Three great days on Skye.

I'm just back from three great days on Skye working with Pete and Ray for Skye Guides. Sunday saw us ticking off the southern two Munros in great weather for most of the day but the cloud did come in later in the day with a couple of light showers but thankfully we made it back to the car before the wild weather really hit.

Sunday night was a wild night on the Island and the weather was due to clear later Monday morning so we had a late start and headed up to An Dorus to get the middle two Munros and our plan worked as it stayed dry and the cloud lifted.

Yesterday we headed up the Sgumain stone shoot and over the top to Sgurr Alasdair and continued along the ridge north to Sgurr Mhic Choinnich and down the An Stac screes. Pete and Ray are having a rest day today before they head out again tomorrow with Jon.

I've got a couple of days off now before a ridge traverse attempt over the weekend, lets hope the weather holds out.  

Ray and Pete enjoying the views from Sgurr nan Eag.

A catch up and Skye conditions.

I've had a break from the blog over the last month as I've been doing some centre based work and had a great little break to north Wales with Gillian so haven't really had anything useful to report. This week though I've been up on Skye working for Skye Guides. The weather and conditions have been challenging to say the least but we still managed to get out. There is still some big patches of old snow lying around on the North facing cliffs and in some of the gullies. Most of them are avoidable or are small enough to run a quick pitch up it needed. An Dorus and the great stone shoot still have a good amount of snow that will be there for a while and Coire a Bhastier still has long approaches over snow slopes and will need winter kit for a while. The ridge itself is free of old snow and anything that has fallen this week should be melting off in today's sun. 

An Stac and the In Pin on Wednesday.

The great stone shoot and Sgurr Alasdair

Coire a Bhastier.

Tower ridge at it's best.

The forecast for today was light winds, 80% of cloud free Munros and the odd snow shower. It certainly looked like it was going to be a fine day as we walked in but the wind soon picked and just above the CIC hut the snow was starting to blow around. We carried on up into Observatory gully and up towards our plan A but now it was snowing at reasonable rate. Conditions weren't optimal for our plan A so we had a think and decided to head up Tower ridge instead.

The ridge is in fantastic condition at the moment with good firm neve and ice from bottom to top and with the new snow and wind today it felt like it was the middle of February. The rocks high up were riming up nicely and there is more snow on the ridge in places than I have seen before, banking out some of the more awkward steps. We had snow on and off all day and a lot of it was getting shifted around and we did come across some pockets of very unstable wind slab.

Carn Dearg and Castle ridge area this morning.

East gully Approach

Neil throwing some shapes climbing out of Douglas gap.

The end of a great day.

Winters not going anywhere fast!

I've had some time off in the last week or so to rest after a busy winter and have been enjoying the sunshine with a bit of mountain biking and time with the other half. Today though it was back to work in the winter with a trip along the CMD arete with Jack for West Coast Mountain Guides. We never quite got the amazing views that this route can provide but they weren't bad. We made quick progress thanks to the good covering of firm snow along the arete itself and the descent down Red burn is so banked out there isn't even a waterfall at the bottom to look out for. 

This pair kept us entertained today.

Ben Nevis from the CMD.

Descending to the arete.

Not a bad consolation route, Italian right hand.

So plan A was to head for Point 5 but unfortunately a team beat us to it, we gave them a bit of time whilst we geared up but it soon became apparent they weren't going to be moving fast. So we thought lets go round the corner to the Brenva face and have a bit of an adventure and an explore. Yes it was catching the Sun but things weren't falling down so we headed up. As we were routing around for the first belay it began, a pretty constant shower of bits of ice from further up the route. "Ah, well! Don't fancy that, back we go."

After some discussion about which routes Connor had done and which routes I had done we finally stumbled across the fact that neither of us had climbed Italian right hand. Which by now was going to fit the bill as we had done enough faffing and could ab back out. Two good pitches of ice and a good chat to Scott and Ian who we were sharing the route with and then back to the CIC for a brew. 

A great day on Crowberry gully.

Out with Joe and Jay today and with a great forecast 'again' and so many routes in condition it was a difficult decision, deciding where to go. We headed for Crowberry gully in the end and the guys took the lead for the easier lower section. I took over after a couple of pitches and lead us to the top. Most of the route is very well stepped and hooked but the ice in thinning in some places making for some more 'interesting' climbing but a great route non the less.

Joe, enjoying the setting.

Jay getting stuck in!

Relaxing in the cave belay at the start of the last pitch.

An introduction to Scottish winter.

I've spent the last five days with Jackie and Jane on an introductory winter course for Maximum Adventure. We spent the first three days in the Cairngorms covering the basics of winter skills and looking at winter navigation. We also had a quick hit up Fiacaill ridge on a very wintry day with lots of fresh snow and strong winds.

Fiacaill ridge

Yesterdays forecast wasn't exactly promising but initially looked better than today's so we decided to make that the day we would try and get the girls to the top of the Ben. It was always going to be a 'lets just see how it goes' kind of day, and the winds above the CIC were pretty strong and it didn't bode well for the upper section of Ledge route. We carried on, bit by bit, with me always thinking that maybe we would be turning round after the next section, but it was actually very manageable and on the summit plateau the wind wasn't even an issue. We navigated over to the summit and quickly descended next to the Red burn. A great effort from the ladies on a pretty wild day.

High on Ledge route.

After yesterdays effort, today was always planned to be an easier day. We decided to remove as much of the hard work as possible and headed into the Glen to cover some of the climbing elements that Jackie and Jane had wanted to cover. It was still chilly and with the odd snow flurry coming through but we climbed the Gutter in four pitches and placed some gear and then headed home.

The Ben at the end of Yesterday.

Today was my last day of winter work, at the moment, but winter is still well and truly with us in the Highlands and actually with some fantastic conditions. There is still plenty to go at I'm looking forward to getting out and playing in it myself. April is still a couple of weeks away but if you still want some winter climbing and it's still here please get in touch.