Coire Sputan Dearg

A few pics from yesterday when Andy and I headed over to Coire Sputan Dearg. Despite lots of snow and cold temps things really do need a little bit of consolidation. Anyway the pictures tell the story better...

Every winter climbers favourite sight on a Saturday morning!

With the visibility poor, navigation was to the fore from the start.

Some nice views.

Glissade gully provides a quick and easy approach to the coire floor.

The coire looked good, but be warned the snow was about as much use as...........




Take the guide book grades for this Coire with a pinch of salt, well we discoverd a sandbag or two! In it's current condition this little chimney is at least two adjective and technical grades out. Go and try it and see if you agree?

Finishing about 12 hours after that alarm clock!

Now only 3 hours back across the plateau and Andy looks really pleased about that little walk home in the snow and lovely Cairngorm breeze.

Loading the Guns!

About a week ago I was in Pete MacPherson’s shop in town and he pointed out Ian Parnells blog post to me where he highlights a winter training programme. Have a look here.

Anyway the concept is simple a set number of pull-ups on the minute every minute for 30 minutes. Somewhere between 2 and 6 was suggested. Now subsequent posts on Ian’s Blog, suggest Pete has done 270 an impressive 9 a minute. As Ian points out good training to be cranking out those IXs.

Back in the real world, I have been motivated to start properly training for winter. So 3 seemed a good starting point, 30 minutes later that’s 90 pull ups done and dusted. A couple sessions down and I intend to do some form of active rest in the recovery time, perhaps a set number of squats? All we need now is some glimmer of hope on the horizon that winter is on its way. The long range GFS data doesn’t look too promising, for the next fortnight at least.

Lovely day to be high in the hills.

A cheeky look into the Northern Corries on Friday morning was very fruitless, but with a blue sky day forecast Andy and I headed in for another early season inspection this morning.



The result Almost, but not quite, getting there slowly would be a better phrase I think.

Though there is obviously a lot of water in the hills it was nice to see the cold of the last few days had frozen the exposed ground and turf. The odd drool of ice and crusty snow made for a scenic walk.

As for climbing conditions it really is a question of a little more time, snow and cold weather. High east facing crags were starting to form, lower crags on other aspects no where near.


A tale of two halves-both taken on number one buttress today.

So with that in mind, and a bit of insight, we headed over to what we hoped would be the only pitch in a well frozen condition today.

Andy making the most of the day.

But still a lovely day to be out in the hills, with not a breath of wind, and a real crisp feel to the air. No doubt Andy will have some more photos on his blog, have a look here.