Comb Gully

Climbing with my photographer friend Brian today! so hopefully have some good images later from a another good weather day on the Ben.

Comb Gully in Coire na Ciste was the target for the day and despite all my efforts to drop all my gear on the walk in we managed to top out just before 1pm.




Brian approaching the second belay!


The summit was much less windy and hence more pleasant than expected and we had some lunch before descending down number four.

Teams on Thompsons,Green, 0.5, Zero, No 2 and others but generally a nice quiet day.

Lots of melt since I was last on the ben a week past Saturday and the Curtain is now no more than a dribble!



L-R the Cascade - Comb - N3 Gully Buttress - N3 Gully

This might be the last winter day of the season for me although I might go for one more visit this coming Saturday!

Just for a laugh I am going to post my Stats for the season showing m's climbed road miles travelled , double deckers eaten etc etc .

Watch this spce for the upcoming Statto post!

Relaxing Weekend

This Weekend Estelle, Gerome and I went on a quick road trip up to Aberdeen and back to Edinburgh down the A93!

On the way up on Saturday we went a walk up in Glen Clova to Corrie Fee:




Sunday morning we went to see Balmoral Castle the private Holiday residence of the Queen.
I'm not generally a big fan of castles but this was very interesting .




Lochnager was looking very snowy on the way past in comparison to the slopes at Glenshee which were not!

Ben Nevis - Unfinished business!

A late return to Ben Nevis last Saturday to catch the last of this years ice. In fact the ben is holding lots of ice and snow and with the current weather we might get another climb out of this year yet but we will have to recover from our huge day out on Saturday First.

We left Edinburgh at 9:30pm Saturday night and made the familiar drive to Torlundy , pitched our tents and tried to get some sleep. Porridge was served by Simon at 6:00 and we were on our way up the path by 7am.




The walk in gave loads of promise with the whole of the North face looking very wintery but without the fierce wind that we have experianced on all to many early walk in's to the CIC.

We decided to head into Coire na Ciste partially due to the hoards of people heading in the direction of .5 zero smiths etc!

And after a lovely walk in we arrived at the base of 2 step corner to find a group climbing on Diana to our left but our route clear!

We visited 2 step in January but found the build up in sufficient on the upper sections. Today the base of the route looked promising and we changed our order from our january visit and Simon lead up the First Pitch.



I followed up and lead up a glorious second pitch to a rock belay at the side of the no3 Buttress Snow ramp.

Simon headed across to take a look at the upper section which on closer inspection we decided was going to submit today!

The ice looked good and our only concern was escape from the huge cornice at the head of the route. The ice on the fourth pitch was great but for a small section of thin icicle which for some reason was not very well formed. Lots of unconsolidated snow ice in between solid water ice made things a bit spicy. I had good gear which was just as well as I managed to take my first lead fall on ice. Three metres back to nearly the level of the belay held on my upper screw. I managed to leave one axe in the wall!


This photo from Simon's phone is me on the fourth pitch just before the dodgy icicle!

I took a moment and recomposed myself took my spare axe from my sack and headed up for another go!

After the bulge of the icicle it was all or nothing the ice was great but gave little away for the next twenty five metres to just below the cornice.

A very happy me arrived onto a small snow ledge below the cornice just before 3:30pm. I brought Simon up and quickly changed over to escape the cornice and bomb down number 4 !


A pint in the Clachaig on the way home finished off an ideal day on the Ben and given the weather we might just get one more this season!

Vanoise March 2008

Estelle and I headed for Friburge in the Vanoise National Park over Easter.

We did a load of Cross country sking and Estelle managed to learn to fait le pas patineur!



At the end of our Stay I did a great day of touring / off Piste and discovered some of the un tracked ground between the le Plagne ski area and the valley of Champagny le Haut. I was with Marc a Guide from Grenoble through Oxygen Ski School see his site below:

Marcs Site!


A great day out with great snow, great weather and great scenery.