Fluted Buttress Coire an -t Sneachda

Andy leading the first pitch.

Sandy on the top pitch

We have been so fortunate, Andy and I climbed a new four pitch route in the Northern Corries of the Cairngorms today.
It an interesting technical line squeezed in between Spiral Gully, and Wave Length

and nearing the top it shares some of a line named Lambda. Graded IV,6 its an interesting climb which we named Facet Hunters!

Cairngorm climbing and skiing

Stob Corie an-t Sneachda from the Fiacaill Chorie Chais, sheets of glazed ice predominate on wind scoured slopes!

Great cover for good on piste skiing at Cairngorm Mountain, meanwhile while there are some nice patches off snow off-piste there are also many hard icy patches, so if you are venturing off- piste, you have been warned!

Abernethy

We were doing navigation practice on Bynak More {1090m} today. The strong winds at 50 mph winds prevented us from reaching the summit but a great day was had never the less!

Ski Touring, Cairngorm

Well, seem to have misplaced my camera so no blog photos, never the less we had a good days ski touring with Will yesterday at Cairngorm Mountain. Had to navigate around the summits thought and snow conditions are very variable and high up on corrie rims etc one has to be incredibly sensitive to the terrain as its quite unstable. At lower altitudes, below 750m conditions are great although there are large patches of exposed ice on wind blown slopes which are quite treacherous! On piste, and where the piste machine drivers have been, the skiing is magnificent!

Happy Christmas

Wishing you all a merry Christmas!

Rutschblock or Glide-Block test

Old tricks being taught to new dog!

Carn an Tuirc

Enjoyed a good ski traverse today! Here we are on the way up to the summit of Carn an Tuirc.

Glen Feshie, Cairngorm, Scotland

Well, this morning I was determined to have a day in the office, but sneaked a look at Face Book and my pal Andy was on line and one thing led to another and we went climbing!
Interesting photo above, the answer is blowing in the wind of course, transported snow is what snow nerds call it, interestingly right now high on our hills a lot of this transported snow is sitting on a melt freeze or rain crust with solid layers below which are ace for climbing. The trick is to watch it all very carefully, if the rain crust is still wet when the snow falls then the new snow will bond to it, if its frozen, the new snow will probably bond poorly.... also as we walked in to our climb today lots of graupel crystals were visible on my Scarpa Phanthom guide boots. The orange gaiter is perfect for showing up crystals!.....better check the SAIS web site, all the areas were issuing their reports today!

Part way up our climb

Andy and I soloed for a while and then roped up for the technical sections, and ace day out!

Avalanche awareness

An interesting training day on Cairngorm.

Cairngorm Mountain

An amazing day on Cairngorm today, the snow cover is good and the piste skiers were enjoying the conditions. For touring its pretty good!

Glencoe days

Andy on the top pitch of Oz, ours is the first winter ascent {FWA} at VII/ 7. The climb is a summer VS and the first summer ascent was by B W Robertson and G Anderson.

Andy leading the first pitch of Oz, which was also very interesting!

Yesterday, John belaying on the second pitch of the FWA of Rose Late. This was first climbed as a rock climb in 1953 by L S Lovat and and JM Johnstone.

Wonderful day in Glencoe

Great views from Aonach Dubh today.

Torridon last week

My pal Andy just emailed me this photo from our climb last week.

A hectic but enjoyable long weekend!

We got a climb done near Rio De Janeiro on Monday with Adriano and Manu, the climbing area is near Petropolis on a crag named Pedra do Pastor!

Cara graduated from the University of Stirling on Friday afternoon and the celebrating was fun. From left to right, its Hannah, Cara and Janis....
the thorn among the roses is yours truly!

With my pals Andy and Jon we climbed a new line on the far west buttress of Ben Eighe, before the snow started we enjoyed some good views during the approach.