British Mountain Guides Winter Training

Yesterday was the last day of the British Mountain Guides winter training and after a particularly miserable day in the Northern Coires on Tuesday I think we’re all hoping for better weather for the assessment! The 5 days of training started off on Sunday up at Aonach Mor where we a quick look at teaching basic winter skills before moving on to short roping techniques.  Monday was a long day looking at guiding techniques to move quickly over easy mountaineering ground in Stob Coire nan Lochan, finishing off with some night navigation over Bidean nam Bian and down the Lairig Eilde.  

Coire an T-Sneachda on Tuesday was probably one of the wettest and coldest days I’ve had out on the hills in a while. The aim of the day was to look at guiding on harder mixed lines but due to conditions and some very black buttresses we ended up climbing a very wet Invernookie and Fiacaill Couloir.  Still we got what we needed from the day and had some very enjoyable climbing on Invernookie which was is good icy condition.

With a slightly improved forecast for Wednesday we went up to Ben Nevis to put all the guiding techniques together on Tower Ridge and finished off coming down Ledge Route. Conditions up high on the Ben look good with Tower ridge covered in bomber neve. We saw teams on Hadrian’s Wall, Point Five and Zero Gully which all looked good.

We finished off the week yesterday with Mark Diggins from the SAIS with a very informative presentation on Scottish specific avalanche issues and forecasting before heading up to Aonach Mor to look at the current snow and chat through a few topics. The snow in Lochaber was mostly very stable yesterday which has been great for safe travel in the mountains but didn’t lead to the most interesting snow profile to have a look at.  With it been so wet except for yesterday the camera stayed at home so no pics of conditions on the crags I'm afraid.

I’m over in the Cairngorms now and plan to be out climbing here and in the Northwest all next week so I’ll try and get some condition reports up a bit more regularly and remember the camera!

Loch Avon Basin and Cairngorm Conditions

We headed over to the Cairngorms on Wednesday morning for navigation practise up on Cairngorm plateau and a days climbing on Thursday.  After a prolonged coffee and bacon butty stop in Aviemore we wandered up to Coire an Sneachda and up onto the Cairngorm plateau via Fiacaill Ridge.  Conditions on the plateau were great for walking around on with firm snow everywhere and after visiting various practise navigation point we ended up on the top of Ben Macdui to be treated with an amazing brocken spectre.  Our plan of getting some night nav in was curtailed by a stunning full moon that lit everywhere up like day light...

On Thursday Derek and I headed over to the Loch Avon basin, originally we’d wanted to go and do Sticil Face on Shelter Stone although this aspect of the Shelter Stone was very white (the steeper lines are definitely black) the ice on the crux corner wasn’t there.  We opted for Guillotine on Carn Etchachan, looking across at it we’d been a bit dubious about whether it was white enough to be in condition but once on it was fine and gave three great pitches of climbing.  The atmospheric second (or third if you do it in four) pitch giving the route it’s name as you feel like you’re tunnelling into the mountain with the ‘guillotine’ a massive blade of rock, hanging above you followed by a short crux pitch to finish off.  We saw another team at the top that had climbed Scorpion and reported good conditions with a spicy top pitch and another pair starting up Route Major which looked in good condition too.

 

Elsewhere in the Loch Avon basin Hell’s Lum looked to be quite icy although The Chancre wasn’t touching down.  The Cascade was forming but the start was very thin and had melted out by the end of the day, the rest of Stag Rocks was very black.  A few photo’s of the crags below.

Yesterday we went out with Blair to pick his brains whilst he was doing his avalanche forecast for the SAIS in Creag Meagaidh.  The low cloud meant we didn’t get a good look at the crags to see what ice had survived the thaw but we did see a team starting up South Post Direct and one on The Pumpkin.  

Derek on the first pitch of Guillotine

 Climbers returning from Hell's Lum

Observation days with Jagged Globe

I've been out the last couple of days observing on a Jagged Globe 'Winter Mountaineering' course to pick up some tips on teaching winter skills and general guiding in the Scottish winter environment.  We spent the first day up on Aonach Mor refreshing the groups basic winter skills and looking at the snow pack before heading up into Stob Coire nan Lochan today to put these into use with the students safely leading themselves up Broad Gully.  Its great to be able to get out with very good and experienced instructors to see how they make the most of every situation throughout the day to get teaching point across and demonstrating them.

 

 teaching in full on Scottish conditions

Condition wise there had been quite a bit of fresh snow high up over the last 24 hours and the buttresses in Stob Coire nan Lochan were looking a bit whiter with lots of snow on ledges but the steeper lines are still a bit bare.  

Stob Coire nan Lochan today

New blog and Scotland bound

Welcome to my new blog, it’s still a bit of a ‘work in progress’ quiet like my writing! But I’m hoping to keep it updated as regularly as possible with general climbing bits, trip reports, my progression through the British Guides training scheme and reviews of the gear I’m using.  I've also copied all my posts from the Mountain Equipment blog that I've been contributing to over the last year or so.

I’m up in Scotland now for the next couple of months for the Scottish winter part of my British guides training, 5 days of training at the end of this month and then a 6 day assessment at the end of February. With lots of prep to do for this and hopefully some personal climbing too I should be out on the hill most days so I’ll try and get some useful condition info up on a fairly regular basis.  I’m really psyched to be up here as it’s a whole new play ground for me and the first winter I’ve spent in the UK for a lot of years. So with lots of classics to go at and hopefully a few visits to the more wilder venues over the next few months I’m just hoping the conditions will return as it’s safe to say there is a massive thaw going on at the moment...

We wandered up Carn Mor Dearg on Thursday and then into Creag Meagaidh on Friday to potter about on the plateau just to try and get to know the area. In the end we didn’t even make it up to the Window as the motivation to struggle on in horizontal rain and very strong wind wasn’t there! If the ice survives the thaw though it should come really good as the main drainage lines were still looking fat.

 Creag Meagaidh today

Bowfell Buttress

Before last week’s thaw set in I was starting to quite enjoy my day hits to the Lakes (well the whole two I managed to get in) for some winter climbing, wake up at six, jump in the car, a full day on the hill, good pub grub and back home by nine. None of those long caffeine fuelled drives north on a Friday evening and arriving back home in the wee hours of Monday morning a few hours before work.

A couple of weekends ago Leanne and I decided to head for the classic mixed route of the Lakes, Bowfell Buttress. Once again the weather was amazing and we walked up Bowfell looking across an alpine Lake District. Looking across at a very white looking Gimmer Crag we had a slight niggling feeling that maybe we should be over there. Given Kevin Avery’s report from that day and had we know how rare it is for the crag to be in winter condition maybe we should have... But we couldn’t complain, four pitches of classic mixed climbing with a bit of everything thrown in showed us why this is one the classic buttress routes of the Lakes.

Looking back at Gimmer Crag and down Langdale

2nd pitch

3rd pitch (going a bit wrong and coming up this grove instead of stepping on to the slab to the right... i think?)

4th pitch

The last couple of weekends in the Lakes, as i said above, have been amazing crisp alpine days, meaning the Gore Tex hasn't been out once. So clothing vise I've been using the following:

Atlus LS Zip T
Couloir Hooded Jacket
Shield Jacket
Fitzroy Jacket

G2 Ultimate Mountain Pants (with thin thermal bottoms underneath)

Randonee Gloves (I've used these in Alaska, Nepal, the Alps and Scotland, they just seem to work every where!)
Couloir Gloves
Powerstretch beanie

I've be taking my new Scarpa Phantom Guides out for the first time the last couple of weeks and so far I've been very impressed with them. Not as rigid as the previous model this makes the walk in/out a lot more comfy, which lets face it is a big part of winter climbing in the UK, but put a decent crampon on and they give ample support for technical climbing as well as being very light for their warmth.

Winter sun in the Lakes

Cat and I got out last Sunday for our first experience of Lakes winter climbing and were treated to a beautiful crisp alpine day on Helvellyn (is it like this all the time??). After a slightly later than planned start we drove over from Yorkshire and eventually wandered into Red Tarn a bit after midday. With teams everywhere we decided just to head up the central gully to the very busy summit and take in the amazing snow covered panorama of the Lake District.

Quite content just savouring the views out of the wind in the sun we eventually decided after a few cups of tea that we should probably head back down and do something else. After a few false starts trying to find a route with no one on it we eventually end up on Blade Runner which gave a great pitch up a turf filled grove before finishing the day off coming down Striding edge in just stunning evening sun.

The snow started again just as we got to the top of Kirkstone pass and after an ‘interesting’ drive down to Windermere and a failed attempt to get back across the A65 I made it into work only a little late on Monday morning. Needless to say the snow tyres are now on the car rather than sat useless at the back of workshop! Big thanks to Ewen and Clare for putting us up at the last minute in Kendal.

It wasn't to be

Amazing views from the south summit of Mera Peak, 5 of the 14 8000m peaks visible

You win some and you loose some, and unfortunately we were definitely beaten by the mountain this time, but we’re both back safe and sound which at the end of the day is a good result for any trip. The disappointment as you’ve might have guess is that we didn’t get to stand on the top of Kyashar, for me its not just because we didn't get up the route and stand on the summit but more that we didn’t get to give it a good go, no one’s fault, just the way it works out sometimes.

The local youths!

Sorting kit and food at base camp below Kyashar

After savouring the views on the south summit of Mera peak, sorting the gear in base camp and a brief winter snow storm we set off up the face on the 3rd November. Steep grassy slopes and broken slabs led to our high point of a recce a few days ago and at 4890m we changed into rock boots for the first actual climbing.

The start of the climbing at 4890m, soloing up the initial slabs (photo - Tony Stone)

Dirty lichen covered slabs lead for 50m to more broken ground leading us higher into the complex rock buttress. Easy scrambling interspersed with the odd tricky step accessed a ramp feature we’d spotted when scoping the face. It was very Eiger reminiscent, loose scree covered terraces surrounded on all sides by steep, clean granite walls. More through good luck than anything else we were getting high on the buttress without any technical difficulties, the ropes still coiled round us. Higher the ramp turned into a steeper gully and we got the ropes out for three long pitches of Cilan style loose rock, the final one feeling quite ‘exciting’ but giving way to easy ground and the top of the buttress.

One of the many loose terraces between the steeper steps

Finding a way through the choss on the final pitch of the initial buttress (photo - Tony Stone)

On the rock wall leading to the glacier (photo - Tony Stone)

Where next? This is one of the things I love about trying new routes, the unknowns. We could see where we wanted to get to, the small glacier glinting in the evening sun, tempting us up to catch the final rays, but a steep wall looked to block easy access. Coming round into a massive boulder strewn bay we’d expected to be cramming our toes back into rock boots but were happy to find a fault line leading easily up through the rock wall that brought us to a five star bivi at the base of the glacier. The following morning after a leisurely start savouring the warming rays of the sun (the joys of a south face) we were breaking trail up the glacier to reach the snow crest that lead to the base of the upper pillar.

Savouring the morning sun

Heading up towards the main face

How your body will adapt, no matter how fit you are, to altitude is anyone’s guess and there’s only one way to find out – by getting on with it. This was Tony’s first trip to altitude and he’d been struggling with it since the start, having to descend from the high camp on Mera Peak with signs of server AMS (acute mountain sickness). But still with having spent a night at 5500m on Mera it wasn’t too bad. Unfortunately the altitude was still playing havoc with Tony and we made the safe call to bail before getting committed any higher on the pillar where altitude illness would have led to a serious situation.

Retracing our steps

Descending the big bay below the glacier, the fault line we'd followed through he rock wall isn't visible but starts just behind Tony's back and went diagonally up right to the glacier just visible

There are still lots of unknowns on this route, but it gave me a sneak preview and a few of the answers, but more importantly temptation and psyche to be back. And anyway the failures keep you on your toes make those successes all the more special.

The boys that help make it all possible

Many thanks to Mountain Equipment, Black Diamond, Scarpa, Tendon Ropes, Lorpen Socks, SIS and Adidas Eyewear for their continued support and our agent Loben Expeditions for another first class service. The expedition was funded with help from The BMC and the Alpine Club Climbing Fund.