this however was a long section up the gully up chest deep snow which seemed nigh impossible to climb up on, You had to make the same step about 6 times before eventually the snow was compacted enough to take your weight and allow you upward progress. Nor was there anything on the walls of the chimney to pull on as they were noticeably bare. Soon I was at the end of the chimney where falling chock stones have blocked any chance of escaping out the back, instead you have to undertake what this route has become infamous for.

Joe looking disbelievingly at the final pitch

A short but strenuous section of back and footing up and out of the chimney to a pile of chock stones makes the crux of the route, thankfully the gear is good and plentiful, though unfortunately your axes aren't as helpful as they might normally be. I climbed with my rucksack on thinking it would prove to be a boon on the climb acting as a spacer between me and the rock, meaning I could back and foot the wider sections of the chimney. Unfortunately it just seemed to get caught in every fluctuation in the wall at my back, making progress significantly more laborious than it could have been without the pack. Falling isn't really an option for most of this pitch, not because a fall would injure you; on the contrary it's probably about as safe as a winter pitch is likely to be, but more because a fall will land you and your crampons on your partners head. Joe was understandably quite keen for me to lace the route as I was passing his head, thankfully the section above his head provided the easiest part of the traverse. 

Me Mid Traverse - Just Bonkers

The crux was once the danger of falling on Joe had passed. I dithered around a little for a bit wondering how to continue up and left. Twice I ventured out on the rubbish pick placements and twice I sketched about for a bit before returning to the comfort of the back and footing, until on the third time it all fell into place and I was happily past the section with little for feet and on the chock stones. At this point the pitch is all over and a short plod up easy snow leads to the boulders at the top. We reached the top of hells lum just before 4pm and did a large proportion of our descent in the dark, This and North buttress definitely proved to be the best climbs me and Joe did with one another on our route!
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Once again, our trip turned into a slew of cracking adventures. I don't think I've ever really thanked Joe much for holding my ropes on stuff like this, To a certain extent I guess it goes without being said, though it's cool to have someone who is always just as psyched if not more so for going out and having an adventure as I am. 

Over this time I've also met some old friends: the recently married Mark and Gill Councill (congratulations!), The also recently married Gibsons let me crash with them for about 5 nights which I am eternally grateful for (and also to Ben for always providing a great climbing partner). It was good to climb a few days with the ridiculously strong Scott G who I'm glad encouraged me to push myself on The Seam and finally the wizened oak that is Paul Blamire, who has imparted many a navigational tip to me.

Still the winter season is far from over yet. I still haven't climbed on Ben Nevis which I'm sure will change soon. More adventures will follow shortly!

I always like walking into t'sneachda on a windy day