Great things have been happening in Scotland over the last few days (well the whole winter to be precise) and it was inspiring to be up there to witness some of it. The weekends goings on have been well reported elsewhere, so I'll just relate my latest adventure.
I drove up to Scotland on Friday night with Dave Garry and Dave Almond and after a couple of hours sleep in the Northern Coiries car park we met up with Helen and walked in to Lochain.
Although it felt quite mild, by the time we reached the crag the temp was just below freezing and things were looking good. Dave Garry and myself headed up to Daddy Longlegs, a route thats been on both our tick lists for a while now, while Helen and Dave went for War and Peace.
I started up the technical first pitch as this suited my style of climbing, and Dave is the man for anything overhanging, like the second pitch.
Conditions were perfect with not too much ice and just enough gear to keep me moving, and after some thin moves at the top of the first groove, I reached a good rest before moving rightwards into the continuation, where more delicate climbing using a crack on the left led to a piece of fixed gear. Unfortunately at this point I made a stupid mistake. As I pulled the rope up to clip, my hand knocked my axe out of the crack and I watched it fall away, fortunately landing by Dave in the snow. After retrieving it I completed the rest of the corner and the moves round the roof, then moved up, to belay below the final pitch. A bit annoying really, as it was going so smoothly, but hopefully I've learnt my lesson and I'll be more careful in future.

Daddy Longlegs P2

One more pull

The second pitch was a complete contrast and deceptively steep. After pulling on, to place some gear, then moving back down for a quick rest, Dave cruised up it to complete the deception, and it was only when I got on it myself, that I realised how steep it actually was. It was steep! A bag with a belay parka, water and a guide book, never felt so heavy! and after pulling over onto easy ground, it was a good five minutes before the pump had gone from my arms.
Walking back in on Sunday, the wind was about 50mph straight on the nose and it was sapping my motivation for getting on anything challenging, but as we approached the cliff I could see Ines and Charly on Happy Tyroleans and my motivation returned.

War and Peace P1

We decided to climb War and Peace, another route on my list for a long time, with three good pitches up the steep face to the right of Fallout Corner. I led the first pitch and after moving across to the usual belay I continued up to some fixed gear higher up that allowed my to get a good view of pitch two. 

Overhanging ground on P2

This was another steep one for Dave - that can be seen in the photo above - then a squeeze chimney, before the last pitch up a slab, with a final sting in the tail.

P 3

Meanwhile Dave and Helen were climbing Bulgy, and if there was a category for the most protection-less ascent of a route, I think he might have a first. From the last piece of gear he traversed out leftwards through the crux at the stepped roof, then up the groove, before placing a dodgy cam. So about 10m of tech 7 with no pro!
We drove up to the car park again on Monday but with the temperature reading plus 7 we chose the cafe, a mistake it would seem, when I read that Ines and Charly were at it again with a new route by War and Peace. Obviously we're just not committed enough! 
Still I'm happy for the moment! 

After visiting White Goods recently and having the usual apres climb grade debate, I started to wonder what the Scottish grades would be for the White Goods dry tooling routes. As sports routes used to get E grades before the adoption of the French system and grit routes have been given sport grades, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to reverse the process and convert the dry tooling routes backwards, hopefully giving people a feel for the type of climbing difficulty that could be expected on a Scottish style mixed route.  Obviously this will only reflect the technical difficulty aspect and the sustained nature of the climb as they all follow a line of bolts, so in relating the two styles, you would have to assume good, easy to place protection. The other thing to remember, is the dry tooling routes are graded for the red point, whereas the Scottish grade should reflect the onsite. As all my White Goods climbing has been worked, its quite tricky to get the conversion right. I've tried to imagine clearing snow off the rock and spending time searching for the holds but some of the moves are so blind, unless you had the strength to hang in there for an hour or two I don't know how you'd onsite them in a Scottish scenario. To put that in perspective a red point ascent would take about three minutes! 

I imagine something like Anubis is graded to reflect the onsite and Dave Mac must have learned a lot from his attempts, making the ascent feel (relatively) easier.

So these are my thoughts. (the numbers in brackets represent the Scottish tech grade ie; the hardest move or sequence of moves)

Left Over Goods D9

Slightly overhanging crack line (8) to a good rest under the big roof, then powerful moves into a fig four and a hard pull to reach easy ground and the LO (11) 

X 11

Doorstep Challenge D8+

As above to the rest,(8) then move right and climb through the roof with powerful moves to get round the lip (11)

IX 11

White Goods D8+

Overhanging ground with some hard moves through the small roofs (9) leads to a semi rest under the main roof, then the obligatory horizontal section with more inverted manoeuvres (10) leads to the finishing crack.

X 10

Jazz D8

Steep climbing, sustained, but with no particularly hard crux, leads to the LO (9)

X 9

Tumble in the Jungle D9

Climbs through four overlaps, while traversing rightwards, on thin, difficult to place torques with some big pulls and no rests (9)

XI 9

Ready Steady Hook D10 

Easy climbing leads to a good rest under the big roof, before launching out with multiple fig fours to the lip, where a dyno gets a good ledge, then footless dangling and heel hooks allow small hooks to be reached and the hardest climbing is over (12) Climb the wall above (8) to a LO 

XI 12

Ready Steady Hook

Powerpact D9

A big reach out to the lip of the first roof and powerful/reachy moves up on small edges gain the wall above (10) which is climbed to a good rest under the main overhang. Now a sustained sequence of pumpy moves lead horizontally leftwards to a massive reach off a stienpull (10) then a hard move past a block (9) and more strenuous moves to the LO

XI 10 

The first roof on Powerpact 

Great Expectations

Last Wednesday evening saw Dave Almond and myself driving up to Scotland with big plans.
In my dream world it went something like this: Thursday; Trail of Tears, Friday; Blood Sweat and frozen Tears, Saturday; The Secret, then an easy day on Sunday climbing Neanderthal.
Now when I have plans like that, its easy to come away disappointed, but so what, aim high and you'll always achieve more in the end. Thats my philosophy and I'm sticking to it!


Ok, now for the reality. After arriving at Duncan's house at 1am it was straight to bed and an alarm at 5 for the drive to Lochnagar. We reached the rescue box at 8.30 and stopped to gear up. It was at this point we realised how cold it was. The wind was blowing like a freight train and with the temp around -7 it was bitterly cold. With every layer on it was all we could do just to keep warm, so we decided to go for Parallel Buttress. The easier climbing would mean we could keep moving, but on reaching the start of the route the wind seemed to have completely stopped. Dave made the right call, "lets stick with the original plan" so we moved rightwards to Trail of Tears.
The 1st pitch was pretty straight forward, a turfy groove led to a belay on the left after 30m. The next pitch looked exciting, continuing up the corner to a small overhang and climbing a thin ice seam up the corner above. The ice in the corner was enough to stop any protection going in, but not enough to make the climbing any easier, and it proved to be a committing, pumpy section for Dave on the sharp end.
At the end of the ramp, which was easy with snow, I decided to carry on and make a belay at a turf ledge I could see diagonally above me. This section was the crux. Hanging off my left axe I moved down and rightwards onto a smooth slab and at full reach gained a small hook in a seam that allowed me to pull across, with my right foot pressing into a small ramp at the bottom of the slab, then a hand swap on the right axe and a placement in a crack at the bottom of the groove to my right, meant I could make bridging moves upwards on thin mossy hooks until the good turf was reached. This was a sustained section, and as I had traversed right then up, with no gear I would have been looking at a nasty fall if I'd come off! Although when Dave seconded it he spotted a peg in the base of the groove. I wonder if this was the peg Andy Nisbet placed by abseil? 

At the belay on the 1st pitch, with the thin ice corner above to my right. ⓒ D  Almond

Above the climbing wasn't over, and seconding in the dark I was glad of the rope above me as any style went out the window, but a final steep pull over a short wall and all that remained was easy ground to the top. I say easy, but in the dark, finding the Tough Brown Traverse and climbing the 3 pitches to the plateau with about two runners would not be the place to make a mistake!
We started the route at 10am and topped out at 8'20 so just over 10hours, but it was 10'30 by the time we reached the car and we still had to get to Aviemore, so a long day overall meant we wouldn't be driving to Beinn Eighe without a rest day. The first example of my reality not quite meeting my expectations!
So after a good nights sleep, where my coughing kept Dave awake and his snoring did the same for me, we got up at 4 on Saturday morning and drove north for Blood Sweat and Frozen Tears. The walk in, up the side of the hill was hard work and the head torches ahead of us had me slightly worried, theres a lot of routes you might go this way for but only one that I really wanted right now. Sod's law say's they'll want it too! I was proved right when we got to the ab point and a rope was in place, Neil and his mates had beaten us to it :-( 
We decided to try Maelstrom. I led the first pitch up an ice fall and a steep groove, with some really good climbing on thin hooks, before traversing right to belay below a steep chimney. Dave led this, and the continuation groove above, until he reached a ledge that seemed the logical place to belay. From here the corner continued up to a big roof and we were meant to traverse left across a slab, to small ledges and gain the groove to our left, but after falling on the traverse and eventually getting across with tension, I found myself looking at an unprotectable, verglassed nightmare and with the light fading, we called it a day. You can't win them all. Looking at the picture below, I now think we tried to traverse left too low down.

Neil Adams at the second belay of BSFT, abbing in. ⓒ D Almond

After descending West Central Gully and climbing back up Fuselage Gully to get our bags we headed down and to the pub for a much needed beer and some food before driving back to Aviemore.
We decided on an easy day in the northern corries for Sunday, and with the weather seemingly to deteriorate, we climbed Original Summer Route but by lunch time the weather had improved massively, and I was slightly regretting we hadn't tried something more challenging. Anyway it meant we were back at the car by one o'clock, ready for the long drive back south, until next time...

Wales hardest?

Had a day out with Pete today, he was keen to get on a line he'd been keeping an eye on in the Pass, before the thaw set in.
This wasn't your average Scottish style mixed line. Not that there's anything wrong with them.
This was something different.
A steep wall for about 15m followed by a hanging ice dagger to the top. The wall itself is the line of a summer E4 past three insitu pegs, but with the wet streak that ran down it and the dirty nature of the rock, I don't think it would ever make classic status. Whereas as a winter line, it produced an excellent, pumpy test piece unlike anything else currently existing in Wales.
Pete worked the route ground up with a few rests, before pulling the ropes and going for the clean ascent with some style. Clearly the training had paid off!
I tried it on top rope with a few rests, then after he'd led it, I nearly seconded it clean, only falling after reaching the ice when my axe ripped. I was pumped stupid after though.
In terms of the grade, I'm unsure. Overall it felt harder than Cracking up, but as for the individual moves maybe about the same. After all, unless you're doing fig fours, axe dyno's or footless swings through a massive roof, how can you get harder than tech nine? So for me, lockoffs and long reaches between small edges for 15m means the overall grade will get bigger, but as for the tech grade I don't know. I wonder what the crux move is on the Hurting at XI 11?


All in all with the insitu pegs, its a pretty safe test piece that I'd recommend to anyone keen on pushing their grade, and I look forward to hearing about the onsite! 

endurance training required ( for me that is!)

         

Spot the winter line :-)

NEARLY!

If we had completed it, this would have been one of the best routes I've ever done, and in my view, on the best winter crag in North Wales, when it's in condition. But three pitches up with 15m of climbing before easy grade 6 ground, and a gear ripping fall, straight on to the belay meant no tick...this time.


So fingers crossed that we get the conditions again and Rob's broken ankle recovers in time and we don't get the car stuck and we remember our head torches and we don't fall and...! 


There's loads more I could add, like the epic walk in through thigh deep snow and the free hanging rappels in the dark, but I'll save it for the successful post!

Somewhere on the best winter cliff in Wales!

Prospecting

Walked into the Black Ladders on Thursday with Rob, to try a new line I've been thinking about. Unfortunately it didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped, after 7hrs of climbing we 'd gained about 40m and it was time to call it a day.

This is going to require something extra. 

The problem is with this line, its not about getting stronger, working out a sequence or finding a crucial piece of protection , it's just finding the courage to move out above two peckers for about 8m into the unknown. 

Still, they don't all give up their secrets straight away, and that'll make the success taste even better!                                                                                  

Rob looking for a way through the first line of overhangs.

And higher on the same pitch.

Chris parkin's shot, as Rob nears the second belay.

Account Opened

Early season winter conditions, meant a trip to Scotland with Dave Almond was not to be missed, and after leaving Liverpool at 10pm we were on the way to the Ben for an attempt at Sioux Wall.

Unfortunately it was 4am by the time we arrived in the car park and after sorting the pile of kit dumped hurriedly into the car, there was no time for any sleep and we were on the way.

With the temp at -9 and a steady breeze the wind chill was probably about -20, and standing at the base of the wall, we were in two minds as to wether to try something easier, as belaying was going to be less than pleasurable. 

We both wanted this one badly though, so without further ado, I knocked off the entry pitch and belayed at the start of the proper climbing. The next two pitches were fantastic, covering some steep ground on positive placements with good protection. (Mux you gotta get on it!)

Dave led onto the summit plateau and we were back at the car by 6pm, tired but happy to get this modern classic so smoothly. Good to see the White Goods training paying off!

After a few to many beers in the Clachiag, we went into the Lost Valley on Sunday to try Neanderthal, but it was about 11.30 by the time we got on it, and the weather was deteriorating. After climbing the 2nd pitch and bringing Dave up it was 3pm and bitterly cold, so we decided to call it a day as the next pitch was going to be at least two hours to lead and I didn't fancy seconding it in the dark. As somebody once said "I'll be back".

The drive home was quite exciting as the road south was blocked, so we tried the A9.

This was closed at Perth but with a sneaky detour we got around the police road block and cruised down the empty road putting fresh tracks through the new snow!