Author Archive
Boomerang Arete
February 13th, 2010 • Winter climbing
Tags: boomerang arete, glencoe, stob coire nan Lochain
Sitting on a Saturday afternoon looking at the amazing weather outside is a painful experience, but at least it’s given me the chance to put these up from last weekend. Robin, Spad and myself climbed a funny (and fun) variation of boomerang Arete. Wasn’t immediately obvious where to go but then I kind of like that.
Scratching Around for Ice
February 1st, 2010 • Winter climbing
Tags: aonach mor, boomerang gully, dorsal arete, glencoe, high-8, kia, lamb chops, mini, misha, spad, stobcoire nan lochain, tunnel vision
On the Road at 6am it was a familar pilgrimage up Scotland’s Great Western Road on Saturday morning. Into Glencoe’s Stob Coire nan Lochain, Mini and Kia managed to get the rope properly fankled on boomerang gully, while Spad took a slightly uncommon route up to Dorsal Arete. Having previously avoided it for more difficult routes, the Arete proved to be nothing but good fun and I wondered why I hadn’t done it before. Back down in the Fort it was pints and pub scran before lamb chops arrived. A good sleep in till 7am, but rescued by the gondola it was off the back of Anonach Mor on Sunday. We all lacked ice screws and on a variation of Tunnel vision, Mini and myself ran out of rope, with me 25m above the last shakey protection, and 2m from the top. Plenty of excitement as it felt like I soloing over hard ground (for me). Soft snow didn’t make life easy higher up, but luckily some other friendly climbers, up from Glasgow, dropped us a line. We did the same for lamb chops,Skippy and Spad, who had had a similarly taxing climb. Having run out of time for the Gondola, all that was left was twilight descent into the Glen, some gear sorting, and a pint on road down before making glasgow at midnight.
Wild Through a Pinhole
January 27th, 2010 • Ski-ing / Boarding
Tags: Glenoce ski centre, Jen Pinhole camera, ski-ing, snow boarding
Having watched Jen carry about cameras made out of matchboxes on recent trips to the backlands, you’d have to have thought she was slightly mad. The results, however, speak for themselves. Here’s a couple that she sent me and I’m hoping she’ll add some more later. She’s been taking the pictures as part of a project focusing around the Glencoe Ski centre, which has recently been given a new lease of life under new management. We were up there on Sunday for a slide, and I would certainly say that it’s retained a friendly charm that you might not get to the same extent at other ski centres – well worth a visit.
Glencoe
January 11th, 2010 • 2 comments Hill walking, Winter climbing
Tags: Aonach Eagach, Beinn an Dothaidh, Bridge of Orchy, glencoe, stob coire nan Lochain
Glencoe was in spectacular form, and somehow amazingly quiet. The severe weather warnings for the roads must’ve put people off driving, but as it turned out the roads were fine and the weather was fantastic. Tim and myself got a day in Stob Coire Nan Lochain on SC Gully, and then out along the Aonach Eagach the following day – something I’ve been meaning to do for a few years. Jen joined us a the bunkhouse after having been up at the ski centre taking pictures on a pinhole camera – the few frames she showed us from her last trip looked spectacular (hopefully we can persuade her to post them up here). Spad arrived looking very fresh and ready for action – in completely the opposite kind of form to us after several days out on the hill! Dave came through for some thinking time, after recent events there was some solace to be found in the snowy Glencoe hills. A walk up towards Beinn an Dothaidh cleared the heads before it was back to Glasgow. All in all, another classic weekend.
Pictures from Tim:
Whitey in the Cairngorms
December 20th, 2009 • Hill walking, Winter climbing
Where did it all go wrong Mini?
Up top in Arran
December 20th, 2009 • 1 comment Hill walking, Winter climbing
Tags: Arran, Sannox
With the weather looking good it was go go go for Arran. We made the Sannox ridge on Saturday with Tim and myself carrying on for a sublime but not uneventful crossing of (most) of the A’ Chir with full pack. We were quite literally above the clouds; bubbling away beneath us and stretching out as far as our eyes could go.
Photos by Tim (apart from the ones he’s in!):
Lost Valley
November 16th, 2009 • Hill walking
Tags: glencoe, The lost Valley
A couple of pics from last weekend:
Ben Nevis CMD Arete
November 3rd, 2009 • 1 comment Hill walking
Tags: Ben nevis, CMD Arete
Several weeks ago, just as the first snow was falling over Scotland’s high tops, we took off to climb Ben Nevis by the CMD Arete. Just as as we got back to the car, about 8-ish hours after we left and just as it was getting dark, someone set off up the mountain in a T-shirt and running shorts! nutter.
Bog, Bothy n Swim
October 12th, 2009 • Bothying
Tags: ardnish, curved ridge, glencoe, Grit, hi-8, high-8, martyn bennett, Misha somerville, peanmeanach
With the forecast saying rain and low cloud, we skipped Glencoe’s curved ridge on the way up to the Ardnish Peninsula. Somehow we all managed to leave the path on the way out to the bothy. With my mind on my recently departed pal, one of the best on them, the path was doing no justice to my mind state; and so it was straight up the hill for me, until my legs burned with acid and lungs were bursting out my ribcage; it was up, over the top and down to the loch to drop a hook. Not like earlier in the year, there were no fish, but the others walked through after their own adventure off the beaten track. In the woods I found Nik holding a bright red mushroom alongside his picture book – we agreed it looked dangerous.
The bothy at Peanmeanach must be one of Scotland’s most popular, and it’s easy to see why – pottering about here somehow reminds you of the greater things in life. The two other bothy dwellers – Jonathon and Brett – were there for the same reason as us, and joined us for a dram after the duck and vegetable stews both courtesy of Lorraine.
Jen led a morning swim and Andy took it one stage further, while Nicky, never to miss an opportunity, jumped in both salt and freshwater. Thomas and Etta went airport-ward, too soon really, but hopefully not before wetting the appetite.
Two rainbows appeared at once on the way out, we all agreed the widest we had ever seen, and from there on in the West coast hit us with it’s majestic best. Without the extra hour in bed we might have made curved ridge on the grandest of Sunday evenings, but as we cruised down the road to Martyn Bennett’s ‘Grit’, it was far from our minds.
Life does exist in the bog lands of Scotland (although the fish are keeping a low profile at this time of year).
Misha for Andy/Jen/Thomas/Nicky/Etta/Lorraine + Jonathon/Brett
Cashell Burn
September 29th, 2009 • Gorge Walking
Chris and myself took the bank holiday by storm with an adventure fit for kings. Piling the car with wetsuites, ropes, helmets and swimming goggles amongst other things, we took off to explore a the Cashell Burn gorge on the North West side of Loch Lomond about 5km past Balmaha. What started out as a gentle walk through the lower section got gradually steeper and steeper. In a slightly insane move we took off to climb a waterfall running down the gorge wall. Loose rock and moss a plenty, you’d have to think this would go down as a first ascent, although only because no one else has been stupid enough to try it before. An abseil back down into the gorge got us back on the main drag where waterfall after waterfall kept us entertained for a good few hours. The final surprise came as a 10m waterfall (not very good at estimating heights) . By this time it was starting to get dark and it started to dawn on us that our lack of a map or headtorches was less than ideal. We tried, unsuccessfully to climb a line just to the right of the waterfall before taking a different approach through the trees, moss and mud on the side of the gorge. By this time, things were starting to look a little sketchy. Without a path we’d be fighting our way down through thick forest or trying to walk down alongside the gorge, all in the dark with no headtorch or map. We took our chances and headed directly away from the gorge across a heather slope, thinking we’d seen a path running parallel to the gorge when we checked the map back at the car before we left. Had our luck not be in we might have spent the night stumbling around in the forest wearing a wetsuites and an weird assortment of climbing/swimming gear – it was all starting to look like one of those lateral thinking jokes that go like ‘two men found dead in the middle of a forest wearing wetsuites and swimming , how did they die?’. But today the gorge gods were on our side, we spotted a path just before dark and it was straight down to the car and glasgow-ward for a fish supper.
Misha + Chris
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