Jacobs Edge (Coire an t-Sneachda)

 

Check out Rons Blog @

http://www.talisman-activities.co.uk/blog/2009/01/pleasant-day-with-better-climbing-than.html

 

 

 

Popping Dans Boarding Cherry

Even though the forecasts were reporting milder conditions today we hadn’t anticipated weather nearly as gorgeous as it was!  It’s amazing how quickly things can change in the mountains.  We were hungover and Dan had never skied or snowboarded before so it seemed like the perfect time for him to pop his boarding cherry!  Surprisingly he picked it up quite quickly but couldn’t quite get over his Zoolander blight of only being able to turn left.  He probably would have cracked it but his day was cut short by a damaged board making it virtually impossible to continue.  Dan headed back down to the hire centre to negotiate a five pound refund so I took the opportunity to move onto some faster slopes.  The snow was ace and despite me saying previously that I’d never board in Scotland again i really enjoyed it.  Sadly, I’d been an absolute muppet and had left my gloves at the guest house resulting in frozen blocks of ice where my hands were meant to be… if I’d only left my pockets unzipped and the camera gaffa taped to my forehead then I would have got some great pictures and videos of Dan falling on his arse!  I’m sure there will be a next time though   Here are some pictures that I stole from the SAIS blog to show how nice the weather was (and how foxy the forecaster looks).

 

Cairngorm White Out

Dan and I had booked the time off work for this trip ages ago so it goes without saying that the weather was rubbish!  Several fresh dumps of snow and strong southish winds over the past couple of weeks meant we expected lots of windslab and large cornices to be hanging over the northern facing corries such as Sneachda.  The Scottish avalanche information service (SAIS) was giving a category three forecast.    Before we’d even arrived in Aviemore yesterday, Dan had had calls checking that we weren’t two of the three fatalities of an avalanche in Glencoe so we  gave up all hope of climbing and instead walked into Sneachda to inspect the snow pack for ourselves.  Despite the 40-50 mph winds, falling snow and very limited visibility we had a great time!  The corrie itself was quite sheltered so we passed the time digging snow pits under Aladdins Couloir and watching other teams do some of the harder buttress routes on Mess Of Pottage.  We found around 30 cm of softish snow that was sitting on an older firm and icy layer of neve but there wasn’t as much slab as I’d expected (or at least I wasn’t able to recognise it).  When we’d had enough we plodded up the east slope to the exposed platau where visibility dropped to virtually nill and we felt the full wrath of the wind!  Thankfully we’d remembered to bring a map and compass with us and were forced to refresh our rusty white out navigation skills.  Note to self – If you’ve just bought a brand new map, remember to open and refold it on the correct area BEFORE you find yourself needing it to navigate in 50 mph winds!!! 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article5581569.ece

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jan/25/climbers-avalanche-named 

    

 

 

Idwal Slabs (Nearly)

Dinner last night at Dave’s and Vikki’s place with Lian and Phil was great, but somewhere between dessert and hog tying Dave, someone (probably me) persuaded us all that climbing Idwal Slabs this morning was a great idea!   Repeatedly punching Dave in the balls kept us up later than expected though so we didn’t arrive at the slabs until around two o’clock in the afternoon.  Realising how little daylight we had left, and how icy it was, and how windy and rainy it was, and how hungover we were, we decided to mince out and just go for a wander around the lake instead.  There’s no better cure for a hangover than horizontal rain! 

 

   

        

   

 

Betws-y-coed

Dave and Vikki invited us over to their place for dinner this evening so we thought we’d kill two birds with one stone and take a detour into Betws-y-coed to check out the sales.  The shopping was disappointing but we had a great time walking down the frozen banks of the river Conwy.

 

   

   

Spiral Gully (Coire an t-Sneachda)

The temperature in Aviemore had dropped to around minus 5 so I planned another last minute trip for the few remaining days before I went back to work.  The biggest problem was finding accommodation for New Years day with almost everything fully booked until the 3rd.  Finally I found Speybank Guest house which turned out to be brilliant!!  It’s even closer to Aviemore centre than the hostel, has en-suite bathrooms, in room tv and dvd, serves a great breakfast and the bed sheets don’t smell of dead people…. I won’t be staying at the hostel again!

I met up with Ron on Friday morning then we drove up to a perfectly clear, calm and sunny mountain with spectacular views of the cloud covered Aviemore down the valley. We’d planned to climb the Runnel but it was packed so we made a beeline for Spiral Gully instead.  I lead the first pitch on well frozen neve with a few little spots of ice here and there.  Everything was great until I ran out of rope around 5 metres short of the next available belay and about 15 metres since my last piece of gear!!  Unable to communicate with Ron I had no choice but to wait patiently to see if he could conjure up some extra length.  He did but thankfully at the time I didn’t know how.  It turns out that he’d dismantled the belay and we did the last section moving together Alpine Style!  Ron stormed up the 2nd and 3rd pitches and then I did the 4th.  The final pitch was a mix of ice and some lose boulders and for me the most nervy part of the route.  It wasn’t difficult to climb but after my rock fall accident in the Alps a few years ago I was paranoid about kicking head sized boulders down to the teams below us!   The exit was easy this time, no soft cornice for me to flounder through, just stunning views over the rest of the Cairngorms and a sunny walk down.  It was an absolutely brilliant day!

  

 

  

http://www.talisman-activities.co.uk/blog/2009/01/walking-on-water-yesterday-and-above.html

I’ve marked the pitches on the picture above with small red dots and because I’m bound to lose Speybanks business card I’m going to put the details here for reference. 

Speybank Guest House

Mrs Christine Orr

01479 810055

www.speybank.com

orr.speybank@btinternet.com