Thursday 14 January 2010

Last of the big freeze routes, for now



On the first ascent of Dangerous Curves VII,8 today in Glen Coe

It’s been a good week - five new ice routes in Glen Coe in one week, and all superb quality. A rare set of circumstances in Scottish winter climbing when conditions, partners and time off work coincide. I can now get back to a massive backlog of work with the nice feeling of some memorable climbing done.

Today was another lie in till 7 and stroll up to the Lady Jane wall with Blair to look at the left hand overhanging groove. It had looked like by far the hardest project on the wall and potentially VIII or harder. As it turned out the ice and and a few opportunities to bridge were more useful than anticipated and the line went at a short but still pretty tough VII,8. 

Definitely feeling fitter and more confident in my movement over snow and ice right now and keen to get on something hard.





2 comments:

  1. Beautiful routes.

    Now that you have tried your new tools on real climbs it would be very interesting to hear if they lived up to your expectations.

    Cheers,

    AB

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  2. Looks amazing! Too bad I haven't built up the courage yet to try ice climbing - and I guess it doesn't help that I live in Florida.

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