NW sunshine

Bad luck Anne and John, we (Ed & Scuz) could see your 'clag' from afar. We nipped across the 'Fair Hill' of the far NW on Friday. With stunning views and a full cover of snow making it easier and far quicker underfoot than in summer.

Saturday afternoon turned fine, allowing a raid on Cul Mor.

Ben More Assynt and Conival were shy most of Sunday hiding in a white-out, but walking down with views like this we didn't want to go home.

Three days in the Far NW not another sole on the hill, nor a footprint in the snow. As for accommodation, nowt wrong with the back of the car lad...

Ed.

Long Weekend Up North

Last weekend saw a big group of us head off for a long weekend to celebrate Big Mikey's Big Birthday. The venue was a grand highland house in the wilds north of Ben Wyvis.

Spurred on by the forecast for Friday being by far the best, there was a flurry of activity with a large group tackling the local corbett of Carn Chuinneag, while John & Ann headed off north to Ben Klibreck. Initially it looked a good call with the weather brighter and less wind but there seemed less snow so the skis got left in the car.

Starting out up Ben Klibreck. Winter, what winter?

The initial flouter across the semi-frozen bog wasn't too bad and the ascent was going well until the first top was passed. After that the biting SE wind really kicked in, we reached the snow line and soon after that we were into the cloud.

Fine panorama north to Ben Hope and Ben Loyal....

And that was the end of the easy day out. Conditions rapidly deteriorated and much of the rest of the day was spent on fine navigation in near or total whiteout. This was pretty scary to start with as we hadn't done it since last winter, but quite soon we got our winter heads back on and relaxed a bit. Eventually we got to the summit and found the trig point encased in a spectacular amount of rime ice.

There's a trig point in there somewhere

Then it was back to base for a fine feed, and the double-edged sword of discovering that the storm forecast all week to hit on Sat had disappeared. Undeterred, we persisted with the long lie-in and had a fine day loafing around the house and grounds, and preparing for the night's festivities.

The house

Toffing it up

Sunday dawned fine and bright (the weather, not our heads) so we set off to tackle Carn Chuinneag on ski. This was aided by having the run of the estate so we could drive up the track to the base of the hill and only a short stagger to the snowline.

Ascending Carn Chuinneag, Ben Wyvis in the background

The snow was pretty good with a few cm of fresh on a hard base. This made for a quick and easy ascent until the last 100m, when the wind and cloud kicked in again. We didn't quite manage to ski to the top of the cairn as we had done on a few hills before Christmas, but got fairly close.

On the top (almost)

We stopped on top for a late elevenses while we de-skinned, and discovered that Ann's ski was starting to fall apart. Nothing too fatal though, so on with the descent. Within a couple of minutes we were out of the cloud and got some cracking views across to the west coast, with Suilven being especially prominent. Then a very quick slide down the corrie and back to the car in what seemed like no time. Great end to a cracking weekend.

Descent run

Club meet: The Cabin, Balgowan, 4-6 Feb 2011

Chris provides Adidas with the poster shot for their forthcoming mountaineering range

Last weekend a group of us headed up the road to a new venue for the AMC, the Edinburgh JMCS's Cabin in Balgowan. This recently re-fitted cottage provided a well-equipped and comfortable base for exploring the hills around Loch Laggan and beyond.

There would be a photo of the hut here had I remembered to take one.

Despite a distinctly awful-looking forecast issued earlier in the week, Saturday started out pretty settled and encouraged us to set off in two groups for long-ish walks. Donald, Richard, Derek and Graeme went south of the loch past Binnein Shuas for a breezy but fine day up the hills of Creag Pitridh and Geal Charn.

On the way up Carn Liath in the waning shower

Meanwhile, on the north side of Loch Laggan, Chris, Steve, Berta, Yvonne and myself headed towards the great bulk of Creag Meagaidh. After plodding up the flanks of Carn Liath in moderately grim rain/sleet/snow, this wet stuff soon diffused to provide fine views across the summits and into Coire Ardair.

And out comes the sun

Apart from the cold and gusty wind occasionally blasting us with spindrift, conditions were great and allowed us to complete a full loop over the other Munros of Stob Poite Coire Ardair and Creag Meagaidh in good time. Much bum-sliding helped reduce the descent time!




The food that night was up to the usual high standards, and followed up with a few drams around the fire with musical accompaniment from Yvonne on the ukulele.

"Can I have a bit of both please?"

On Sunday the cloud was much lower and the air milder. Derek picked-off the one he and the lads missed the day before, Beinn a' Chlachair, while the rest of us opted for a relatively short walk up nearby Geal Charn (different one to that of the Saturday). It was pretty clagged in higher up, but dry spare the last half hour and with many grouse and ptarmigan about to entertain.

Scarpa doing good business out of the AMC (Photo:Yvonne)

Ascending the slopes of Geal Charn (Photo:Yvonne)

Camera perched on a rock shot (Photo:Yvonne)

Marvellous Morar Marylin

On Saturday John and Ann had recovered enough from an appalling journey west on Thur evening to drag themselves up the tongue-twistingly monickered Sgurr Eireagoraidh. This fine 548 m Marylin is just east of Mallaig and on the southern edge of Loch Nevis, the southern boundary of Knoydart.

Sgurr Eireagoraidh from the approach path

The first km or so was on a surprisingly good path to a small picnic spot. After that normal service was resumed and it was a semi-trackless wander through the bog, despite a path being shown on the map. This followed the line of what looked like an old water pipeline that we guessed must have supplied Mallaig. As we got closer we abandoned the path-quest and went straight up the front of the hill to the summit. This was interesting with some nice bits of gully, some scrambling and two eagles keeping their eyes on us.

Looking west from the summit to Eigg

The view from the top was stunning in all directions, depsite the heavy squally showers all around. We were glad we had headed west rather than sticking it out around the Ben.

The view down into Inverie bay

From the top we headed north east, to the peak of Sgurr an Eilein Ghiubhais for the best views down Loch Nevis and of Inverie. Another fine vantage point and time to head back down through the bog. It almost made up for this being the first time for four years that I hadn't managed to ski on my birthday weekend. I was trying to enjoy the irony that of any year it could happen it was this one, given the performance before Christmas.

Sunday walk: Cairn of Claise & Carn an Tuirc

Denis, Alessandro, Kim and I headed up Sron na Gaoithe in the snow and mist. By the time we'd reached the summit at 814 metres Denis was finding the lure of a cup of tea and a good book back in his campervan too strong.

The remaining three set off again and were soon experiencing views not unlike this:

Most of the walk turned into a navigation excercise, which fortunately we passed. Just as I was thinking it had been a waste of time taking a camera we came back below the clouds and saw a fascinating sight - sort of horizontal rainbows. Not sure what caused them, but I suspect something to do with ice crystals in the air.

Of course, there's the inevitable group photo, which I escaped through having the camera.

The the final sight of the day was a mountain hare that was a lot less camera shy than me.

Robert.

Five Sisters

John & Ann were over west this weekend as part of Mary's 40th birthday antics. We took advantage of a good forecast for the Saturday to head up to Kintail and pay a long-overdue visit to the Five Sisters. I last did them nearly 20 years ago on my first AMC meet.

We slogged up the steep hillside out of Glen Shiel in thick wet cloud and arrived on the ridge soggy and breathless. Things soon started to improve though as we got through the freezing level, the ground firmed up and there was a glimpse of blue sky to the north.

First signs of a clearance

Unfortunately this didn't last and the cloud soon rolled back in. However, the ridge was quite interesting at this point so we were concentrating more on where we were going. The underfoot conditions were quite tricky - too icy not to have crampons on but too rough and rocky to walk easily in them.


Sporting route we found up Sgurr na Ciste Duibhe

The rest of the day continued in much the same way with bouts of frustration with the underfoot conditions soon disappearing whenever the views appeared. By mid afternoon we had to start retracing our route to get back to the car. We were not looking forward to the steep descent down an unknown slope but what looked like a good line on the map turned out to have an excellent old stalker's track down it, not marked on the map. A very good end to a fine day out, then back for tea and birthday cake.


View down Loch Duich, showing the contrast between north and south facing slopes

Club meet: CIC Hut, 21-23 Jan 2011

After escaping from work on Friday night, seven of us made the long drive west and approach walk to stay at the CIC Hut. Situated at the foot of the cliffs on the north side of the Ben, this famous SMC hut provides an unparalleled base for access to Scottish winter climbing, and now comes fully equipped with a pair of composting toilets fitted since the club's last winter visit!

The CIC Hut

Fully laden with food and kit for the weekend, the slog from the north face car park to the hut wasn't exactly fun. It was, however, free of precipitation and easy underfoot.

The weather on Saturday was excellent but mild. Broken cloud was just scraping summit level with plenty of sun about and very little wind. We split into three parties, with early birds Romain and David heading for Observatory Ridge, then Derek, Phil and Alex beginning the Ledge Route shortly after, and mid-morning casuals Scuz and Linda finally dragging themselves out of slumber and following on the same route.

Romain and Dave arrived early at the base of Observatory ridge. However, after the first axe placement on cruddy snow / ice, they lost inspiration and decided to swap for Tower Ridge... So Tower Ridge here we go!

Just after Tower Gap

Dave high up on Tower Ridge

Dave topping out

"A great day on the ridge climbing with Dave and with great views."

Over on the Ledge Route, the ascent was straightforward and a real pleasure in the conditions. Having gained some ground, Scuz and Linda caught up at the top where we all passed over the summit and down to the start of Carn Mor Dearg arete. Derek and Alex descended here to play on some water ice on the way back to the hut, while the others continued along the arete to the summit of Carn Mor Dearg.

Linda and Scuz at 'the gangway'

Posing at the top

That evening, in a busy and rather dark (no wind to power the lights!) hut, the AMC culinary skills were on show once again, constructing a monster feast of modified minestrone soup, chunky vegetable curry and 'rustically-presented' banoffee pie. Early nights for all (a little later for Scuz who got locked out while walking off her dinner!).

Banoffee pie, CIC-style

With weary legs, Derek, Phil and Alex were first out the door on Sunday. After an hour or so of bumbling around high in Coire na Ciste in the clag, they managed to find the start of our intended route - Raeburn's Easy Route. This proved an entertaining route, with good ice on the initial steep section before an exposed traverse and final steep ascent over the top on snow slopes.


Photos from the Ledge Route and Raeburn's Easy Route

Scuz and Linda passed beneath Raeburn's to find North Gully for a nice pitch of grade II, while Romain and David impressively flew up the Ledge Route and down #4 gully to have the kettle on by 11am! We all made the walk out in good time to start the drive home at dusk.