An exploratory day on Pinnacle Buttress, Ben Nevis

An absolutely amazing day out on Ben Nevis today, with clear blue skies and no wind.  It doesn't get any better!  Mike, Scott and I didn't have any concrete plans when we met up this morning, but by the time we had reached the car park, we had decided to head up to the lesser climbed area of Pinnacle Buttress on the eastern side of Tower Ridge.  On the approach, the snow had firmed up after a substantial thaw and good re-freeze, making travel around Coire Na Ciste pretty straight forward.  There was some avalanche debris at the base of No. 2 Gully and The Trident Buttresses.
 

Mike venturing up pitch 1.

Mike led the first pitch of 'Pinnacle Buttress Direct V,5', which sported some good snow-ice, but also some patches of very brittle hard ice.  An interesting mixed move right finished off a great intro pitch.  Mike had spotted a corner which may or may not have been climbed before, so Scott led us to the base of the corner.  I took over the lead, and found the 'possibly climbed before' corner quite bold, but with good ice and turf, the pitch felt reasonably secure.  The crux was a steepening at about two thirds height, which was fortunately well protected by an awkward to place thread.  Mike's next lead was pretty uneventful, up easy snow slopes, so he then led the final pitch to the top of the Great Tower.  Again, a variety in the quality of ice made the pitch quite tricky, particularly an awkward move right over a very thinly iced up slab with very small features for feet.  This brought us out onto the Great Tower, just before Tower Gap, and with the sunshine on the plateau looking so appealing, we finished up Tower Ridge.


It was a pretty quiet day on Ben Nevis, with teams on 'Glover's Chimney III,4', 'Green Gully IV,4', 'Hadrian's Wall Direct V,5' , 'Moonwalker IV,3', 'Garadh Gully' and numerous teams going up and down 'Number 4 Gully I'. The crags of Coire Na Ciste look a lot blacker than those on the eat face of Aonach Mor, but I did hear of some mixed action on some of the modern test pieces taking place today.  The higher buttresses will provide some good mixed climbing, but it does look like the ice lines will be getting a lot of attention over the next few days.
 

Dramatic scenery on the top pitch.

It seems that we weren't the only ones to have been climbing on Pinnacle Buttress of the Tower recently: first ascent of 'Goodfellas VII,8'

A quick blast: White Shark, Aonach Mor

With a small window of time in which to climb today, I teamed up with Scott and Dave, for a quick route on the east face of Aonach Mor.  Conditions haven't been great since the weekend, with quite a substantial thaw stripping a lot of the snow, and certainly reports from yesterday suggested that the mixed routes on Ben Nevis were quite black.  The weather last night and this morning has solved that.  With strong north-easterly winds bringing in moisture, the rime has been building up well on the buttresses, and it's looking very wintery up on the east face at the moment.  The cornices have firmed up, although they are still quite large, and the top of Easy Gully will warrant the use of a rope for access for the time being.

Dave leading into the clouds

 'White Shark IV,4' is a route I had a go at a couple of years ago, but it was during quite mild temperatures, and the top ice pitch had become detached  from the rock, so I escaped up an equally serious 'Aquafresh IV,4', to it's left.  This time however, things were a little different.  The ice was in good shape, taking both 'good' ice screws and mostly first time axe placements.  Dave led the first pitch, to just beneath the steep crux pitch, I then led on through, up the steep ice, to find a convenient tunnel through the cornice, therefore avoiding the need for any awkward top-outs. There were only two pitches, so unfortunately Scott wasn't able to jump on the sharp end.  Car to car, it took 4 1/2 hours, which made quite a pleasant change from 'the norm'!


The weather for the next few days looks good, with light winds, lowish temperatures and little precipitation, the climbing conditions on Aonach Mor and Ben Nevis should be excellent!

The looming cornice at the top

The convenient tunnel through the cornice

A route less travelled: The Groove Climb, Ben Nevis

Scott tackling pitch 1 of The Groove Climb.  

If there was a freeze last night, it must have been very brief, as today the snow was quite soft and freezing levels had risen to around 1100m, and with an evident thaw in process, Scott and I decided to head up high again.  The cloud base was at around 700m as we entered Coire Na Ciste (again), and visibility was down to about 100m.  With far less climbers about, and with the cloud in, Ben Nevis took on a very different feel to yesterday.

We ended up retracing our footsteps from yesterday, to seek out a somewhat obsure, yet one starred climb called 'The Groove Climb V,6', which was only a few metres to the left of yesterday's 'Slab Climb'.  The routes aren't fantastically imaginatively named here!  Despite it's short 70m length, the route manages to squeeze in a number of obstacles, the first being loose, unconsolidated snow on the steep and sustained first pitch, which Scott led well, particularly as the gear wasn't great, and then quite a strenuous, but safe, pull out of a very tight cave/belay up and over the capping chockstone, onto easier ground above, which I led.  A long traverse leftwards brought us to a huge spike, from which we were able to abseil down (60m), and down climb back to the packs.

Guy and John were on 'Slab Climb' and then 'Wendigo IV,4', other teams on 'Zero Gully V,4', 'Hadrian's Wall Direct V,5', 'Number 2 Gully Buttress III', 'Green Gully IV,4' and 'Thompson's Route IV,4'.  The forecast is again for the freezing levels to be above the summit, but all the mentioned routes should be ok, however there will be an increased risk of avalanches with the increase in temperature and precipitation, so care is needed.

One to come back to: Slab Climb, Ben Nevis

This morning, the path up the Allt a' Mhuillin, to the CIC Hut was perhaps the busiest I've ever seen it.  Strung out along 4km, I counted 20 headtorches, everyone with heads down, heading to their own adventures on the impressive crags on the north face of Ben Nevis.  Scott and I also had our own adventure in mind, to try 'Slab Climb VI,7' on South Trident Buttress, in Coire Na Ciste.

Scott leading pitch 1 of Slab Climb, Ben Nevis

Scott led the first pitch well, managing the ropes well in order to protect me on a tricky, and slightly insecure down climb of a few meters.  I then took over the lead, to attempt the crux pitch.  From the belay, the crux pitch is a soaring slab of 40m, riddled with small overlaps, small ledges and two parallel cracks running vertically.  I hooked my way carefully up, constantly searching for cracks suitable to place gear, but everything seemed to be flared, iced up, or too thin.  After about 8m of climbing, I finally uncovered a bit of tat around the tiniest of chockstones, and thankfully clipped it, deciding that this, as my first tech 7, might be a little too bold today.  We abseiled off, promising to come back another day to try this route. The guidebook does suggest that the route is reasonably well protected and best climbed early season under powder, making me think that it's best without ice lined cracks.  You live and learn!

The temperatures at 900m were just above freezing, due to a temperature inversion (temperature increasing with height), so the snow became wetter as the day progressed, and the top layer of wind slab came away easier as the day progressed.  It's due a freeze tonight which will help consolidate this.  Many of the Ben Nevis classics were climbed today including 'Point 5 Gully V,5', 'Green Gully IV,3', 'Gargoyle Wall VI,6', Darth Vader VII,7', North East Buttress 'IV,4' and 'Glover's Chimney III,4'

Solitude on the West Face of Aonach Mor

Martyn Stott leading the way

Today, given the SAIS Forecast for Lochaber, and the need to get back early, Martyn, Lena and I hatched plans to head up to the West Face of Aonach Mor.  I've only climbed on the West Face a couple of times before, but both times, and today, there was not another soul about, giving a real feeling of solitude despite the proximity of the Nevis Range ski area and gondola.  The valley through which the Allt Daim flows is pretty spectacular.

We decided to climb 'Daim Buttress III', and at 500m, offers a great climb with a true mountaineering feel about it.  We moved together for the most part, but pitched a tricky section, just left of the obvious slabs.  Conditions were reasonable, however the turf hadn't quite re-frozen on the lower reaches of the route, and the upper reaches had a surprising amount of freshly deposited wind slab.  Not enough to cause concern on the ridge, but enough to give gullies a wide berth.  I had a look from the top of Easy Gully (no sign of any climbers having gone down) over towards The Ribbed Walls and Central Buttress on the East Face, and there is a lot of snow about, especially on the upper snow slopes, and the cornices looked huge!

Book Review: Rockfax Climbing Guide to El Chorro, Spain

Below is a book review I had published in Mountaineering Council of Scotland's quarterly publication, The Scottish Mountaineer in 2010.

Being predominantly a Scotland based climber, the series of Rockfax Guidebooks hadn’t crossed my path frequently, however last year, once the autumnal rains had set in, and the prospect of dry rock seemed a while away, I looked to get away, and so, with the venue of El Chorro chosen, all I could do was to wait until Rockfax printed their new guidebook to the area. 

Fortunately over the festive period, the guidebook landed on my doormat, and first impressions were quickly established.  I think I speak for a large number of El Chorro guidebook users, in that I really felt that one of the biggest flaws is the front cover.  The old cliché goes ‘you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover’, and whilst I’m sure the climber in question is overjoyed that she’s managed to gain pole position within the guidebook, it just misses the essence of what’s available in and around the magnificent gorge of El Chorro.

Despite that, and moving on to the all important content and layout, the guidebook reflects the hard labour, which Mark Glaister has poured into this publication.  The tried and tested layout of Rockfax, works well, providing just enough information about each route to still give a healthy degree of adventure.  The photo topos when combined with clear and simple maps, used throughout, enabled ease of route (and sector) finding, particularly when trying to navigate around the extensive Frontales crags.  A number of outlying crags are also detailed in the guidebook, allowing climbers the welcome change of scenery.

It must be noted that the greatest challenge found within the guidebook, for some, may well not be a redpoint attempt on Orujo, weighing in at a hefty 9a+ at Archidona, but in finding the 20 bulls, hidden, sometimes with ridiculous obscurity throughout the guidebook, something for those rare wet days…

If heading out for some winter sun, Rockfax’s El Chorro Guidebook should be high on any climber’s list, and having met plenty of local and international climbers out there, all using this guidebook, it would seem that this guidebook has become the number one choice.

The winter season so far…

I thought it was about time to get a blog up and running, and to kick things off, here is a brief summary of my winter so far.  The season got off to a good start, despite a fruitless walk into Observatory Gully back in November, to find ‘Observatory Ridge IV,4′ in poor condition, the following day proved to be much more successful, with a trip over to The Cairngorms to climb ‘Original Summer Route IV,5′.  The route gave three reasonably sustained pitches of mixed climbing, which led to a convenient abseil back into ‘Aladdin’s Couloir’.

The following weekend, I teamed up with Guy Stevens with the intention of climbing ‘Gargoyle Wall VI,6′ high up on Number 3 Gully Buttress on Ben Nevis.  Many other teams had similar plans, so we decided to have a go at ‘Darth Vader VII,7′ instead.  Guy led the middle two crux pitches well, despite a particularly strenuous crux out of the cave of the second belay.  I then proceeded to lead the slightly bold top pitch to top out close to Number 3 Gully.

Crux pitch of Tower Face of the Comb

The following weekend, Tony Shepherd and I headed back up into Coire Na Ciste on Ben Nevis to have a look at ‘Tower Face of the Comb VI,6′, a route which had been on Tony’s ticklist for sometime.  According to the SMC Winter Climbs Guidebook, it’s one of the best mixed routes on the mountain, Tony was certainly in agreement.  The going was quite tough, with a lot of fresh powder on the route, but fortunately the gear was reasonable and with a bit of clearing, the crux pitch did reveal some good hooks.  All in all, one of the best routes I’ve climbed.

A solo of ‘Raeburn’s Easy Route II’ saw the end of 2010, conditions were far from ideal due to a substantial thaw.  Scott Kirkhope and I then wandered route to Tower Gully to have a look at the higher crags on the mountain.  ‘Smith’s Route V,5′ and the routes on Indicator Wall were far from climbable.  ‘Hadrian’s Wall Direct V,5′ was complete but very, very thin.

The 2nd of January saw Scott, Hannah and I heading into Creag Meagaidh to see what the Post Face had to offer.  A few other teams had similar plans, so we opted for ‘South Post Direct V,4′.  The ice was quite hard and brittle, which meant the various icefalls on the route were quite hard for the grade.  We felt it to be more like V,5 given the conditions.

The most recent climb this season was ‘Scabbard Chimney V,6′ on Summit Buttress, Stob Coire Nan Lochain in Glencoe.  The route had been on both mine and Scott’s ticklist for a while, so it was great to walk into the coire to see that we were going to have the route to ourselves.  It was a glorious day, with little wind, and we made quick work of the three pitches to finish just above the crux pitch, and abseiled off in one 60m ab.  The crux pitch, although short, was quite technical, so it was quite handy to find three in-situ pegs to protect the 18m of climbing.

Since then, the weather has deteriorated, with high temperatures and rain.  The forecast does suggest cooler and more stable weather for this coming week, so let’s hope that this materialises!