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A wee teaser from the new Scottish Winter Climbs North guide.
Paying attention on a big screen, those green markers could do with black numbers instead of white! Looks great otherwise.
Crikey that’s tempting, but a week away is too big an ask.
Goan Goan. You know it makes sense. You could work "from home" a couple of days whilst I have a rest day!
Free flights!
Paying attention on a big screen, those green markers could do with black numbers instead of white! Looks great otherwise.
Cheers for the feedback. It'll be different in print, that's just what I pass to the designer to show the lines.
You could work “from home” a couple of days
I wondered this! I'll ask...
Wow, just wow!
Skye just isn't on a lot of people's radar in winter, it certainly wasn't on mine for a lot of years. Conditions don't last there (where does these days?) but a lot of the routes come into nick pretty quickly in the right conditions. Obviously it's all heading for the sea again now!
Went out for a days 'ice cragging' yesterday. Very nice, cold at the start (-16 in the car park) but it warmed up during the day, and will probably be washed away this week. This place https://is.brattelinjer.no/problem/11714
I got out for the first time this year to climb this in Coire Kander before it melted. Not my video or me, but far better than any of my pictures.
Probably my first winter route in 5 years so it was great to have a good one that was mostly Type 1 fun.
Some ace pics up there Spin!
in other news, Mick Fowler still being Mick Fowler. What an inspiring human !!!
Norway.... Lillehammer... Splendid. Found some random Swede on Facebook to climb with and so far it's been brilliant.
The first route on day one felt hard, as it does when you haven't climbed proper ice for 20 years! The ice on the easy bit was horrible spindly stuff so we ended up on a slightly harder but with nice green ice that ate screws
Then toproped a bit and then did Losnafossen left. It was brilliant..loved it. Just less than 60m long and I placed 20 screws. Shameless.
One of the best climbs I've ever done. Abbed down in the dark
Nice.
I went all the way to Rjukan at new year and didn't climb!
Trappefossen today. Laced the first pitch then sent the Swede on his first ice lead
Then got him to lead the next easy pitch. Then the next one.
Then a short but slightly steeper one.
I led some easy bits on really featured ice and then the last pitch which was covered in wrinkles, holes, icicles etc which made the climbing fairly easy but some of the screws shit. That ominous silence after the initial graunching when you realise you're in an air pocket.
Anyway, loved it.
Ace pics gents! An Teallach in sketchy summer weather is big boy enough for me.
went all the way to Rjukan at new year and didn’t climb!
Nightmare. I specifically chose Lillehammer as it seems much more reliable than Rjukan. That and the fact that Rjukan seems mobbed now the new* guidebook has come out.
What amazes me is how much cheaper stuff is... Big **** off 4x4 for £250 for 8 days. ( Admittedly somewhat dilapidated) 4 bed house for £208 for a week.. At this rate I might have to visit the Norrona outlet in Lillehammer on the way home.
* Not really that new, but....
Actually, it was a conscious decision not to climb. We went to Gausta for a friend's 50th. I did briefly consider taking my kit but decided that with nobody else in the group being a climber and not having a car it was going to be logistically difficult to get climbing and probably not worth it for the single day I might manage away. Nice to see the place though.
What amazes me is how much cheaper stuff is
Our accommodation in Gausta was pretty cheap but I think that's mainly down to us being a big crowd.
Brilliant day yesterday.... After an abortive attempt to wade through 2km of thigh deep snow to Bollis the day before, we decided the brace the hairpins of doom to go Sorstulen. We did Goddis(Godis?) which is an utterly mind blowing 4 or 5 pitches of superb ice. Even accessing it was exciting....
3 big abseils followed by hand over hand down some daisy chained slings off a hastily placed ice screw when it transpired that the last abseil was indeed longer than 200ft!
We split the first pitch into 2, which was a good call as it meant my partner could go crazy with the screws on what was only his second day leading ice...
I was so chuffed to lead the main pitch, calves burning and desperately wanting to rest on an ice screw ( but didn't). Used all 22 of them again. No pictures of that bit, but P3 was very pretty in the sunset ..
Pitch four took a while and it ended up being a twelve hour day. Glad we took four head torches 🙂
What was so brilliant was the general comfort and lack of stress, apart from the drive. The belays were huge, the ice was beautiful plastic, the temperature was balmy and the wind was non existent. So different from "full" winter conditions. Also the ice screws seemed generally bomber. Reversed a couple after hitting air or powder, but generally excellent. Not that I was planning on falling, but it gave me the option of resting or retreating if....
Today was a late start, and very short as the temp has dropped to minus 10 and we didn't manage to dry our kit our properly overnight.
That's fab Generalissimo!
Rest day skiing yesterday. Temperature was minus fifteen this morning so we chose sunny Hundefossen. It was superb. Lead 3 routes including this one which really stretched me. Awesome place.
Just wish I could have got photos from a better position as the light was beautiful
Ace pics Generalist. When the drive is sketchier than the climb you’ve had a pretty exciting day
Good few days of climbing there 🙂
So, Cogne.....
A guy I occasionally climb with in the Peak is suggesting Cogne in Jan/Feb. He's very keen and psyched and I enjoy climbing with him, but....
He's a helluva lot better than me and I've always drawn the line at ice/alpine with a partnership that is significantly mismatched. Too much risk when the belays can be worthless and moving together may be needed.
OTOH it might be an opportunity to do some amazing stuff. I get the impression the routes are much more serious than Lillehammer, but bolt belays abound.
Then if course there's climate change. Various people I spoke to last year say that Cogne rarely works these days, and that the few In routes get mobbed, applecored and loads of falling ice.
Tell me about Cogne for ice climbers of limited ability and even more limited self confidence...
Having only been in the summer, all I can tell you is that it's a beautiful area!
What do you mean serious? There's a lot of bolted belays and a lot of one pitch stuff. Does he have anything he specifically wants to do?
Serious...you'll know more about that than me, but i'd start with
- Long
- Sustained
- High avi danger
- Tricky/ long descent
- Long approach
- Small stances with natural pro
- Time critical/ sun damage
- Not great pro
As a gross generalisation fit example, I felt that the routes I did around Lillehammer ( eg Godis) were relatively unserious.short walk-ins, big huge trees, shade, low Avi danger, bomber screws, easy descents. Whereas Cogne seems much more alpine, with all that that implies..
Does he have anything he specifically wants to do?
He will indeed as he's been there a fair bit, so I guess he has done all the mellow stuff.. For example last year he did Supercouloir* which is way out of my league.
* Not at Cogne, obvs
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This appeared today. Anyone looking for winter inspiration, look no further!
Hamish Frost? Jack Frost's Scottish brother...🙃
This appeared today. Anyone looking for winter inspiration, look no further!
There was a funny thread, I think on UKC, where Guy and somebody were discussing stuff and somebody pitched in with a scathing comment about middle-aged bimbling nobodies.
Made me laugh.
On another note.... my box of new ice screws arrived last month and I've booked flights to Oslo for February. To say I'm excited would be a hideous understatement.
And they're off!
Some routes done yesterday but it was pretty marginal. Much snowier today. Couldn't really be bothered finding a partner so I went for a wee run including the Twin Ribs and Fiacaill Ridge. I'd forgotten how much fun they can be, taken direct with one axe. A bit of hooking, a bit of jamming, some big flakes, some steep bits but never too hard to escape to easy ground.
Conditions were surprisingly good, rime, some ice and exposed turf frozen but by the time I'd dropped back down under the crags it was raining.
Can't argue with that for October.
I did a spot of (Very) easy winter climbing back in the day - mostly just seconding I/II. I actually really enjoyed it a lot, and felt super safe with a very competent partner who knew what he was doing. At the time I was quite keen to push into grade III and more mountaineering type routes.
Laid off it for quite a few years as I got more into the bike side of outdoor stuff - went on a Winter hillwalk a couple years ago and had to be coaxed up some very simple scrambly steps as I was quaking in my boots the whole time. For some reason now even the sight of snowy crags in the mountains sets me wrong a bit and makes me feel a bit wobbly. Super weird. My (qualifications coming out of his A**e) Alpine climber mate has offered to take me up some easy gullies again if they materialise later in winter and I'm genuinely worried about it!
Its the time for optimism again... I lost an ice screw last winter and haven't yet replaced it because, well, there'd need to be ice to get used.
My (qualifications coming out of his A**e) Alpine climber mate has offered to take me up some easy gullies again if they materialise later in winter and I'm genuinely worried about it!
If your mate is that qualified then leave the worrying to him. 😀
Or just don't go, it's meant to be fun!