Mountain Blog Book

With Jez, finishing his T2 winter assessment. Wild and rainy from the car. There were several huge trees blocking the path through the forest, presumably brought down by the storms earlier in December. Assessed Jez on snow belays at some good snow patches on the side of the NE ridge before going for a quick look [...]

Grade IV, 5. With Dougal and Jess. Very late start after being delayed on drive by an accident and soft snow on walk in. Bit of sleety drizzle at first, but turned into a settled, cold day. First pitch was hard work with unconsolidated snow and iced up cracks. Already 2pm by the bottom of [...]

With Rob. IV, 5. An early start from Glasgow got us in poll position on the route, with a big queue forming behind us on the first pitch. Cold and blowy on the walk in. Some turf not frozen and lots of unconsolidated snow on the route, though the coire itself was scoured. Alternated pitches, [...]

IMC. Walked in from Ardvorlich, passed east of Ben Vorlich up Glen Vorlich and then camped by the river south of the mountain. Felt like crap with terrible cold but lovely day. Spotted a short-eared owl hunting for voles (there were thousands of them around). Pitched tent and then nipped up Ben Vorlich in the [...]

IMC, out with John Bagge’s group. Ran a ropework session near the viaduct. Rained most of the time.

IMC course. Out with Scott’s group. Micro nav practice. Sunny and warm with some short sharp showers in the afternoon. Good intense nav day.

First day out with trainees on Lochearnhead IMC course. Nice weather.

Evie’s first summit. Big group of us with lots of kids for leisurely walk in the sun on first day of BST. Even got a touch of sunburn. Winter feels over.

With Rob and Jim. Grade V,5. Brilliant to get this route ticked. Went up with the intention of doing Hadrian’s Wall Direct, thinking Point Five would be busy, but the queue was on HWD. Cloudy, mild but nice chewy ice for placements. Not brilliant for ice screws, however. We took a steep pitch each, I [...]

With Scott. IV,5. Fantastic route in good nick. I led the first crux and Scott the second. Probably the best grade IV I’ve done. Weather wasn’t too bad in the morning but very windy by the time we’d descended Aladdin’s. Walk out was crazy windy and the car park even worse.