Petestack Blog

Trying just to knock up a quick (?) weekend report to accompany some photos here, so afraid what you see is what you get…

Spent yesterday on Sgor na h-Ulaidh because it’s local (but one of the very few local hills I’d only done once before) and I was struggling to get myself up to head off any further after running two hours a night from Tuesday to Friday! So settled for the short drive, took the scenic route via Aonach Dubh a’ Ghlinne and Stob an Fhuarain and thought the clouds from the temperature inversion stretching away down to Mull prettier than the ones that kept blowing in to blot out the sun. No snow low down but some good, crisp stuff on the ridge, an awkward, icy descent down steep, broken ground to finish and thoughts of returning for Red Gully (III) sometime when the lower pitches are looking a bit fatter.

Now, today’s visit to Creag Meagaidh might only have been my fourth, but they’ve all been quite productive with the first (many, many years ago) giving me my first taste of technical ice climbing, the third bringing my first Grade V (The Wand) and every Munro and Top of the massif bagged between the second and fourth. But it’s such a fabulous venue (with Coire Ardair boasting some of the mightiest cliffs in the country, an atmosphere all its own and a comparatively easy walk in) that four is still way too few and I found myself musing today that I might be falling in love with the place! So today’s trip took me to the summit by Raeburn’s Gully (chosen to get close to the harder gully lines of Smith’s and Ritchie’s as well as being a fine Grade 1 trip to the plateau in its own right), then round the south-western tops of An Cearcallach, Meall Coire Choille-rais, Puist Coire Ardair, Creag Mhor and Sron a’ Choire (requiring some proper whiteout navigation at times, on which note I’ve yet to find myself on that plateau when I could see!). And I’m guessing Raeburn’s was in as good, safe shape as it gets, having already deposited much of its former self as avalanche debris below and the remaining snow so nice (with great, kicked steps leading most of the way up) that my axe and crampons seemed largely precautionary until presented with a slightly icier top-out. Saw some activity on the way with a team clearing snow from the first pitch of Smith’s and noted that the entry pitch to Ritchie’s looks just as steep (at good value for IV?) as all the photos I’ve seen, but the most spectacular sights were probably the cracked-ice mosaic on the lochan below and the huge, impressive umbrella/canopy of thick, blue ice on the gully’s west wall above Ritchie’s. ‘Twas a proper pea-souper on top of Meagaidh, with some welcome visibility returning as I made my way back from An Cearcallach to take the sting out of traversing the Coire Choille-rais rim (massive cornices on the south-west side!) but the veil never lifting from the reigning peak (which seems to attract it like glue).

Took the GPS to record my track and double-check any really gnarly completed nav. legs to be sure I was starting the next from where I thought I’d got to, but nearly forgot to switch it on (see map, 1) and know it got confused in my rucksack pocket when it lost signal coming up Raeburn’s (map, 2).

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! :-)

Just back (last night) from Winter Mountain Leader Training at Glenmore Lodge with instructors Eric Pirie, David Haygarth and (for one day) John Armstrong. Don’t know when I last saw (or dug!) so much snow, but there was plenty to play with in conditions ranging from spectacularly clear to total whiteout, the standard of instruction was (as always with the Lodge) top class and the crack from instructors and fellow trainees alike was great.

Hard to summarise it all in a short post (and I do want to keep this short), but…

• I’m thinking some further self-arrest practice (a skill I’d maybe started taking for granted) might be good after taking an awkward knock to my ribs on my first or second (deliberate!) slide on the first day.
• It was a nice wee bonus to pick up a new Corbett I should have done before (Meall a’ Bhuachaille, where there’s a popular hill race I’ve never run) during some ‘pea soup’ navigation on the second day.
• I was looking forward to going over all those snow anchors (bucket seats, bollards, buried/reinforced/T-axes, stompers etc.) that I should be using more as a winter climber, so particularly enjoyed the sessions where we worked with these (imagine John Armstrong hurling ice axes off the side of the Fiacaill Ridge with a ‘whoops, he’s dropped his axe, what are you going to do about that?’).
• Having speculated whether the snow saw I carried to our snow hole site at the top of the Garbh Uisge Beag (shadowy cleft above red rucksack/below North Top of Ben Macdui in final photo) might prove to be the most/least useful thing I’d taken up a mountain, I have to say it was most certainly worth its weight and can’t now see myself heading out for some planned snow-holing (is anyone really daft enough for that?) without one!
• Despite really enjoying the course, it was a huge relief to finally be able to extract my van from the Lodge car park and get off down the road (returning to find a much lower-lying Kinlochleven also under snow) without any real difficulty.
• Having got used to courses where you come out of the final interview thankful to have passed, something feels ‘missing’ on finishing one where that’s not the final (hoped-for) outcome and I’m really fired up to keep getting out, working at things and return for Assessment this time next year.

Must also thank John McGilp for letting me take two in-service days and two teaching days to do this, and state my hope that those further in-service days following next year’s February break will produce a qualified Winter ML ready to start bringing winter skills to the school.

Back last night from a quick trip north-west (planned on some expectation of a wet Sunday and dry Monday) with Jamie B and Dan from The Ice Factor. Which predictably brought us both wet, claggy Sunday hillwalking and damper-than-hoped Monday climbing…

So we might have taken in three Fannich Munros (Meall a’ Chrasgaidh, Sgurr nan Clach Geala and Sgurr nan Each) on Sunday, but we didn’t see much. Not even enough for a good game of ‘snow, sheep or quartz?’ had all the ingredients been present. Although I did get full-blown hot aches (not so crazy in October when I’ve had them on the Buachaille in June!) after belatedly pulling on my gloves approaching the summit of Sgurr nan Clach Geala.

Monday took us to the gneiss (groan?) Jetty Buttress at Gruinard Bay, where we climbed Munroron (aka Crack Route, V Diff), Doddle (V Diff), Lilly the Pink (aka Red Slab Route, Hard Severe) and Route 6 (Hard Severe) in chilly, occasionally showery conditions. Now Lilly the Pink (or Red Slab Route, as it seems to have been named by no less than the great JHB Bell) was my choice of lead, up a clean streak of (guess what?) pink/red rock, with a short, steep, early crux up a little wall that felt just a little bold in the sub-optimum conditions and caused me some hesitation before committing. But that was nothing to the cold fingers that brought me my second bout of hot aches in two days as I followed Jamie up the more steeply sustained Route 6. Which reminds me (as if I needed it!) that I’m susceptible to them and suffered every time I went out last winter, and leaves me wondering what kind of glove system might both leave me some dexterity and spare me the pain this season.

With the weather continuing to be unsettled and frustratingly unpredictable after Monday’s amazing day on Shangri-la, I’m afraid that nothing from the remaining days of Angus’s ‘climbing’ holiday was going to come close to that particular highlight. But we did manage two more hill days of a ‘not quite climbing’ nature with a wet traverse of Meall Cumhann in Glen Nevis on Wednesday and ascent of Garbh Bheinn of Ardgour on Thursday…

Having long been aware that the traverse of Meall Cumhann promised a great little expedition but never actually done it, it’s pleasing to be able to report that it is indeed a little gem with the perfect location, height and character for an enjoyable short day in stunning surroundings. So perhaps the soggy conditions forced us to take the line of least resistance rather than enjoying completely unfettered scrambling, but I’d guess that it’s all right on the button at Grade 2 when dry.

Since Thursday was Angus’s last full day we’d hoped to do something special, but were frustrated again by weather initially forecast to be good just about everywhere, then poor, and eventually starting poorly before improving just when we’d expected it to be deteriorating again. So we headed for Garbh Bheinn intent on climbing the classic Great Ridge (where I’d hoped we could swing leads), but skipped the Direct Start because it was minging wet and spent far too long on a diversion too far up an even more minging ‘slabby gully’ (ignore the description under ‘Great Ridge’ in the 2001 SMC Glen Coe guide, take note of the ‘perhaps best missed out’ warning under ‘South-East Chimney’ and be aware that the early exit right necessary for Great Ridge is no more obviously attractive than continuing up!) before abseiling 20m or so from a grotty cul-de-sac (and anchor that I wouldn’t have used on steeper ground) to escape left and up via a grass terrace. After which we toyed with the idea of climbing an almost-dry Sgian Dubh before rejecting it on account of one minging wall in the initial chimney and continued uncertainty over whether conditions were improving or deteriorating. So perhaps our simple ascent of the mountain was ultimately something of a consolation prize, but still a good day out. Which, given everything we managed to get done despite the weather over the past ten days or so, still has to be a source of some satisfaction.

Yesterday Anne Petty and I took a slight chance on an indifferent forecast to traverse the Aonach Eagach, which she’s been looking forward to doing for some time. And it was alternately cloudy and clear, showery and dry, but thankfully never thundery! While damp rock always makes things more awkward (not least when the holds are as polished as those on this ridge), we went over just about everything (as I usually do, even when some of the smallest ‘pinnacles’ are avoidable), Anne appeared to be quite comfortable and the rope stayed in the bag.

With several other parties on the ridge including a family with a dog (well camouflaged against the rock in that cloudy first photo), we hope everyone had a good day and the dog managed all the more technical sections OK!

Today I was on an an avalanche awareness workshop run by Abacus Mountaineering for the Fort William Mountain Festival. It was wild weather, with vicious winds closing down the Aonach Mor gondola for the day shortly after we took it up in the morning, plenty of stinging precipitation and near white-out conditions most of the time.

Our instructor was Nigel Hooker and we were also fortunate to be able to follow SAIS observer Blair Fyffe for most of the day and watch him at work. While naturally observing and discussing snow conditions as continuously as possible (ie ‘not very’ in the case of discussing!) on such a foul day, we also saw Blair taking measurements from layers in a pit and Nigel performing a Rutschblock test.

The day finished with a discussion at the bottom cafe after walking down the mountain bike downhill track (not the ‘walk of shame’ because we knew there was no gondola to miss!). We came up with our own ‘report’ for the day and ‘forecast’ for tomorrow before comparing these to the ones Blair was about to publish, and were happy to note that they were remarkably similar.

All in all, a very good day although the weather did make some things difficult. But Blair and his colleagues are out dealing with this all the time, and that’s how you get such useful reports to help you decide whether or not to forsake the comfort of your nice, warm home for a day on the hill!