The Winter of Our Discontent !

Forgetting the guide book is never a good start - I take no blame - so we headed into Stob Corrie nam Beith to see what look in, climbable by us and fun - Sunday 19/2/12.   We walked to an ice line we saw a couple of years ago, somewhere near the Sphynx.  It was super cruddy, brittle and unprotectable with screws or nuts.  Mark had a look at it but it would be a full 40m unprotected pitch, which although it looked ok to start off, we couldn't see the top end of it so decided to look elsewhere.

We wandered round the corner and soloed up some grade 2 ground to a shelf then saw a nice short ice line which I led up at about III - much to Mark's chagrin but he had his chance on the first pitch.

We then looked to the top and headed off up a ramp to a great view point;

  

We then saw a narrow chimney up to a steep wall which seemed the way to the top and headed up into the wide chimney to a cave of sorts with a steep wall on the LHS with a chock-stone of sorts to overcome to get over the crux.

It was pretty thin looking and steep (maybe IV 6 pitch?) but easier in better conditions.  Mark took the lead and headed off with some classy moves and bridging to get over the crux but the conditions were damn thin with only two reasonable axe placement and plenty of rock getting hammered.   The crux pull over is very exposed with no protection in and hats off to Mark for nailing it.

Mark on the final steep wall, with crux further above

Once we were over the crux, it was moving together to the summit with one or two nice moves  but generally easy ground.  We topped out to cold winds but great views; after a sarnie and obligatory soup, we were off to the car with a bum-slide and a rapid descent in about 1hr 10mins from the summit.

All in a great day tho we have no idea, even having looked at the guide book, what we climbed...if you have any clues, let me know plse.

The avalanche report was 'considerable' but we seemed to avoid the worst of any windslab about on the N to NW aspects, although there were one or two areas evident and hasty-hand snow pits showed a fairly  insecure top layer of about two inches in places.

https://vimeo.com/37072917

Endomondo'd to Death - and some Radical Walking

Peter, Fish and I ended had an old school run to Innerleithen today or some great downhill fun after Peter and I had scoped the trails recently with Andy McKenna.   We met Dickie-Bow at the local coffee stop for some brew and cake and headed into the hills ready to rock.

After getting lost in space, we eventually found the route into the trees and the downhill nirvana.   It was well muddy and sliddy in places but enough traction to make it nearly mostly rideable - despite the evidence in the video.

We had a real good day on steep technical ground which the Turner just soaks up even with me at the bar!  We had the usual Rockhard banter, laughing at our total ineptitude at times - but always fun :)  Despite the power walking in the video, we did ride a bit :), and it was always steep!

Good trails and good patter led us back to Inners for more coffee and a beast of a cheese scone before a drive home at break car speed and a nice meal.

All in a great day, good friends and a day to remind us of the old days in the 'Tomo van'.

http://vimeo.com/36650650

Night Time Nav Practice with the Choirboys

Me, Bill and Mark had some CPD night navigation on Mid Hill down Glen Luss. it started off dry but got progressively wet.

We did well picking up the contour changes at 460m with very poor visibility then contouring round for 500m to a re-entrant for a nice hot Jetboiled soup, but Bill forgot the sarnies, crisps and chocolate!

We hand-railed the burn back to the car and found some great terrain worthy of a day time visit; steep re-entrants and lovely pools in the burn as it meanders down hill - pools would be great on a hot summers day.

All in a great night out and now looking forward to Winter ML this Monday with Richard Bentley of Mountain Motion.  Should be fun.

Jetboil Bill

Summer Climbing - Cobblers!

Summer should be for climbing in shorts, bitten by midges and nice warm rock to shake off winter chills.

On the other hand, this is Scotland...so a late planned trip up the Cobbler on 16 June saw us on the rock at 8.30 pm.  Windmills with the arms to get blood back in the fingers did not harbinge summer thrills.

Frozen fingers and more at the first belay was not expected and Mark, fast approaching with every piece of clothing on, compounded my thoughts of an early bail. 

Mark pulled over the lip on pitch 2 and we set up the abseil, avoiding the crux final pitch in impending rain and deep cold...JUNE, SUMMER, ur havin' larff!

Interestingly our tat from last year was still in place; so we cut it out, put new stuff in and off I went.  A slip on the way down shifted the tat over a sharp edge and cut the sheath on it...aaargh - altho it was fine, it was backed up and so never in danger :))  Mark did a quick repair on it and down he came for a sprint back to the car in 46 mins from the bealach; that's fast!!

Great night out; good exercise and navigation and two top pitches made it worth the effort.

Simply Epic - MTB Cycling Expedition to Speyside

Bill and I went on a great course with Jules Fincham over the Speyside hills.  The trip started badly with Bill's mobile home breaking down o/s Aviemore and having to be towed to Inverness for Bill to pay even more money to keep his fleet of Mercedes on the road.

Anyway, after a intro and brief from Jules, we were off and running to the hills, through Boat of Garten then Carrbridge on Route 7...a great trail to get us started with our fancy trailers on the back of the bikes.   Some nice climbing and eventually we pitch up on a nice flat field nr River Dulnain and time for food - nice curry out a packet with Mars Bar for desert!

Weather looked dubious for the next day and we were not disappointed with a cold front bringing snow on the higher ground, a coldish sleep and rain first thing.  Nice breakfast of tomato soup, sarnies and crisps set us up for the ride home, with the sun coming out the moment we got on the bikes :)))

A great trip through the hills and a monster climb to test the legs took us to the top of the burma Road, then a great descent brought us nearly home.  Jules used local knowledge to keep us of the A9 and we got home in plenty of time for the wonderful Lisa to make us sausage, bacon and egg to replenish lost calories.

All in a great trip, lots of learning - new routes, camping stuff, Jules loves his plant pots, pulling a trailer up the hill can be tough and Lisa's a great cook.

Highly recommended by Simply Epic.

Simply Epic Expedition to Speyside from C Coid on Vimeo.

Mountain biking in Glen Orchy

The Simply Epic crew were out on a charity day with an 'over-privileged adult from Newton Mearns' - Peter!

Peter owns a detached villa, a holiday chalet, runs his own business and owns more cars than he can fit in his drive way...a great candidate for us to help 'over-privileged' folks...he even let us pay for is petrol on the short journey to Tyndrum; a true aristocrat :)

One of Pedro's many cars.

Headed up to Tyndrum - buying our charity case a coffee and cake on the way - and headed off in the rain with the prospect of fun and games ahead on the bikes. After reaching Bridge of Orchy, we headed up Glen Orchy on sweet single track and one of many food stops - plenty of Mars Bars to keep us going.

On the way we found what we thought was a new piece of single track but Mark assured us we were looking at a wide - super wide - logging trail for heavy goods harvesting vehicles...we thought they must be heavy duty motorcycles for harvesting...and proceeded to rib Mark for Clear and Present daftiness!!  Anyway, Peter demonstrated the size of log which a motorcycle might bring up on a good day...much to our amusement!

Moving on, we found a good river to cross, which has been much worse before, but we had fun crossing in our shoes...apart from Peter who got his hobbit feet out for a laugh.

Anyway, after a detour near the end through trees and plenty of mud and moss, we had a a good cycle up the road to Bridge of Orchy, then the A82 to Tyndrum, into the wind big time :(, followed by a quick change in the car, using a poly bag as a towel...then a quality coffee and snack at the Green Welly.

Overall, a stellar day in the rain on the bike; reminds me of why I ride!

Great fun, and more to come of course.

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/23443960?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0&amp;color=ff9933" width="398" height="224" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/23443960">Mountain Biking in Glen Orchy and the WHW</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user2626648">C Coid</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

The Long Climb VS 4c *** Ben Nevis

The guide book says this is the longest vertical face climb in mainland Britain, of almost alpine stature.

Friday 29th April 2011, up at 4am, meet Craig 5am, no faff, coffee and head into the night. Just over 2 hours later we roll into the north face car park, bags on and head up the track. 25 mins later and we are the top car park and heading to NEB. After negotiating the snow patch at the bottom of Orion face I led up the first slab taking the right hand variation (4c). The next pitch (4a) has a super cool airy traverse from the belay to gain two parallel cracks. These are climbed for 45m and offer really good exposed climbing. The ground eases and we are in the basin of Orion. The traverse is straightforward enough but still holds snow. Through leads and we arrive at the second slab. This is a great pitch (4c) up the slab and traverse onto the left edge for some super moves in a fantastic position. Craig climbed through and we headed for what the guide book called easier ground, but our keen nose for a line had us seek out difficult loose ground instead. 8.30pm (dusk) and we are weaving our way across the Orion face, Zero Gully and eventually topping out of Slav Route and Ben Summit at 9.17pm (see photo below for route).

Handshake, hug (for surviving what was an epic long climb), pic, half a sarnie and we bundle the gear as quickly as possible into our sacks and head for the tourist track under the cover of darkness.

Coke, fish & chips, cramp in the car (me) big Z'zzzz (Craig) and we are home in Glasgow 23hrs later at 3am.

What a day, what a climb, what a team ...Epic.

More details can be found on Mark's blog, http://vertical-obsession.blogspot.com and Craig's Blog http://outactive.blogspot.com

The Orion and Minus faces of North East Buttress with the Long Climb in Red

 Getting to the bottom of the route proved tricky

Craig following the parallel cracks (4a)

Craig 

From pitch 7 looking towards Tower Ridge

Mark, serious face

Mark heading up the second slab pitch (4c)

Mark and Craig both happy to be on the summit at 9.30pm. Magic !