Hunger Games, Robin Hood, William Tell.........Craig & Bill???

Craig and Bill were away this weekend finishing their Archery GB Leaders Award with MRM Archery at Auchengillan.   It turned out to be a most enjoyable course with good banter with a wide cross section of keen outdoorsy folk.

Bill did 'quite' well and won himself a wee cup for hitting the target;

Craig made it a challenge and did archery on ice skates and won a cup too;

As you can see, the boys 'done good', had a good time learning about safety and archery and got to 'fire' a few arrows too...'fire' of course being the entirely wrong term, which we all repeated ad nauseum to the assessors grand consternation.

Many thanks to Auchengillan Scout Centre for the location and Moira for putting up with us.

If you fancy a taster session on archery, why not give us a call.

Guaranteed to hit something....we hope.

Ample Wanderings

Bill was away this weekend working with Glasgow Life and took his group up Ben Each, near Glen Ample/Callendar way.

As anticipated, the weather was four seasons in a day but the ten enthusiastic members of the group huddled down with the weather and managed to get to the top ensemble.

Hard work for the group who enjoyed soup and a sarnie at the top before heading off back to the bus. All in a great day for the group; many learning points for winter walking and keeping warm in the super cold conditions.

Bring on more winter please :)

Half a cuppa - in the whiteroom

Craig and Mark binned plans for an overnighter in the Corrie Cas carpark in Cairngorms for a day up the Arrochar Alps.

The forecast was pants all over; red avalanche threats, rain/sleet/snow and high winds forecast...ho hum, much as it has been in Scotland all season...utter pants!

Anyway, we headed off and found ourselves at the Glen Croe carpark in the minging rain...nothing for it but to head off and see what came our way.  We headed up towards Beinn Ime, taking a path to avoid northerly aspects and suspect slopes, and found ourselves at the bealach on its SW side where the wind was swirling with gusto, and plenty spindrift, as the snowline met our feet.  We followed the blackest line we could as the snow was soft and wet lower down.  The higher we got, the poorer the vis and the wind picked up significantly.

We topped out in a 'come and go' white-out, with the wind chill very cold indeed.  We took a bearing on the Bealach A'Mhaim and headed off downhill in what turned into a maelstrom of spindrift and zero visibility, with winds probably gusting to 60mph, making progress very tough.  The wind blew us off line but we were able to correct this and got in view of the bealach, our objective.

We had intended to make for Ben Narnain but the wind was truly awful and progress was difficult, so we found a bit of shelter in one of the many runnels off Bein Ime and had ourselves some soup and sarnies to get some energy in us.

After a chat about options, weather, which wasn't improving, and wet gloves, we decided to head back for the car and had a chilling walk off the mountain.

All in, a Quality Mountain Day, with solid nav required in very challenging conditions - probably one of the windiest, and whitest, days I've had in the hills - caused by the winds converging into one super strong stream after deflecting around the other mountains and being forced over three nearby bealachs.

A nice day in the hill...honest!

Scary Penguins

Ever hopeful of a decent winter climb, Craig and Mark headed for SCNL in the Coe to check out a couple of routes.  An early start saw us head off into the dark at 0715.  A steady pace to the top saw some alpenglow on the tops and a very snow corrie.

Over the Aonach Eagach

Snow walk in

There was one other team ahead, on Twisting Gully - very bad option we thought - and there was plenty of fresh windslab which fractured with ease.   After a chat and a scan of what might be climbed, and climbable, we opted for Raeburn's Ordinary Route and struck off up the slope to the start.  There is a layer of graupel about 4" down and the pack pretty solid about 9" down.    There is certainly a huge amount of snow in the corrie; indeed, this crack/fissure/crevasse was at least 10 feet deep;

Gravity!

A dubious walk

We got up asap and set up for the first pitch.  Mark took first and me second with the cracks buried or iced up; gear was hard fought and pretty thin in places, compared to normal conditions (what  are they in Scotland...)

Mark on pitch on

Craig coming out the chimney line on pitch one

Pitch with a view

There is no neve; a snow crust broke through mostly and the snow was very hard packed windslab or very soft fresh which broke through, so things were constantly hard fought.  Notwithstanding, we did have a good time and Mark started up the third pitch, through the initial chimney then partly up the wall but no gear and soft snow brought a sensible decision to retreat and we set up an ab directly back  down the route.  

The abseil station - we are not the first...

60m ropes nearly took us to the car and we got part way down the approach slopes, which at 30 degrees are just at the wrong angle to hang about on.  Thankfully we got down to the corrie floor without incident and after soup and a sarnie had a pleasant walk out.

The walk out

...still walking...

All in, a great day with some climbing at last.  The conditions are not great and the avalanche danger remains high, requiring care and safe travel, with sound decision making.   Hopefully some better weather might bring an improvement in conditions to settle things for some more action.

It's the SatNav!

Craig, Bill and Mark went up north seeking action on Saturday before an MCofS Avalanche Course on the Sunday.  Biblically wet weather and winds saw a climb reduced to a potential walk then reduced further to a day in the Ice Factor.

To be fair, it was a great few hours of quality ice climbing on well maintained routes with some fine hard sections to hone winter climbing skills for...well, most likely more indoor action given the truly bad weather we are having currently (current equating to a month plus)!  Boooooooooo...

Anyway, a fine trip round the gear shops, with the only purchase being a hat and a map, saw us settled at Kimber's place thence some scran at the Grog and Gruel :)

Sunday saw us out on the hill with Heather the Weather from MCofS on a fine winter day; the amount of snow above 650m is hard to believe given the rain we've had recently but we plunged a probe fully 10 feet down in a hollow and the pack is about 1.3m deep on the SW aspect of the Nid.

We had an excellent training day discussing aspects, slope angle, digging hasty pits and walking Rutschblock tests, propagation, windslab, SAIS, temperature gradients, layers, graupel, hoar frost and facets, and most importantly, when to run away!

Looking for avalanche debris towards the back corries

We had an excellent journey on the day, including a long bum slide down towards the Transceiver Park where we played around with some fancy kit; the next thing for the hills!?

The air is very moist at present, evidenced by rain no doubt, but also by the amazing build up of rime ice on the ski furniture;

Serious rime!

All in, we found it a great day's training, well worth the money with plenty of consolidation and new knowledge; big thanks to Heather Morning of MCofS for an excellent day and for organising these events.  Even if you think you know about avalanches and how to stay safe, the course made it clear that new research was updating and amending previously thought best practice regularly; get along to one and keep safe.

Best lunch spot of the weekend...

Can we climb now please???

December, and a wee paddle by the seaside

Winter climbing being rather poor, biking being too energetic, Craig Bill and Mark opted for a wee kayak down at Loch Lomond on a rather splendid day; sunglasses and skip hat being prerequisites for the day.

After some faffing associated with loading up the car with kit (grrr), we headed down and launched in the sun with silly ambitions of getting to Tarbert!  Notwithstanding, we got down to the 'dive at five' and crossed the loch for a pleasant lunch on the jetty at Rowardennan.

After gorging on sarnies, we headed up the east side of the loch and enjoyed the sun and 50 mile views before crossing to Luss and playing at eskimos.

All in, despite Craig's rasping cough, a great day was had by all on the water.  More kayaking needed in the near future...

Falko Dreams

Craig was out with the ladies (9 of them!) from Glasgow Life on a very pleasant walk along the beaches near Direlton, over looking the Forth of Forth, Fife and some outstanding geology from Scotland's distant past.

A quick resume of the local geology, North Berwick being tropical and highly volcanic some 350m years ago, saw us head off on the walk.  There is some fabulous evidence of the violent volcanic past with lava flows, caves and glacial features aplenty from more recent times.

Sea Buck-Thorn

A wonderful short walk along the dunes, typically chilly east coast wind and a pleasant lunch spot over looking the water, saw us back to the bus and a very pleasant coffee stop, thence home.

A new coastal area for Craig and one very much worth returning to, with plenty of bird life and points of interest.