Needing to head high for something suitably snowy to do with lack of the white stuff ruling out a half-planned Torridon weekend, some Friday-night consideration of a Nevis easy gully fest with further WML practice soon gave way to thoughts of a similar excursion up Bidean nam Bian and Stob Coire nan Lochan. (more…)
29 January 2011
23 January 2011
Hills worth getting back to
Trying just to knock up a quick (?) weekend report to accompany some photos here, so afraid what you see is what you get… (more…)
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16 January 2011
First rule of river crossings
The first rule of river crossings (as any mountaineer should know) is don’t! (more…)
9 January 2011
Lurcher’s Crag and Kahtoola KTS Steel review
Sometimes when you want to go climbing and most of your traditional playgrounds are laden with unstable snow, it pays to think outside the box. Which is why (attracted by the prospect of carefree ice climbing on a sunny west face) Jamie B, Jay, Isi, Lorraine and I headed east on Friday to Lurcher’s Crag at the northern end of the Lairig Ghru. (more…)
5 January 2011
Knee-deep on Beinn a’ Chaorainn
Thought the East Ridge of Beinn a’ Chaorainn (a ‘fine 300m Grade II scramble’) looked like a good choice for today with fresh snow loading things up and any gullies that might have attracted me for a solo mountaineering day likely avalanche traps, but really can’t remember when I last found so much deep snow on a ridge! (more…)
4 January 2011
‘Working’ with the pros
Had a great day yesterday with Abacus Mountaineering shadowing Mike Pescod and Kenny Grant teaching winter skills to a Warwick University group on Cairn Gorm. Impressed by how much the guys managed to cover at a pace that stayed geared towards relaxed practice (seeing good retention here), and grateful to both instructors and students (some great smiles coming off the hill!) for letting me tag along. Still plenty to keep practising myself for February’s WML assessment, but it’s been both helpful and inspiring to see these guys at work and I’ve booked Kenny for a day to go through all my skills just before the assessment.
To the Warwick party we worked with (sending you some thoughts by telepathy?), I’d say Mike and Kenny have given you a great start there, so enjoy the rest of your week, keep practising and applying the skills, and stay safe! :-)
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1 January 2011
Ne’erday refreeze
Thought I was going to write an interesting post here combining a report of today’s testing run in much crisper conditions than Thursday’s soggy snow with some updates to my year-old running crampon review. (more…)