Good things come to those who wait!

Went to Ben Nevis yesterday but just to the bottom!

Blowing a Gale, Snowing , rain forecast just didn't seem the right weather to be going onto the hill!


I could not bear to take the camera out until the path on the way back to the car!

We forced our way up to the hut and sauntered back down again. We stopped for a couple of hours at the ice factor on the way home which was good practice for next week when i'm off to Champagny in France for the Gorzderette.

I reckon The Ben is en route to loads of routes in great nick and look forward to getting back from my 10 days away!

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No 3 Buttress 12.01.08

Another day on the Ben and what a glorious day sunny and cold! All the Ski Centres in Scotland open today and most of the lifts!

I seriously considered a day on planks but decided that the whole of Scotland would also be queing for the car park so stuck with the climbing plan.






We headed up to Number 3 buttress and found it not to busy passing teams heading up to ledge route and up the curtain.

A reasonable amount of debris under neath number 4 gully keep us aware of the large amounts of new snow.

Two teams on Green gully when we arrived and we headed along to have a look at two step corner our intended rout for the day.

The corner looked thin but a had a very promising start to the first pitch. I headed up but was forced out left as the corners were hardly iced at all. We found a great variation out left overlooking a team starting up No 3 buttress route with a lovely icy second pitch following the turfy and rocky end of the first.














Simon Belayed at the side of the platform. With the team on butress route belayed at the top of the first snow ramp.


We had a look at Quickstep and the upper section of two step corner but finally decided the continuation of the buttress route was the was to go. Turned out even this was badly lacking in ice required to pull up onto the smaller platform.



A Quick lead up on Northern Corries style rocky rigde saw us on the summit. The last belay was in a great position looking across Knuckle duster and Sioux wall towards the Secret with both pitches in full view.

Quick exit down No 4 and back to the car for the Drive home.

Forecast is for a thawing couple of days and hopefully lots of ice building for the end of the week. Hopefully another last visit to the Ben on Thursday before I head For the Alps on Saturday morning.

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Pentlands again

Estelle and I headed past Ikea to the Penicuik side of the pentlands on Sunday the 6th.

Most of the recent snows had melted but the last day of the holidays meant a busy car park .

Estelle took some nice photos and i got cold hands (left my gloves in the car doh!)

Green Gully - epic day in a full Blizzard, loved it!

"Green Gully 04.01.08 - epic day in a full Blizzard, loved it!"

Simons comments about our climb on the Ben on Friday.

A good day out in challenging conditions.

The start was delayed by a couple of hours due to an accident on the A85 at Crianlarch.

I finally met Simon after practically running up the Allt a' Mhulinn path to the CIC at 10:30

It was cold and windy and we headed sraight up to the lochan in Garadh na Ciste in Ben Nevis where i dried off after the walk in!

Heading up to the bottom of the climb there was a fair amount of poder underfoot but not as much as i was expecting.

The climb was in good condition with decent ice on all the pitches. Spindrift was pouring which made the climb feel very wintery however in beteween the gusts the mountain had a very nice day feel.

Descent down number 4 was fine with very little snow build until very low down. The weather really moved in towards the end of the descent and care was required to find a good rout back to the CIC. Very strong Gusts making walking and navigation challenging.

We were blown all the way down the path to the car park.

Sorry no photos as im experimenting with my mums old camera and i think the auot focus is broken!

My first Pentlands outing!

Although i've lived in Edinburgh for 10 years i've never really explored the pentlands and recently decided that I really should. I chose a horrible wet and windy day to start.

starting from the Harlaw reservoir south of Balerno i headed in past the falls at the How . I headed up between Carnethy Hill and Scald Law the South West along the ridge and back round to Balerno.

Its a nice place although a wet and very windy day meqnt that yet again ,y boots did not really get a chance to dry out properly.

Deep Cut Chimney

First outing with a new partner is always interesting!

Simon and I headed for Coire nam Beith in Glencoe on the 30th of December.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=277521&v=1#x4117053

The forecast looked promising but the balmy day meant that we had a warm walk to the col and a quick descent before lunch.

Deep cut looked wet and summery with melting snow underfoot!