The Ben

The West coast of Scotland saw its best February weather since 1897 in 2013.

Which was nice. Sinéad came over on the 15th, and we had fun doing tours of Glasgow and Edinburgh. We tried our hand at snowboarding (Sinéad's idea, I wanted to try skiing!) which was good fun and involved much falling over.

  

I banjaxed the A2 pully on my left ring finger in Jnuary and its been slow to recover. I always think pully injuries are the most pathetic injury ever - "Oh I can't climb, I've hurt my finger!" It's been very hard to discipline myself not to crimp or pull too hard on it, and I took a fortnight off pulling on holds entirely in early february, running and swimming like a mad eejit instead which was oddly fun. I hope to do a bit of fell running this summer, all being well.

On the 23rd I went along to a coaching session with Dave MacLeod at the Ice Factor in Kinlochleven. It turns out this was probably the greatest weekend winter climbing weather ever, but the opportunity to learn from Dave was not to be missed. The afternoon was spent on the bouldering wall and I learned a lot from Dave, despite my pully. It's a bit scary being analysed in your climbing by one of the best climbers on the planet but his advice on momentum and self-analysis were really useful. I also learned how to use a fingerboard properly - this 7-seconds-on-3-seconds-off-and-repeat nonsense only trains endurance and not strength, with a '4 seconds at maximum effort then 30 seconds rest and repeat'regime being more useful. So I've started to train my openhanded grip more as all this crimping has been what knackered my A2 in the first place.

Anyway, last weekend I got back out in the big hills again. Om Friday night I met Sam (who I met through the Lifts/Partners forum on UKC) and his modified van in a carpark in Dumbarton and we headed north for Fort William. Temperatures were up a bit and our original plan of Creag Meagaidh was abandoned for Ben Nevis instead. We hatched a plan to try North East Buttress on saturday, and I was psyched. I'd had a go at it last year with Alek, accessing the route via Slingsby's Chimney (ostensibly a grade II). A combination of a late start and Slingsby's being grotesquely out of condition and terrifying led to us reaching the route at 1.30pm and abandoning our attempt. So I was keen to have another go.

We didn't leave anything to chance this time and the alarm went off in the north face car park at 4.30am (yay for Alpine starts). Sam's van is very comfortable but a bit of psyche made getting up easier. By 5 we were on our way, reaching the CIC hut by 7. Sensibly, we avoided Slingsby's and got on the route by the access ramp from Coire Leis, reaching the First Platform and the start of the route proper at 8. Conditions were perfect, with solid snow and the odd bit of ice.

North East Buttress, 2.3.13

The route was brilliant, and the cloud occasionally cleared to give great views of the Ben and Lochaber. The ice gullies all looked in good nick, with not much sign of melt. We made great progress on quite an Alpine route, pitching one or two tricky mixed steps. Before we knew it we were at the famous 'Mantrap', notorious for its difficulty in icy conditions.

The Mantrap turned out to be quite overhyped. It's only 3m tall and is well protected. The good conditions certainly helped, A reach over the top to good nevee, a high step and a biiiiiiiiiiig pull and it was done. I belayed at the base of the 25 ft high corner above - the famous '40 ft corner' (the bottom must have been banked out). This was so heavily rimed up I was able to get an ice screw in it! Sam's axe popped out of the nevee that seemed bomber to me while he was pulling through the Mantrap and he took a bit of a tumble, just goes to show that you can never be 100% sure of your placements in Scottish Winter!

20 ft corner

Sam dispatched the 40 ft corner in no time and before we knew it we were on top of the Ben. We had planned enough time for a 4pm top-out; we topped out at 10.30am after 2.5 hours on the route! A surreal experience, and we took our time on the way down No. 4 gulley, getting a good look at the conditions. A pint in the Grog and Gruel in Fort William after one of the longest walk-ins and biggest routes on the Ben was surreal.

Topping out

Psyche levels stayed high after that, and we felt quite fresh so on Sunday we were up at 5.30am and off up the Ben again. This time we went for the ultra-classic Point Five Gully. I'd been wanting to do this all season and there seemed no better time.

Approaching Point Five Gully

After the long sweaty slog up under Observatory Ridge we were on the route by 9. The ice was perfect and plastic, and the route was quite stepped from all the traffic of the past while. There was no wind or spindrift and we had the route to ourselves. What more could you want?

Sam led off up pitch 1, turning round to tell me that the route was 'tremendous' which my innate Scottish Winter pessimism heard as 'horrendous'. But tremendous it was; steep but secure, with plenty of bridging up glorious ice. The second pitch was a dream, probably the steepest pitch but good footwork allows half-decent rests to be found. I somehow dropped a screw which someone below picked up, hopefully I'll get it back through UKC.

P2

Sam on the Rogue pitch

Moving together to the top

Sam finished off the difficulties with the excellent 'Rogue Pitch'. This led to easier grade II/III ground above with one last icy step to pitch. I took the hardest line up this for the hell of it and then we moved together to the plateau, topping out for 12.30. We sat on the top and had a bit of a picnic, the summit to ourselves; I've never been up there when it's been so pleasant!

Day 2 atop the Ben

Point Five is more than worthy of its reputation and I was very pleased to climb the most famous ice gully in the world as a first ice grade V. We headed back to the van and stopped off in the Clachaig Inn Glencoe (probably the best pub in the world) for a celebratory drink on the way back home. A brilliant end to the best weekend of winter climbing I've had!

Back home in Ireland this weekend for Mum and Sinéad's birthdays. The weather is set to get cold again so I'd like to get back up to the Ben for St Patrick's Day weekend...

Ben Mudlaidh

There's something fundamentally wrong to a 4.55am alarm setting on a Saturday morning.

Or is there? Today's mission: Ben Udlaidh in a day from Paisley. Doable? Very much so.

The forecast was for a bit of a thaw, so we set off early. Brendan picked me up at 5.30 and me proceeded on to Dumbarton where we met Andy and Vicky. Obviously still asleep, I kept sitting in the wrong car for a few minutes before realising what was going on.

We were the first to arrive at a worryingly mild Glen Orchy farm at 7am, and the scary pigs (I like to think they're called Snowball and Napoleon) that block the way were out in force and wanting fed, so bearing in mind the movie Snatch we went the long way round. There wasn't much snow in evidence for a while and the path was pretty muddy, and it was still very mild (3degC) when we reached Coire Daimh but compared to last week, the view was lovely, there was no wind and there still seemed to be plenty of ice about.

Brendan on the tropical approach. Quartzvein Scoop on the left, Green Eyes on the right

9am saw us finished the walkin to Scotland's premier roadside crag. Our plan A was to try Peter Pan Direct (V, 5) which seemed in but thin. Not the day to be pushing the grade, as there was a lot of melt. Plan B was the catchy South Gully of the Black Wall (IV, 4).

The clouds don't work properly

Approaching the route, the snow underfoot was bomber nevee, which is always a good sign. Brendan had the first lead, a narrow funnel of ice through some sopping crappy rock. The ice was good, if a bit thin.

Crap photo of Brendan on P1.

Winter shouldn't be so enjoyable. Photo: Brendan Bailey

The only rock gear we brought were 3 tricams, all of which got placed in the first pitch. I think I may have brought Brendan over to the dark side.

 The second pitch was amazing. Perfect fringes and curtains of steep ice draped over the gully. Plenty of calf pump and giving yourself a good talking to in order to trust unseen axe placements over bulges that 'seemed' fine. It was even good enough to take screws, although the steep positions I found myself in meant I placed them badly. Something to work on.

Me enjoying P2. Photo: Brendan Bailey

It seems Scottish ice climbing can actually be fun! There were some very unusual features in the top 10m metres, lots of ice mushrooms and what looked like upside down drops frozen improbably above the ice.

Brendan topping out

We topped out to the traditional turf belay at 11.30am (I don't normally even get started on a route until 12ish!). We considered doing Green Eyes (IV, 4) but the top of the first pitch looked very thin and everything was melting. So we made good our escape, meeting Andy and Vicky back at the car after they had just climbed West Gully (Andy's blog here).

Coire Daimh on the walk-out. Thawing rapidly but a big drop in temperatures due tonight.

Back at the car by 1pm and in Crianlarich Hotel pub at 1.30 for a pint of the black stuff. All very surreal for Scottish Winter!

Also, Soreen is the best food ever. Yummy squidginess.

Sinéad's over form home next weekend, so no winter climbing (unless I can talk her into it). Now just to force myself to allow this blasted finger injury to heal...

A Car Boot in Glencoe

January was busy. The gods of the Scottish weather conspired to make every weekend good enough for climbing – so after the escapades on the Ben previously mentioned, I managed to get out every weekend following.

After the unfortunate incident with the Mx-5*, I decided to go with the slightly more sensible option of a Ford Focus diesel estate. This turned out to be a masterstroke, making weekend trips to the mountains easier through the simple expedient of being a mobile tent – folding the back seats forward allows enough room for two to sleep comfortably!

 Glamping

 Alek came up from Keele on the 18^th and we headed for Glencoe in the new car. A great advantage of camping in the car is that when the alarm goes in the morning you can just turn on the engine and heating and get back in the sleeping bag until it warms up!

Objective for Saturday was North Buttress (IV 4) on Buachaille Etive Mor. Conditions were good, and the walk-in was very civilised, taking under an hour. A fun scramble up to the ridge put us third in the queue for the route, but we were moving before long. 3 pitches of excellent mixed grooves and chimneys brought us to slabby moving together terrain.

Alek on North Buttress

I had some fun on P3 when my crampon slipped off a spike I was standing on and I started to fall, dropping my ice axe – which caught behind the spike. The axe was attached to a bandolier (none of which ripped somehow) and I came to a halt with a seatbelt-style bruise under my arm. Sometimes you just get lucky.

Typical Scottish views were to be had from the summit in the clag. The descent was OK – we were worried of avalance conditions in Coire na Tullach (not unwisely as it later transpired that four were killed in Stob Coire Nan Beith a couple of miles away that day) but there was a well worn thoroughfare down the coire and all was well.

Ahh, Scottish Winter

We headed south to the Arrochar Alps, aiming for the turfy delights of the Cobbler. The guidebook lured us in with talk of a straightforward and short walk-in – this of course was nonsense, with the powdery snow and 750m of uphill taking the guts of 2 hours. Winds were vicious on the col but we dropped down to the base of Central Peak and all was well. We went for Cave Route (III, 4) which was good value at the grade – the starting ramp was verglassed and tenuous looking, so I opted for an overhanging start on good hooks, after which a wild swing out left to good turf led on to the ramp. No gear for the first 20m disappointingly, with the climbing consisting of scratching up a slab while making the most of a seam of turf in the corner. One hex and 20m of snow-wading led to a decent belay, and another 2 pitches to a ridiculous step down and dynamic swing over the void to good turf and a crap belay. A reasonably straightforward belay led to the top. Some craic.

The Cobbler

Alek stayed at mine for a few days, generally buying meat and cooking with implausible weetabix-based sauce. On his advice I cooked Brownies, which were nowhere near as shite as I had expected.

The next weekend was Fort William with QUBMC. I took a couple of days off work and met the guys at Calluna – a lovely hostel owned by Alan Kimber. There was a good crowd over, including Alek and Vladimir. John Orr provided instruction for the novices.

The weather turned very Scottish indeed, ruling out the higher climbs because of the high winds. I went up to the CIC cascades on Ben Nevis with Niall, Conor, Stuart and Thomas and had a play on some of the single pitch ice there. Well worth it if they’re in and it’s a bit windy higher up. There was a great looking grade V cascade on the left which I considered trying but talked myself out of because of the dinnerplateyness (definitely a word) of the ice.

A rest day then Beinn Udlaidh with Thomas and Cecilia – a brilliant ice climbing venue near Bridge of Orchy. This time the walk-in was actually not very taxing, although things were starting to melt and our chosen route (Quartzvein Scoop, IV 4) was not in the nest condition. The initial ramp was quite hollow and had one section of snow over verglas, which took a while. While what ice there was wouldn’t really hold protection, it was very plastic and easy to climb on. It also had the best Scottish belay I’ve ever seen – a little cave between the rock and snow, with room for the three of us to sit sheltered from the wind!

The second pitch was disappointing, being banked out and quite easy. The top was very very windy. I’ve never had trouble walking downhill before, but that day it was almost impossible.

Belaying atop Beinn Udlaidh in breezy conditions

The next day the weather turned crap again so we went drytooling on the granite under Ballachulish Bridge. This is well worth it if the mountains are out – but be warned, there’s a bit of looseness and it’s roadside so watch out for cars and toprope only.

The forecast for last Saturday was amazing, perfect for a long Scottish ridge. To that end, I talked Alek into coming up my way again and we headed up to Glencoe on Friday again. Up at 7 and off we went to do the Aonach Eagach traverse (II) – apparently an ultra-classic. It didn’t disappoint.

Scotland?

 Weather conditions were amazing – clear, cold and calm. The initial schlep up Am Bodach (a Munro itself) didn’t take too long and the fun began almost immediately, with a tricky descent onto the ridge proper. From here, it stretches a couple of miles westward over pinnacles and tops.

Alek on the initial tricky descent

 It was a great scrambling day out, peppered with a couple of tricky steps and traverses. The pinnacles of the Chancellor were quite sporting, with the added excitement of Alek impaling his calf on his crampon.

Purposeful Soviet stride

 Although wearing harnesses and carrying the rope, we never bothered with it, and were at the top of Sgurr Nam Fiannaidh by 1pm, far earlier than expected. We dropped down to the col with the Pap of Glencoe and from there down to the road, easily hitch-hiking back to the car.

Ridgetastic

The Aonach Eagach is a brilliant day out – well worth keeping for a good day! Great views in every direction and a ‘proper’ ridge for a lot of its duration.

Glencoe and Ballachulish from Sgurr Nan Fiannaidh

Then the weather exploded again, so on Sunday Alek dragged me out trail running along the first bit of the West Highland Way. We did about 7 miles but it wasn’t long before he was well ahead of me – seems like it’s time for some cardio.

Fingers crossed for good weather next weekend to make it 6 weekends in a row in the mountains!

*a disagreement with a kerb. The kerb won

Green Gully and the Aonach Mor cafe

Finally got out for the second time this Winter over the weekend. There was a monster thaw last week but it cooled down in time for the weekend, so myself and Brendan Bailey headed for Fort William on Friday night in his car (my car had an unfortunate disagreement with a kerb, the less said about the better).

Saturday was the Big Bad Ben. The Torlundy car park was packed with similarly inclined folk. As always, the North Face of Ben Nevis presented the grand-daddy of walk ins. We were at the CIC for 10am, deciding on heading up Coire na Ciste to have a go at one of the gullies, which were supposed to be in excellent condition.

Coire na Ciste from near the CIC, 12.1.13

No. 4 Gully and Trident Buttress 12.1.13

They were. No. 2 and No. 4 gullies were very busy. The start of Glover's Chimney looked a bit thin, and Comb Gully looked busy so we went for the Cold Climbs classic Green Gully.

The snow all the way up was perfect Alpine-style nevee. The weather was perfect; not too windy, quite clear, not too cold or warm. The best you could expect on the Big Bad Ben.

The first pitch, which is normally steep ice, was a steep mixed affair. This was great craic, and a bomber hook manifested itself at the crux to allow progress on the upper slopes. Some of the best fun I've had in Winter.
The rest of the route was steady on nevee and ice. There were one or two bits of tat but as is typical of the Ben, the belays weren't great. Pitch 3 and 4 had sections of steep ice which I suppose gives the grade of IV.
I met John Orr (ex-president of QUBMC and North Wales-based guide) at the belay at the top of P3, on his second route of the day after doing No. 3 Gully Buttress. Small world.

Brendan on P2

Seconding P3

Steepining on P4

We topped out on a reasonably clear and busy plateau at 4pm. There's always something magical about the Ben plateau, must be the effort you have to put in to get there. It's an Alpine day out, with more than 1200m of uphill to get there.

Topping out

A busy No. 2 Gully

We dropped down No. 4 gully (which is marked by a hilariously phallic cairn). I'd never gone that way before, but it quickly brings you down to Coire na Ciste and the CIC and definitely beats going down the tourist track and round the halfway lochan.

No. 4 Gully Knob Marker

The helicopter was out that evening for a rescue up behind Tower Ridge - I hope all was well.

Back down to Fort William for pub, pizza and bed. Today we took the soft option and the gondola up Aonach Mor. There had been plenty of snow in the night, with the snow level down to 200m or so. The Quad chairlift wasn't running due to the wind, and the other climbers on the gondola all disappeared off toward the west face while we headed for the top and Coire an Lochan with the intention of doing Left Twin (III 4). Breaking trail up under the chairlift I wondered why no-one else was heading up our way when I remembered that Coire an Lochan is east facing, which was the direction with the highest avalanche risk. This, along with knowing there was no way we would make the last gondola down at 4pm, made us turn back at the top of the chairlift.

Proper Scottish conditions, walking up Aonach Mor 13/1/13

On the way down we met Blair Fyffe who was going up to check the avalanche risk (he works for the SAIS). The coffee in the ski centre was nice.

ON the way back there was snow everywhere (and still falling) as far as Loch Lomond. Glencoe completely white. What a difference a day makes.

It's looking good and cold for the next week or so. Fingers crossed for the QUBMC trip next week...

Flegs

Despite not living there at the moment, what has been going on in Belfast this week has seriously pissed me off. More than 14 years on and the ugly head of the anti-democratic loyalist mob has reared its head again.

On the face of it, it's much ado about nothing - a lot of people very angry about the mere removal of a flag 348 days of the year. But there's a lot more to it than that - it's the old siege mentality coming back to the fore. Unionists are worried that this is an attack on their Britishness and that the flag is just the first step.

This sums it up perfectly. The decision taken was a fully democratic one to take down a flag from the City Hall that a majority of the population of Belfast do not see as representative of them. If you don't like it, make a point of voting for somebody else at the next election - but take a moment to think not of what you want but of what's best for NI (sure, I'd love to see a tricolour on City Hall, but I accept that not only is it a bad idea but not right. You don't see me rioting about it). 

The Union Jack means a lot of things to a lot of people. Yes, it is the flag of the UK and yes, NI is part of the UK. But flags are symbols, and in NI the Union Jack has always been seen as a symbol of the domination of one community over the other. This is why it should be taken down - as a symbol of the (supposed) equal rights of all in the new NI. No one for a moment is suggesting flying the Irish tricolour - that wouldn't be right. Flying both flags side by side wouldn't work either, officially the tricolour has no standing in NI. Flying nothing at all is best, until we can come up with something that everyone can get behind (which will probably be never.)

Not flying the Union Jack does not mean leaving the Union. At the minute, nobody wants that. Unionism, though, has never been inclusive - it is entirely built on exclusivity. Loyalist 'culture' has for too been based on shows of strength, intimidation, manipulation and disregard for justice. Now, times have changed, and the current arrangement is quite fair - but many are not willing to accept the new status quo. The current anger towards the conciliation of the Alliance party is indicative of the inherent extremism of Loyalism - not dissimilar to the US Tea Party. 

This time of year, there's a brilliant Christmas market outside the city hall (just under the flagpole). The sight of rioting where there should be Christmas shopping, German beer and macaroons shows how out of touch those involved are. Most people just don't give a shit any more. Symbols have their place but they are divisive; so take them down off City Hall, keep them down and move on Belfast. Don't ruin everything. NI wants a shared future.SHARED. Sharing means compromise, not domination. Engagement, not posturing. And above all it means democracy, not just lip service. So Unionists, please, accept it and move on. You're making yourselves look stupid on the world stage. And moderate Unionists, take responsibility and reign in what I can only describe as dickheads.

On a lighter note...

Tales From the Crypt

In a fit of Kyrgyz nostalgia and early season psyche, plans were laid for Bradley to come north from the 'sunny' Lakes and for us to head to Glencoe to try the Daftest Route in Glencoe. (also known as The Second-Best Day Out in Glencoe or Crypt Route).

Optimism being what it is, I couldn't wait for the experience of camping in a car park in freezing conditions, getting up early, walking 2 and a half hours uphill then spending a few hours in a cold chimney before repeating the process in reverse. And this is supposed to be my day off...
But we gave it a bash. Bradley arrived in Paisley Friday evening and we headed north, Mx-5 bursting at the seams with gear.
Camp was set up in the luxurious car park at the base of the Bidean nam Bian walk in.

Classy

All was well and good until the alarm went off. Not long after I realised I was out of gas for the stove, and the seal on Bradley's multifuel perished (petrol slick visible in photo) so cold porridge and no coffee. D'oh.

The walk-in was fun*. From 600 m upwards we were presented with a 50 cm layer of unconsolidated snow over scree. Which was OK because we'd generously let another party go first and break trail.

Slog. Diamond and Church Door Buttresses up ahead. (photo: B Morrell)

By 12 we had reached to foot of the gully, and a short step of Scottish III which we soloed for some reason led to the base of the very daft route.

Basically, get in it, and go up. (Photo: B Morrell)

Me attempting to get in it and go up. (photo: B Morrell)

I got P1, which was some good old fashioned chimneying but with axes and crampons. Lots of solid axe hooks and back-and-footing in the steep and slightly snowy chimney certainly warms you up.
Under no circumstances should you bring a rucksack on this route.

Bradley seconding P1

A tricky start to P2 (best described as a dynamic shoulder barge) led into what can only be described as a passageway into the mountain. Some crawling and squeezing leads to another chimney, which is where the fun really begins Headtorch obligatory.

Not really what you expect with winter climbing (photo: B Morrell)

Knees, axe hooks, fist jams, swimming and the odd bellyflop brings one to The Squeeze.

The Squeeze is an orifice of the mountain not much wider than a toilet. To progress, one must remove one's helmet and perhpas coat and coax Mother Earth into delivering you into world once again through much grunting, kicking and swearing.

At this point it is advisable to put your axes through the hole first, saving you the fate that befell me - The knot on my axe leash got stuck, allowing me to et only one leg out of The Squeeze. I had no choice but to belay there and get Bradley to free me on his approach. I was then treated to this view.

Chamonix binman being delivered by the Petzl midwives

P4 is, of course, an offwidth. A dab hand at this sort of thing by now it wasn't too bad, while being the only bit on the route where you could probably actually fall out of it. Up through an arch and a short traverse leads to a block and the end of the route proper. ONe may continue to the top at one's discretion by means of Raeburn's Chimney; howeever it was dark, we were tired, and Bradley had tat left over from The Jyrg so we sacked it and abbed out. THe free hanging abseil through the arch in the dark back to the ground was spectacular.

And so endeth Crypt Route (V 6). The walk out was incredibly dark and uneventful, save of course me slipping on some ice, tumbling head over heels, and having a JOe SImpson-esque fall stopped short by the only tree for literally metres around. Yay.

Celebrations were duly undertaken at the Clachaig Inn, where we were treated to heat, the Wild Rover, Dirty Old Town and somebody arm wrestling a sheep some bagpipe music.

On Sunday my knees exploded and we had both turned into sore old men so no climbing was done. This was justified later by tales of only hard mixed lines being in, thus justifying laziness perfectly.

*the walk in was not in any way fun