This week I have been out on a walking week with Brenda and Peter. We have had a week of contrasts from amazing sun and bitter cold to warm and cloud to blizzards.

The week started well on Aonach Mor. With a cold clear day we used the gondola t access the rock hard snow. where we had a good training session.

Monday saw us on the Ben. forecast for later in the week were mixed so it looked like this was going to be our best day. And what a day blue sky inversion and very cold great winter conditions. We climbed the Ben via the abseil posts in Coire Leis which was steep and icey. Then had an amazing lunch on the top in the sun.

Here is Brenda and Peter walking across the plateau of the Ben.

Tuesday was not quiet so nice and Ben a Chaorainn was cloudy and damp but the snow was good, sorry no photos that day. Wednesday was better Glencoe was our venue and Buchaille Etive Beag was our mountain of the day. It was overcast and cool the snow was still crisp but the lower altitude meant there was less snow on the hill. Still a good day was had and we were down in time for a tea shop. Cant be bad.

Our final day, Thursday was a real contrast full on winter conditions, cold blowing snow heavy snow showers. We walked up Stob Bhan on the Mamores and once on the ridge it was wild luckily we were prepared with ski goggles to help with the spindrift which really stung in the gusty wind.

But we eventually made the top and beat a hasty retreat back down again.

Overall a good winter week lets hope they continue. More snow on the hill today but very wind.

One of my friends who is a builder and SMC member was going up to repair the roof of the CIC hut on Ben Nevis today. As I was not doing anything I agreed to help. The hut was badly damaged in the big storm on December 8th and was in desperate need of repair.

Neil arranged to have the materials flown up to the hut so all we had to do was get to the hut for 8 a.m. which meant a 5 a.m. start from Oban. luckily it was a fine day one of the first for a while and the flights went without a hitch.

After a long day working on the walls and roof the hut was in much better shape it is going

to get a temporary skin on Friday and a new permanent roof hopefully next week. The way Neil has anchored the roof down this time it would take a bomb to move it.

Whilst I was up I took a few photos to show the conditions. which are thin but there are a few route climbable. lots of folk were heading up Observatory Gully some onto Tower Ridge and others Tower Scoop n Good Friday Climb etc. Quite a few going into Coire na Ciste doing Green and Comb and Central Right Hand amongst other routes.

Coire Na Ciste:

The Orion Face / Observatory Ridge areas.

Looks good for the next few days.......

A Happy New Year to any readers out there whom I havent seen yet.

The new year started much as the old year finished, stormy, mild and wet. This week-end I was over east in the hope of fiding some better weather and some snow. On Saturday I was out with Anne and soome of her friends from the web forum Scottish Hills.

We walked into Coire na Sneachda and at least it was cold enough to snow. I was amazed how little snow there was on the Cairngorms the skiing was just lines down the fences and once we walked into the coire it soon became apparent tht there wasnt much there either.

We stopped at the botton of the Goat Track and had a good roll about. The wind had picked up now and the spindrift was unpleasant. The guys had a good roll about andthere was some ice to crampon around on so we had a good session finishing off with some emergency shelters.

Sunday it was back west and Oban MRT training. We caught the Glencoe ski lift and used there very useful Transevier Park to pratice our avalanche rescue skills. But the weather was very poor. Not to windy but thawing and raining. The snow was melting like mad and we all got very wet but had a good session.

Thanks to the Glencoe Ski area for holding the lifts for us, so we got a ride down as well.

The forecast is looking colder later in the week so keep your fingers crossed.

My last two days out for 2011. Yesterday I went out with Norman and James and we went up the ZigZags on Gear Aonach and then on over Stob Coire nan Lochan. It was a very windy and snowy day the rocks high up were very icey and it was hard going underfoot. I didn't take any pictures sorry.

Today we were up the Ben the wind had dropped but the snow started early and by the time we got to Ledge Route it was snowing hard but at least it wasn't to windy. James lead his dad up the route in fine style and we topped out into a very white and wild world

The initial gully of Ledge Route

The upper ridge of Ledge Route.

We had to pace it out to the top of No4 gully before zipping off down the Red Burn and down into the rain and very wet bogs lower down.

So that was my last ascent of Ben Nevis this year.

I hope you all have a safe and happy New Year out there

Loads of snow o the hills and climbing conditions improving by the day. But hard going underfoot for the walking fraternity. So Damon and I decided to take the skis for a walk up a couple of Munro's that I haven't done before. Sgiath Chuil and Meal Glas over in Glen Dochart.

These two Munro's also make a superb ski tour. We walked for about 20 Min's before we could ski but soon were skinning away up our first Munro Sgaith Chuil it was surprisingly fast about 2hours 15 mins to the top with the walking teams floundering through the breakable crust.

Ali's 6th Munro on Sgiath Chuil looking west to Meall Glas.

The descent was steep and hard and I walked some of it when it got tussocky. But the bealach was full of snow and the re ascent to Meall Glas was superb.

Damon Skinning away up Meall Glas on superb snow.

We topped out at about 14.00 and had a leisurely 2nd lunch before striping off the skins for the ski down. The snow was excellent and even I managed a few turns between the craters. We skied right back to where we put or skis on that morning with legs burning. An excellent day

You know what they say if you dont like the weather just wait 5 minutes and it will change. Well that's cretainly true again today. Yesterday we had snow to sea level in Oban and heaps on the hill. Overnight it rained here and in the last 24 hours we have had 38mm of rain/snow/hail etc. Now its just blowing a hoolie bringing heavy hail showers through. At least the hills are white so this must be doing the climbing some good, packing the snow in.

Forecast crap as usual looks stormy for the next couple of days.....

Oh well lets have anothere cuppa

A wild and wooly Sunday 4th December out training with Oban MRT. Beinn an Dothaidh is a reliable venue for early season snow and ice and it did not let us down.

The walk in from Achallader Farm was fairly easy with snow all the way, the crags looked good but the bogs were nowhere near frozen and it was very wet under the snow. There were a few other brave soles out on the hill, two even climbed a route next to west gully.

This was the nice part of the day, the showers were vicious and the spindrift ... well pleasant in a wild sort of way.

We had a good roll about in the snow, did a few medical things and dragged the stretcher back down the hill. a good day was had by all.

 

I am writing this as the month has just turned to December. What an autumn it has been there has definitely been no drought up here. a couple of days ago we had 60 mm of rain in 24hours. But there have been some good days although few and far between.

This autumn I have been off the hill injured for six weeks. The cause was a sprained ankle. This was achieved by trying to skateboard at a skate park with my daughter Catherine. Thinking I was still a teenager, I went for it and was doing well until I fell off on a ramp and landed badly. You don't bounce so well when you get older I have decided.

Anyway that is in the past and I am now back on the hill. Here are a couple of autumn colours photos from my limited walks:

The summit of Ben Lora our local wee hill with Mull, Lismore and the Forth of Lorn in the background.

Beinn Sgulaird with GlenCoe behind

Ali on Beinn Sgulaird his 6th munro

I am on the hill on Sunday with Oban MRT so hope to bring some snowy pictures back.

 

What a May this has been. One storm after another. As I huddle inside to avoid the stormforce winds and driving rain I am not surprised folk don't want to go out in this. The ferries are off and it seems like ages ago we had any really good weather. Ho Hum. Lets keep our fingers crossed for flaming June !

I have been visiting a couple of tops on Skye to help Ian and Sarah complete there munro tops. In this case the Basteir Tooth and Knights Peak on Sgurr nan Gillean. It was a lovely day wall to wall blue skys, after the previous storms, we had a couple of days window in the weather.

 

I had not tried the route onto Knights Peak before. We were going to try 4/5 gully after doing the tooth. There was still some winter snow in the gully bottom so we went in over Sgurr a Basteir to get a good look at it. You can see it above the right most gullyline with a triangle of snow in the bottom.

We climbed the Tooth by Collie's Lota Coire route which was straightforward and scrambled on up to the top of Am Basteir. From the bealach we traversed into the bottom of the gully. Luckily we could scramble around the first snow patch and climbed the gully fairly easily.

Sarah and Ian crossing the snow in 4/5 gully.

It is a great route to do Knights Peak without the problems of climbing the Pinnacle Ridge. But to carry on to Gillian takes some hard scrambling, so we retraced our steps back down 4/5 gully and walked out Coire na Basteir to the pub. Not a bad day for a Ian, a young 74 year old!

After the premature end of winter April has been very quiet work wise, but busy with school holidays and family things.

We had a small expedition to Aviemore for a few days where we walked and biked in the sunshine. Ali did his first corbett, Meall a Buchaille, above Glenmore with the family. Amazingly little snow left over there as well. This time last year we were skiing on Cairngorm. This year just a few patches left.

Then more school holidays, Catherine was in school for six days in April!

I did some climbing with Tony on the Buchaille doing Agags Groove and January Jigsaw

So that was April hot and Sunny. Let's hope it carrys on into May......

Its April now and we normally expect some good spring climbing but not this year, I have just done 7 days out on the hill climbing last week and week-end. Monday and Tuesday were o.k. wintry conditions.

This was Comb Gully on the Ben on Tuesday 29th March.

But after that we had another mega thaw. We climbed North Buttress on the Buchaille in the rain and hardly touched snow. Then had a day at Polldubh in Glen Nevis rock climbing. Then another day on the Buchaille and another day at Polldubh. It was warm wet and windy.

Finally we got a slight cooling on our last day. Sunday looked like it might be o.k. to venture out on the ice again. So off we went up onto the Ben again the only place where there is any winter left. Well what an epic day!

Simon wanted to lead a route so I decided to go for North Gully on Creag an Coire na Ciste a good grade 2 with nice belays. It was snowing hard as we walked up. On the approach we saw a small spindrift avalanche come out of the gully and I swithered whether to go in. There was also another team in there. But we eventually decide to go for it.

Simon leading the first pitch North Gully 3rd April 2011.

We got up the first pitch and were all on the first belay when the next avalanche came down it was big enough to take you out if you were leading so the adrenalin was definitely starting to kick in. We had to move fast between belays to avoid the regular avalanches. It certainly made you forget about sore legs.

On the third pitch we found out what was going on as we had to cross the fall line. The cornice was building in the wind then dropping off. We sheltered under the buttresses then sprinted across the gully and fixed a belay just as the next whoomph happened right across the ropes. Jackie who was seconding nipped across as well and we were safe. One more pitch to the edge and safety. Altogether we had five cornice collapses while we were on route it, reminded me of Russian Roulette. Luckily we avoided the Bullet!

So that's it for winter unless it gets amazingly cold soon. It is still pumping with warm rain here in Oban so I am thinking there wont be much left now. Oh well lighter summer rucksacks and warm rock are the plus side.

'Mad as a March Hare' could well describe the weather and conditions this year. swinging from one extreme to the other within a few days. My last post it was thawing and the snow was away again. I was on a week off and hoping for a big dump of snow to keep things going. Well I got one it came back with a vengeance right back to sea level for a few days.

A rare view of Oban in the Snow. March 13th 2011.

But within a few days it was gone and the sledges put away again. The weather improved and I went off to Ski up Ben Dubhcraig near Ben Lui. on and excellent snowy day. I walked with my snowboard and Damon and Pete skied up.

We had a great run back down but it was hard work in the soft snow going up.

 

Ben Lui looking amazing. March 16th 2011.

Then it all went a bit pear shaped again I was out with clients and we had some good weather and some appalling warm wet days. Sorry not many photos taken. Things would be good for a couple of days then another storm cycle would come through and that was that again.

After just getting told off by Anne for not updating my blog I though I had better do something about it seeing as I haven't made an entry for a month now.

Dorsal Arete. Stob Coire Nan Lochan

February was an interesting month it was busy both work and family time with my daughter Catherine's Birthday on the 14th. We had an epic party week-end between going out and getting blown about on the hills.

Towards the end of the month we had a mega thaw which stripped off much on the low lying snow. There were three days of driving rain and wind... lovely. The last week of Feb turned out quiet nice and climbing conditions on the Ben were good. Unfortunately it was only the Ben that was good, so things were busy up there.

Here are some pics of Tower Ridge.

By the time March arrived we were desparate for some more snow to fill things up again and finally it has come. Glad I am not on the hill today as it is chuicking it down with snow at the moment.

There you go Anne, February in a few paragraphs. Looks like winter might just last a bit longer yet. Oh and heres a pic of Ali he is six months old now and still completely mental.

January has blown away into February this week. The week started well last Sunday was cold and the snow was crisp on Buchaille Etive Beag for our first day roll about. Then it was all change !

Monday was a wild wet day, thawing to the summit and a westerly gale. So I opted for Curved Ridge. It is sheltered from the westerly wind and apart from getting very wet (right to the pants) we had a good day.

Tuesday was a little colder again so we ventured up the Ben and were rewarded with some shelter from the ever present wind up in Coire na Ciste. We climbed North Gully, descended No.4 and climbed some ice around the bottom of No.4.

Wednesday was a stinker, heavy rain at all levels and a howling wind forced us to take shelter in the Ice Factor. There we had a good day by doing some ropework and getting pumped on the Ice Wall.

Thursday. 'Race the Storm' we had a short window before the big storm arrived. So I opted for Stron na Larig in Glencoe,  I even remembered my camera this time. We started early and enjoyed the route with Paul and Marius leading.

The wind was picking up and the spindrift was unpleasant by the time we reached the top of the route. But we only had a short run before we could drop off the mountain and get blown back to the car.

I was actually quiet dry until we got back until the valley, then got soaked walking out. Ho Hum.

The drive home was quite epic and I am glad I was not on the hill today. Oh well February can only get better........

Third week of January was its usual mix of weather the week started warm and wet. The thaw took allot of the low lying snow. Good for the access to the hills but it certainly reduced the volume of snow on the climbs.

It got cold again on Wednesday and I was up the Ben with Rob Sarah and Jane.

The overnight frost had crisped the snow up nicely changing from ankle deep mush on Tuesday to crisp neve on Wednesday. We ascended Ledge Route in good style the team practicing some moving together rope work on the upper half.

After going to the to of the Ben, Sarah announced that She wanted to to the other top on the Ben, Cairn Dearg South West. Well I had never done it before either so we went for it. The route over involved about a 200m descent then a short climb to the summit. Then retracing our steps to get back. This made it quiet a along day. And we were all glad to see the car again when we got down.

The summit of Cairn Dearg South West on Ben Nevis.

 

Thursday was a superb day which I spent driving Sheila down to Glasgow for an MRI scan on her broken wrist. Today (Friday) I am just sorting things out ready for going out next week. Looks o.k. for the week-end.

Well what and epic few days. It started badly with an extremely wild week-end we had to abandon Sunday completely due to very high winds. But Monday started well I was out with Hamid on Sotb Ghabhar. We had a great day doing the 2 munros and the Aonach Eagach ridge in new snow.

Unfortunately the jounrney home did not go as well I hit a large Stag just west of Dalmally and wrote my car off.

Wednesday back on the hill with Hamid we did the East Ridge if Ben a Chaorainn an old favorite and luckily we had some other folks to break trail. Views were not great the top 500 feet were in cloud but that makes the navigation interesting.

Thursday was a superb day cloud inversions all round we climbed the Buchaille via the normal route. It was glorious. The brocken specters were lovely, it was a real contrast to the beginning of the week.

Forecast is looking good for the next few days so lets get out there...... when I have some new wheels that is.

Just been out for a couple of days climbing with some clients. Weather a bit mixed. Tuesday we were up on the Ben it was a cloudy snowy day. We climbed the ice in the canyons above the CIC hut. There is still loads of ice and we did some ice coaching with the guys leading several pitches. No picture sorry I forgot the camera.

Wednesday was colder and still very snowy with more snow forecast. we decided on Curved Ridge on Buchaille Etive Mor. A good option in soft snow. It was a great day for an introduction to mixed climbing, the ridge was in difficult condition covered in about 6 inches of new snow meaning we had to dig our way up.

Intermittent views and light winds mads for an excellent day out with the guys leading a few pitches.

Pitch one of Curved Ridge

.Moving together on the scrambly ground

Looking down the crux corner with the guys leading.

Just a quick post to wish everyone out there a happy and prosperous New Year.

Lets hope its a winter like this on Stob Bhan last February

What another great day this is getting monotonous. Here is a photo of the Mull hills from Pulpit Hill in Oban. Lovely walking conditions today hard frost and clear skys.

 

Sheila had a wee slip on Monday and managed to break her wrist, so I didn't get out climbing today. I am on taxi duty for the next couple of days. She has a cast on for the next six weeks. So guess whos cooking Xmas dinner!

Heres the latest picture of Ali our new Bearded Collie Puppie. He is now about 14 weeks and a right handfull.

I was out on the Bridge of Orchy hills on Sunday training with the Oban MRT what a stunning day. We walked up into the west corrie of Beinn an Dothaidh to do some winter skills training.

Looking towards the Black Mount:

It was good going underfoot the snow was mainly about ankle deep and ther was a good trail broken into the corrie. There were alot of other walkers and climbers out and about as this corrie has some classic climbs in it. Most of the mixed routes seemed to be excellent condition and even the classic Taxus was looking good and had a couple of ascents.

 

We found some old hard snow and had a good roll about dug holes and played with avalanche transevers before heading to the top of West Gully which we decended. the snow was in remarkably good condition and the avalanche risk was low.

 

 

A great day was had by all and we didn't get called out either.

Forecast looks good for this week. But how long can it last?

Fed up with the epic amounts of snow in the east? Then come west, its lovely over here, cold yes but only a light dusting of snow and over on Mull just a wee bit above 2000 feet. Here is Oban bay, Lismore and Argour across the water not much snow there.

 

Conditions on the hills are great for walking and the water courses are comming into condition for climbing. Here is Ben Cruachan from just above our house. Have fun out there.

 

Just back from an epic week-end with the rescue team up in Kintail. This was our annual week-end away bonding  session. we stayed at the Morvick Outdoor center. Very comfortabe base if you are ever taking a group up there.

What a great week-end, cold and crisp and just a wee bit of snow. I did the Brothers and the Sisters on the Saturday. Starting at Cluanie and finishing at the Jack o Bite resturant 9 hours later.

 

And the Forcan ridge and the Saddle on the Sunday.

 

Great what else can you say.

I have not put an update up for a while so here is the July version of Andy's epics. I was out on a double completion week-end last week-end. Anne is one of my longest serving clients and a good friend so it was a pleasure to be asked along to her completion walk. Anne is very organized in her campaign and arranged to complete both her second round of Munro's and her first round of Corbett's the same day on the same walk!

So together with some of her Scottish Hills friends we made the trip to Kintail to do Am Batach and Ciste Dubh above the Cluaine Inn. We had a party of 26 in the end and loaded with various bottles we made good time up Am Batach for the first celebration. Then on to Ciste Dubh for the second completion of the day.

Now, Anne has been going on at me for years saying I couldn't be a proper mountaineer because I don't have a beard. So today I presented Anne with her own beard. She must be a real mountaineer by now having done all these hills and needs the proper equipment.

Here are a few more pictures of our day, the weather was kind to us much better that MWIS would have had us believe.

 

You can see the pub from here..........

Well that was a busy period. The reason I haven't blogged resently is that I have been Island hopping. Last week I was on Arran doing the Corbetts with Anne and Molly the Collie. We had an excellent time doing Goat fell on the way to the Lamlah Hostel then the following day doing the A'Cir Ridge in all its glory. We had to abseil the down climbing section with Molly firmly strapped up in her harness she abseiled it with me. Would have made a good photo but I was rather busy at the time.

The after Arran came a trip to Skye. The highlight of this trip was a trip up the Dubhs Ridge with Alastair, Anne and Al (74 years young) We caught the boat in from Elgol an excellent way to start the day. We then climbed the ridge and Sgurr Dubh Mor and descended Coire a Ghrunda to get back to Glen Brittle where we had placed my car the prevoius day. An epic 12 hours on the hill, not bad effort for the team especially for Al. I hope I can do that when I am 74.

Finally a wee trip to Rum this week. Anne Molly and I caught the boat from Mallaig a 1 hour crossing to Rum. we chose to camp hoping the midges wouldn't be to bad. We soon found out that the little b*****rs were out in force and camping wasn't much fun.

Anyway Thursday dawned fine dry and sunny so we went for the full Rum Cuillin traverse five peaks, two Corbetts and a long walk back later we knew we had had a long hot day. At least on the hill there were no midges.

Friday we caught the afternoon boat back via Canna lovely journey spotting a Minke whale on the way across.

Here is a panarama taken fron Ainshval

A pretty fair coupe of weeks on the hill. Lets hope the weather keeps going like this....

Hello all those out there in blogworld well I was supposed to be going to Rum this week with Anne. But the weather forecast was a bit Rum as well so we put it back for a couple of weeks. We didn't fancy camping in the rain and not seeing anything on the hills. So it was back to odd jobs for me and back to corbet bagging on the mainland for Anne.

Forecast for the week ahead looks o.k. I am out for three days looking after a film crew this week I will let you know how that goes.

I have finally packed it in for this winter although I am sure some die hards will still manage to scrape up an odd route. But it is well into May now and I want some sunny mountains and warm weather with lighter ruckacks. Here are two pictures from last week-end the first is on North Gully on Creag an Coire na Ciste on Ben Nevis last Saturday. In fine condition if a little hollow on the ice pitch

Sunday the guys were a trifle fatigued so we went to Polldubh and did some classics in big boots in the sun. This was Three Pines on Reptons Buttress.

Had a great week-end.

A wet Monday in April. Easter has been a little changeable, Friday was good, Saturday poor, Sunday great and today appalling. wet windy and thawing. I am hiding inside today catching up on a few things

I was out with the Oban MRT training on Ben Cruachan on Sunday. Very pleasant new snow, sunny and warm. Wore my sunglasses most of the day. We had an eventful day playing in the snow even got dusted by the helicopter from prestwick, rescue 177. That cable looks very thin when theres a large helicoter just above you.

Been out walking this week with Malcolm and its been a right mixture of weather. Rain snow hail sun and wind and thats just the first day. I also did my first new hill this year, Beinn Resipol over in Morvern nicce views. Here's a couple of pictures of Sgurr Connich Mor done from Glen Nevis on a windy day!

Been having a week off this week and haven't been out much apart from walking Meg a few times. Just as well as the weather has been crap. A mega thaw and high winds. Glad I'm not out today. But I am out again on Sunday for another week of fun in the snow and it looks like the weather is going to pick up too. Heres hoping.