Monday 27 February 2012

Scottish Winter 2012

And Sho, another outstanding Scottish winter season comes to an end. Spent 7 weeks in Scotland over December, January and February this winter in the Cairngorms, Lochaber and Glen Coe.
 Conditions in Scotland over the season were a very mixed bag of Arctic Tundra (-20C) right through to near tropical downpours. (16C) It was very much a case of moving about the country to follow the best winter conditions, in the main Lochaber had the best snow whilst the Cairngorms were at times very bare but had excellent low temperatures and immaculate ice.

Glen Coe

Descent from Buachaille Etive Beag

Winter Skills in the sun 

  The freeze-thaw cycle was quite abrupt with a huge temperature range over a very short time space resulting in alarmingly rapid stripping of the more exposed crags and lower slopes but this in turn produced outstanding neve! :-)

100km per hour winds on Cairngorm Plateau

Goat Track Gully

Castle Gates Gully

 Over 30 Munro summits were stood on, a tad over 40 winter routes up to III were climbed in all the conditions that only a Scottish winter can produce. Alas due to the thin snow conditions only got a couple of days skiing before the pistes turned to slush then bumpy ice. :-(

Series rope work

Grade 1 ground in the Cairngorms







  



Friday 24 February 2012

Irish Sea Stacks

 Wee Adventure Film Festival (WAFF)


We have a film showing at the Wee Adventure Film Festival in Dublin on the 30th of March.

An Bhuideal topo

An Bhuideal, clifftop view

 An Bhuideal (the bottle) is so named as it's north tower looks like an old fashioned milk bottle from the sea. The slightly higher south summit was climbed on 12th April 2009 by Iain Miller and Martin Boner by a *** 2 pitch severe.
 The north tower was climbed on 13th June 2009 by Iain Miller, Steven "Jock" Read and Martin Boner. This *** three pitch VS route is a truly outstanding climb.

 Our film for the festival is of myself, Ursula Macpherson and Wolfgang Schuessler climbing a new route up the north facing arete of the south summit. Seal Song Arete, 45m, Severe **.