Monthly update.

A busy month but perhaps with not as much climbing as I would like! The house move has thrown up lots of DIY, Andy came over with young Joe to make the most of a poor Bank Holiday forecast and help us knock through a door in the Garage to the new drying room.

The work continues, plastering as I Type.....A steep learning curve! Hopefully the new utillity room will be up and running in the next week or two.

Davy took me on a top secret mission to a crag up North. Quality granite let down by a lack of protection, especially if you are a wimp like me. 3 Rps in 20mts is not enough for me!

Top Quality Granite, A shame about the gear!

Andy and I had wall to wall sunshine on a trip to Stac Polliadh, a shame the 70mph winds froze us to the core and put pay to harder things. We did the awful VS Release the Bats, 140mts of choss and the excellent HVS Vlad the Impaler, a two pitch classic.

The top Vlad the Impaler, and the best thing about the Release the Bats, the view.

A few trips to Duntelchaig, some bouldering at Ashie fort and a return visit to Huntlys Cave sums up the month!

Glan Marksie: With no ticks!

A sunny Glen Marksie (Proteus)

With the gates open through to the Dam, GlenMarksie is only a 10minute walk from the car. Another good sunny forecast, ensured day two of the trad season went well.
Despite needing a good brushing, the crag revealed itself to be good, with 5 routes ticked. The routes varied from awkward, to slabby, to silly awkward to hard!
Sea of tranquillity was my favourite I think the classic two pitch 3*HVS . Andy was on good form, making light work of some other awkward numbers. Proteus makes you wish your legs are 6inches longer, fortunately Andy’s are.

9ft Wing Span

Callisto

I also found Callisto hard for it supposed 5a! Still 6 pitches in the afternoon sun.

.

The really nice Sea of Tranquillity.

Trad Season gets off to a start.

Andy and I headed over to Huntly's cave to make the most of the place before the midges arrive! A good afternoon ticking the major lines such as Double Overhang, Diagonal, Dead Tree Wall, Hanging Groove etc... I was not on the best of form, but a nice afternoon non the less, with a couple of non too stressful routes. Thought Diagonal, was top quality, Dead tree wall has a real sting in the tail for the very last move. Still you can sink your entire rack en-route! The day finished with a go at Petes Wall, but that one will have to wait!

A few shots.

End of Winter: Trad Season!!

Winter seemed to fade very quickly, so no more routes to report since mid February, very disappointing. However, Bec and I did have a fantastic time in France, and returned to spend a lovely week in the lakes with Becky’s family.
The skiing was fab with sunshine on most days and a couple of days of heavy snow in the middle of the week. Not quite as much powder as last year, but still good enough!
For some reason all we videoed was pretty boring slopes, but the fun stuff including my full front flip and 30 seconds of unconsciousness, and my 20minute adventure through the woods off piste, the best run of the week, remained off camera.



As for the lakes we managed one climb, I’m not allowed to say Becky enjoyed it but I think she did really, she just doesn’t perhaps know it yet. Anyway we nipped up the Classic Little Chamonix before spending a day in Keswick.
So with winter gear put to bed, we better have a good spring, it is Trad season afterall!

I think the look says it all!

Frustration.

Nothing else to add really the title says it all, a combination of moving house and mid season thaw means it really is about time I got a route done!

Family Fun.

Hebs and I had a lovely walk along the ridge above Strathpeffer today, followed by a really, really rich and indulgent hot chocolate at Maya in Strathpeffer. Mum, Dad, and Aunty Becky also came a long to keep an eye on us.
It was very mild, and the snow was disappearing off of Ben Wyvis rather fast, as we pottered along. Looking colder towards the end of the week though.

Perfect training for a winter pack!

Aonach Mor: Solarwind, Jet Stream, Aquafresh and Whiteshark

Andy and I had a very busy, but fun day on Aonach mor today. We both set off with low expectations but the climbing turned out to be very good, on steep snow/water ice allday. It ended up being a 7* day with 2 and half routes in the bag!
The temperature was still warm this morning when we dropped into the climbing col and traversed around toward Solar Wind. After the excellent first pitch, the ice in the groove ran out, so after Andy had a look over the rib to the left we decided to finish up Jet Stream. Although I did this the other day it looked complete so made for an obvious finish. Before we could head off that way I had to climb out of the guides variation chimney below after I unexpectedly fell down on the traverse to finish Jet Stream, nothing hurt other than my pride, but still it added another 10mts of climbing to the day!
After topping out we made a quick dash around to easy gully and towards the Shark Buttress, where White Shark looked really quite good.
Andy was chief photographer today, so a few pics of me for a change!


The first pitch of Solar Wind.



On the finish for Jet Stream.


Andy on Aquafresh which we used as an alternative start to WhiteShark.



Me on the steep last corner of Whiteshark.

The top corner was quite steep and felt more like V5 on the day. Topping out it was 4:40 and with the gear in the bag at 4:44, the last Gondola was at 5:00, we made it by 5:03. That gives you a good indication how extreme the bum sliding was!
In terms of conditions although wet-take plenty of gloves, the ice was still pretty fat and took the odd cosmetic screw here and there, the buttresses were wet and black as you might expect. Still lots to go at if you fancy a trip up there.