Torridon ice hunt

Shaw made another trip North from the Lakes to climb and sample Loz's whisky collection.. I wasn't sure if the pair of them would be in a fit state for a big day after some drams but they were as awake as me when I met them at 6am for the drive West towards Torridon.

Nice walk in

Looking further North

We settled on Beinn Eighe and hoped to climb its East Buttress (IV, 4), which takes a line up the left most buttress of the three (looking at them) after traversing into it on a long snow slope. Its North facing and the guide book stated that it can be climbed in any conditions - we'd had some thaw, but it had gone back to cold and the snow had consolidated. 

Lets traverse...

Shaw

Keep traversing...

The walk in to the corrie is quite long but on a good path. I can see that if this path was under snow it would an even more time consuming trek. I was pretty blown away by the view when we turned the corner and could see the triple buttresses and our planned route. Its a pretty magical place.

Me somewhere on the route

Loz topping out into the sun

The Triple Buttresses looked a little bare and 'un-wintery' initially but our route looked to have more cover with definite snow on it (in places!). The traverse in along a banked out snow shelf was fun, and time consuming as we used the rope for some of it and it went on and on.

Sanctuary of the top

At the bottom of the route we again paused not sure of how wintery the route was, but as we climbed it quickly became apparent that it was in winter 'nic' and axes and crampons were required! I certainly wouldn't have fancied some of the snowy grooves/corners without.

enjoying the views

It was a great route with some lovely mixed rock sections and the views of Liathach and a large portion of the Highlands was great. The descent due South from Coinneach Mhor was a steep and unpleasant end to the day, I think next time I'll try a different way down.. But overall a great but reasonably tiring day, 11 hours car to car!

Whats in a picture?

Everything, and nothing!

On Sunday we went to explore Alladale in the far North. This is an amazing place, area and estate. It's quite well known because the Laird, Paul Lister wants to reintroduce bears and wolves. I love the idea of this and re-wilding but can't see it happening in my lifetime due to the complications of the idea... but I would love to be proved wrong on this.

here comes the weather

It was bitterly cold and snow was forecast throughout the day. It also felt very remote as we drove down the lightly snow covered dead end road to the parking. Setting off it was simply joyous riding through silky fresh snow as the views of the mountains drifted in and out.

Because the weather was pretty harsh we just explored valley tracks on the estate but wow what a place. After a few hours the snow became quite heavy and we headed back to the van with out tracks now covered by fresh snow. It would have been good to have a fat bike in all of this snow.

love this picture

Whats in a picture...? Well on the way back when the snow was at its heaviest I quickly took out my camera and took this picture (above). There was no skill involved, it was just luck how it came out. But I think its the best picture I have ever taken! I love it as it really captures the atmosphere of the day and the activity. It means the world to me, but will mean nothing to many... such is life ;-)

Powder hounds in the Gorms!

Managed to get a day off which coincided with sunny weather... And the snow was reported to be pretty good in the Cairngorms too. Shaw and Judith were also up winter climbing in the Northern Corries, but enough was enough I HAD to ski!

Me looking like I can ski (for once haha)!

Out of the blue Nico messaged me to remind me that he was also heading to the Cairngorms to meet Des to attend the Avalanche Geeks level 1 avalanche course which I'd done a couple of years ago (excellent course I really recommend)...

Des being chased dropping to the Ciste - Scotland rocks

So a date was set and I dutily turned up at the Youth Hostel to pick Des up at 8am as planned... I walked into the dining room saw Des, sat down opposite him and he slowly looked up, into my eyes (blearily), nodded his head and said 'so its 8am I guess, I'm not ready'! Brilliant!

Okay lets blow the piste shizzle

On Cairngorm top!

Woop, woop we headed up the hill and skied on piste for the morning, with a plan to tour later. The pistes were pretty good, and its the first time I've ever been that the West Wall and White Lady were open! The White Lady was fantastic, and going slightly outbound we found some great snow in no. 1 gully, dropping into the Ciste.. brilliant fun.

varied snow... but great

watch that gully boys!

Even though it was a blast we had agreed to get off piste on a wee tour so at about 2pm (I think) we skinned up to Cairngorm where Des did a headstand (its his yoga thing... and well why not, I wish I could do one!).

Des and frozen beard climber man!

It was touch and go with time (enough day light) but we agreed to ski around the tops of the Northern Corries, planning to drop into Lurchers gully for a final descent as we had heard it was holding good snow.

Lurchers - flat light but excellent snow

So we skied/skinned around and it was really nice and atmospheric. Lots, maybe 8 teams of climbers were all topping out of Sneachda and Lochain and it was fun to quickly zip past on planks, looking for but not spotting Shaw and Judith.

The wee walk out!

The snow was very varied, from hard frozen, soft, hard pack, crusty, and in fact the last little descent to gain Lurchers had the worst snow I'd ever skied (tried to ski!).. But Lurchers had dreamy snow and as the light left (well flat light) it was a lovely ski down before all to quickly contouring across aiming back towards the ski centre.. A fantastic day in the Highlands.

The problem with Scotland...

...is that its too good! So I know I'm repeating myself but again I wasn't sure what to do this last weekend as I had offers to winter climb with Shaw and Kelly, rock climb at Reiff (too early season for me I'm afraid), paint, ski or go for a remote munro.

A nice problem to have I guess.... I was certain I would ski.... but then the latest weather suggested that the far North was the sunniest spot and I haven't been able to get the ridge I'd spotted with Tom and Sheddy out of my mind.

The dramatic ridge and Seana Bhraigh to its right

So I packed my van and set the alarm for 5.30am thinking I'd go for Seana Bhraigh one of the more remote Ullapool munro's. Its a really interesting area and again for the second time in 2 weeks coaxed the van up the rough track from Oykel Bridge. From the parking out came the mt bike for the long ride up the valley and I quickly passed the school house bothy I stayed in last weekend.

At this point I changed the plan as the ridge looked uncertain

I'd slightly underestimated this ride and it took 2 hours with the river crossings, taking pictures and carrying the reasonably heavy rucksack. As I got closer to the ridge I started to think that soloing the North Ridge of Creag an Duine may be silly as I was on my own and from this perspective it looked quite steep at the top. I wondered if I could get boxed in on the top rocks...

ditch the bike

In the end I abandoned my bike before the last river crossing that goes to Magoo's and Loch a Choire Mhoir and set off up the North ridge of Seana Bhraig. This actually proved a great option and was a lovely walk.

Oh.... the ridge isn't actually steep! :-) 

It paralleled the other ridge which provided great views for the whole day, and I then realised that actually it wasn't steep and I could (should) have just gone for it. Och well.

Seana Bhraig - the final section (ahead) was lovely

Beautiful untracked snow lead me up Seana Bhraig and had plenty of interest with cornices, steep neve and lots of ptarmigan. I even scoped out some possible new winter route potential (need to ask Martin Hind about this area - he'll know).

the top

I lingered on the summit before returning to the bike and the cycle out, which was now mainly down hill and very welcome. A great day, but to be honest with today's weather I think that any option in Scotland would have been great. Can't wait to return to Magoo's bothy and climb the ridge.. but maybe I'll leave it a few weeks before my return...

The school house bothy (again)