AMC in the Dolomites

This year the club organised a summer trip abroad and those keen opted for the sun kissed (s)limestone of the Italian Dolomites.  After last year successful trip to the Cortina area, folk fancied trying a bit further west and so headed to the town of Canazei as a cracking central location.

We certainly weren’t disappointed!  Driving up from Venice over a couple of high winding passes, past the Marmolada a we were greeted by awesome looking walls and spires everywhere!  Hard to keep my eyes on the road, but eventually we did make it to Canazei in one piece.

Luigi had done a sterling job finding us accommodation – we’d recommend these serviced apartments to anyone looking for somewhere to stay in the area.  To make us feel at home, the local supermarket had shipped in some bottles of this:

Can’t top that kind of service! :O)

Dave was catching a bus down from Germany, so we picked him up and headed back to the flat for a bit of plotting and planning (and beer)…..

Weather was mixed on the Sunday so we decided to go cragging nearby rather than head up high and had a cracking day on some water worn limestone slabs in a fantastic setting – appetites were well and truly whetted!

So with great forecasts for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we headed to the mountains.

Monday we decided that a traverse of the 3 Sella towers would start us off nicely.  After a bit of a faff looking for the start of the route, we gave up and just decided to climb.  Following our noses towards the first features we knew to be on our route lead to some great climbing on lovely slabs – more or less approximating to our route.  The upper pitches of the 1^st tower where really good climbing, culminating in a VS pitch – not normally a problem but with a freezing wind blowing over the preceding belay numb hands, polished sloping foot holds and only old rusty pegs for gear added to the “excitement”!  Back in the sunshine on the summit all cold was forgotten as we looked up at the 2^nd tower.

West Face 1st Sella Tower

SW face of 2nd Sella Tower

Dave took over leading for this route and we headed up.  3 pitches with a lovely central groove took us up to the top of the 2^nd tower and yet more basking in the sunshine!  Time was wearing on though, and we decided we’d struggle to get the last tower done and be off the down climbing before losing light so decided to descend after the 2^nd tower.  An abseil and 40mins or so of scrambling saw us back at the car, chuffed to bits at our first mountain route together!!

Dave leading Kostner Route, 2nd Tower

Sitting on the belays on the Sella Towers, you can’t help up notice the Sassalungo group opposite and ideas had been planted for the next day…….

PUNTA DELLA CINQUE DITA

Glancing through the obscene number of guide books we seemed to have, the ordinary route up the 

 Punta Della Cinque Dita aught our eye.  At only UIAA III it seemed the perfect route up onto a spectacular summit for us.

Up early the next morning we were at the foot of the route too early!  And the sunshine hadn’t reached it yet making for a chilly first couple of pitches!  Luigi lead 3 very run out pitches up to easy ledges and slabs which we soloed up into the gap between the “thumb” and the main summit.  I took over the lead here and headed off up steep but juggy rock which after a few pitches took us back out into the (now very welcome!!) sunshine.  Briefly basking in the sun we were amused watching a guide with some clients descending.  The clients nervous on the down climbing, the guide skipping down facing out.  Oh to be that comfortable on that kind of terrain!!

A few more pitches of lovely limestone took us under a massive jammed boulder and hence to the summit.

 

summit of Punta Della Cinque Dita

2nd last pitch of Punta Della Cinque Dita

With a long descent ahead (reversing the route we’d just climbed) we didn’t hang about so while Dave and Luigi sorted ropes I wandered off to find the abseil point to start the descent.

A long abseil brought us down to the start of the first 2 pitches of downclimbing.  Traversing back out over the sunny face was a little never wracking (why is down climbing always so much scarier than climbing up???) but very easy.  More abseils, down climbing and obscene rope fankels in my old ½ ropes eventually brought us back to the foot of the route – just in time to see the last cable cars grind to a halt for the evening.  Damm………..

Dave Abseiling 6th Pitch

Dave on Last Abseil

Oh well, the walk down was pleasant enough, and we were full of cheer after the route so no probs!

Day 3 in the mountains was back to the Sella towers.  Not particularly adventurous, but they are so striking you can’t help but go back!  

The Sella Towers

This time we were looking at the South East Buttress/ chimney.  

The reason for the route choice was pitch 4.  A 3m pitch which involves jumping 1.5m from the top of the buttress onto a ledge on the main tower.  This distance would be an easy leap between peat hags, but with 100m of chimney and another 200m of buttress after than beneath us, it seemed a wee bit scarier……

SE Buttress/Chimney

showing the gap to jump

A worse thought than not jumping far enough, was jumping too far though – with a rock wall on the far side, the over enthusiastic jumper risks an embarrassing face plant followed by drop down into the gap – double embarrassing!

Dave went first, after a few deep breaths and barely a whimper was on the far side secure!  Luigi and I followed with similar noises / expressions on our faces!

 

Luigi making the leap!

The rest of the route to the summit was very fine easy climbing in the sun, followed by a quick descent back to the car and a celebratory beer at the sella pass.

At this point however, the weather broke.  The mountains were forecast to start being hit by electrical storms through the day and rain at night.  Luckily however the forecast was still fine in the glens and we decided on a bit of cragging while the mountains shouted at each other above. 

Day 4 was to a neighbouring valley, with some lovely looking slabby climbs – definitely a nice change after the steeper juggy mountain routes.  And suitably humbling as we struggled up 5’s and a couple of 6as!

An improved forecast for day 5 lead to us planning via ferrata for the day.  Unfortunately the weather didn’t co-operate and we woke up to cloud down into the valley and river levels up significantly.  Loitering about in the hope that it would improve lead to a day wandering up and down the valley and Dave accidentally buying a new pair of rock shoes.

The next couple of days were much the same, bad weather high up meant valley cragging – with us trying some different styles of crags to keep ourselves on our toes!

 

Cragging shot

another Cragging shot

The last day was planned for climbing at Col Rodella, but a roaring and cold wind put paid to that after the 1^st route!  Luckily there was a basic / easy via ferrata nearby so we ran up that, conveniently finishing at a refuge serving tea and cake…….not such a bad result really!

 

Col Rodella Via Ferrata

Walking down, the weather gods decided it was time to get us re-acclimatised for Scotland so 10mins from the car the heavens opened and nicely soaked us for the return drive to the apartment!

Luckily since we weren’t camping, a brew and snack and some lazing about on sofa’s soon used up the rest of the afternoon before we headed off for a luxury night in Venice airport.  Dave then headed off to Venice for the day, before catching the sleeper back to Germany and I caught the morning flight back to Edinburgh.

All in all, an absolutely cracking trip where we managed something everyday and got a few superb mountain days in.  Roll on next year!!!

White Mounth Traverse

Another ski tour on Lochnagar last Saturday for John and Ann. We got dropped off in Glen Muick and skied over to Invercauld. Got the skis on much lower down than we thought and had a good ski up on the healthy dusting of fresh from the night before. Some of the upper slopes had suffered from wind and sun, but it was still good touring cover. We went over onto Carn a Choire Bhoidheach and down by the side of The Stuic. Really nice snow on the descent, quite a lot of powder in places. We got down to within 10 mins of the pony shed, then packed out.

Threading a route up

Lochnagar from Cuidhe Crom

Across the Mounth

Going down...

Lochnagaahhhh...

Well the Winter That Keeps On Giving gave another superb day's ski touring on Lochnagar on Saturday. An early (ish) start got us to Glen Muick by 8.30 where we were greeted by the unexpected sight of veteran AMC member Denis wandering around the almost empty car park. Turned out that in addition to the official club meet to Dundonnell this weekend there was also an outing of the Camper Van Section, who we generally asleep in the upper car park. 

We headed out on the normal route and for the first time saw an avalanche warning for the path around the loch! Skis went on just after the woods and the ascent to the bealach between Little Pap and Cuidhe Crom was straightforward with just a dusting of fresh on a firm base. Even the normally boulders slope above that was easy as everying high up was plastered. It really wasn't like skiing in Scotland - blue sky, warm sun and fantastic snow.

Starting the ascent

Looking SW from Cuidhe Crom

Lochnagar (R) and The Stuic (L)

 

Top of Black Spout left branch

Around on the summit we met another AMC-er, Austin, who was enthusiastically snow-shooing about the place. After a leisurely lunch it was fun time. First a cracking descent down towards Glas Allt Sheil, stopping as the glen flattened out. Then skins back on and up to join our ascent route N of Little Pap. Another great descent right down through the woods and with a bit of creative heather-hopping back to the bridge over the River Muick. Only down side was I forgot the camera so these shots are from the phone.

Skining back up towards Little Pap

Happy Easter

Not being organised enough to get away on the Thursday we were restricted to doing something further east on Friday. The choice was a Cairngorm ski tour that started well in clear sunny conditions but the cloud rolled in as we got to the plateau. Not fancying a navigational test we bailed on the plan to go th Macdui and stuck to the round of the Northern Corries. Great descent off Cairn Lochan but the snow in Lurchers was a bit slabby.

On the way up Cairngorm

Cornices on Cairn Lochan

Ann carving a nice set of teles

We then headed west to camp at Roy Bridge in a chilly -6. Saturday was stunning and we headed off west to the edge of Knoydart for Spidean Mialach and Gleouraich above Loch Quoich. Great day out with fantastic views.

Spidean Mialach

Gleouraich from Spidean Mialach

Gleouraich

Another similarly chilly night in the tent got us to Sunday and a big day out; The Ben by the CMD arete. The slog up Carn Mor Dearg wasn't too bad and the arete was almost easier than in summer – just a snowy knife edge about the width of two feet for the most part. The consequnces of a slip would have been worse than summer though, with pretty hard snow on both sides, a fact happily ignored by the woman we met wandering along in a pair of yak trax and no axe!

 

North Face of The Ben

Heading off onto the CMD arete

On the arete

The final night was a balmy -2 and we were fortified by a fine bar supper. On Monday we fancied something a bit easier so went for the half day of the Corbett of Beinn Bhan south of Loch Arkaig. Not all that interesting in itself but a cracking viewpoint.

Cold and windy on Beinn Bhan

Dinner Meet 2013

This weekend was the AMC’s annual dinner meet – held this year at the MacDonald Hotel in Kinlochleven where we’d booked a number of cabins for the weekend, as well as arranging what promised to be a slap up feed in the hotel for Saturday night.

Feeling we should really do something to warrant the meal to come, Juliette and I headed of bright and early (well, quite bright and reasonably early) and after a couple of false starts in the woods behind Kinlochleven were on our way out towards Binnein Mor in the Mamores.

The bright crisp morning was perfect for slogging up the slopes from sea level kinlochleven towards loch Eilde, with the reward of views like this down the loch

Following the excellent stalkers path up the flank of Eilde Beag, we were caught up by Roddy and Austin who had applied brains rather than brawn to the morning and had a longer lie, followed by a drive up to Mamore lodge to start the walk in.

Continuing as a four we followed another stalkers path up the Southern ridge of Eilde Beag to the 956m spot height, we got lovely views of the Glen Coe hills from here from an unusual perspective.

Buachaille Etive Mor

Bidean Nsm Bian Group

Aonach Eagach

We continued up from here to Binnein Mor via its south summit, along a ridge made lovely and almost knife edge in places with some delicate and interestingly sculpted cornices by the recent snowfall and light winds.

Coming back the plan had been to continue along the ridge to Na Gruagaichean and hence down to the landy track coming up the glen, but just after the south summit of Binnein Mor, the cloud dropped and wind picked up leaving us in whiteout conditions with lovely stinging spindrift.  After traversing a couple of hundred meters along the corniced ridge we decided to turn back as it was taking so long to safely negotiated the ridge’s narrower sections due to the cornicing and rapidly forming windslab on the windward side of the ridge.

We re-traced our steps and dropped back down to the glen via Eilde Beag, and hence back to Kinlochleven. 

Back at the hotel we settle down by the fire with a pint in hand to watch the 2^nd half of the rugby as the weather closed in and rain started to drum on the windows.

Luckily the rest of the teams out also had cracking days and managed to dodge the worst of the weather too.  More of their days exploits to come I'm sure!

Dinner in the hotel was a find social affair, with three courses filling us up nicely, with just enough room left over for a wee deoch an dorus (well maybe two....) in the snug before we drifted back to cabins.

Slàinte!

Stu

Beinn Bhrotain

On Sunday John & Ann finally got up their first Munro of the year with a ski ascent of Beinn Bhrotain. During the long approach from Linn of Dee we were struggling to keep faith in the forecast that the low cloud would lift through the day. After a couple of hours it was showing no signs of doing so but tired of carrying the skis we tried putting them on as soon as possible, at about 500m. Despite the patchy appearance we managed to keep them on with only tiny sections of heather hopping.

Skis on at 500m

The snow was in great condition, firm and spring-like, if a bit wet. We traversed around the south side of Carn Cloich Mhuillin, where we had a top eagle spot, and from there more or less straight to the summit, which was reached in a minor whiteout.

Carn Cloich Mhuillin

Just about to summit

While we ate a late first lunch the cloud thinned enough for some surface definition but this only lasted for about the first 100m of descent. It then got very thick, damp and drizzly, with the goggles needing wipers (gap in the market here for Scottish skiing?). It was a shame as the snow was excellent but we had to pick our way down carefully on a bearing and unable to make out any surface at all, never the easiest task. Soon we reached the stream that heads east from just below the summit and popped out of the cloud to enjoy a glorious run down to minutes away from the Lairig Ghru path. Four and a half hours to the top, 30 mins descent, and 2 hours back out. Crazy, but still worth it.

Tele-babe

Starting the walk out (bit blurry but it shows the conditions)

Auchnafree Hill

On the way home from Glasgow on Sunday, Ann & John girded themselves for a bit of Perthshire Corbett-bagging. We had been hoping to tackle one or two of the hills in Arrochar but the weather in the west was foul so east seemed a good option. Auchnafree Hill, up Glen Turret and across from Ben Chonzie, was the least diversion so we went for that.

Although the weather didn’t look too bad it was very blustery with sheets of water being blown off the loch. The 4 km up the glen into the wind was a struggle but then for the rest of the day it was on the side or behind us. Snow conditions low down were soft and deep but it got firmer with height and would have been an OK ski, if we had them with us. Views were limited and I didn’t get many photos as the camera battery was flat, so I had to use a phone. It was difficult standing up at times on the tops, but we had a fair romp back the car. 

South from the summit

Acrosss to Ben Chonzie