Friday 26 February 2010
Anubis FWA
Ben Udlaidh with Turner
Cave on the coast
Thursday 18 February 2010
Accepting help
‘9 out of 10 climbers’, seven weeks on…
Saturday 13 February 2010
Marshall Smith challenge success!
Glad to be standing on the last summit of the Grey Corries after traversing them after Orion Face
Wednesday 10 February 2010
Observatory Buttress & Smiths
This is a two minute blog…
I’m due to leave three minutes ago to head back up the allt a mhullin for a rendezvous at the hut 7.30am to head into Point 5 Gully. Neither Andy or myself have done it before and it looks in good condition. Which will make a nice change from yesterday’s thin ice on Smiths Route and Observatory Buttress, complete with pretend ice screws in much and wherever there was solid ice it broke off in huge dinner plates, giving the film team of Guy in the gully below a bombing.
Monday 8 February 2010
Day 3 - minus three gully
Guy was filming us today from under Orion face. A rucksack came flying past from somewhere up high, probably zero gully, followed by various other bits of kit. Fortunately no climbers came by in the same direction. And the owner came past later to collect the fallen kit.
Our unbelievable luck with conditions continues, although smiths route is looking very thin so I might not be saying that later on in the week.
Sunday 7 February 2010
Pigotts route
In the morning andy and donald are off up to the top of minus three gully to rig it for paul. We'll hopefully climb it at good pace and rig observatory buttress before tea for the following day.
Conditions were not quite as lucky as yesterday with mist and snow blowing about a bit. So fingers crossed tomorrow will go smoothly without too much standing still and shivering.
Currently observing a good lesson in organised mountain hut regime from the large French team in residence. We scots are rather uncivilised by comparison!
Some pics and video heading down the mountain right now thanks to the runners...
Saturday 6 February 2010
Day 1 - the great chimney
Apart maybe from some extra bodies to help with the morning carry, which was a litle hard on backs and shoulders. We hauled a ton of rope, kit, and cameras to the hut to kick things off, so leaving to stroll up observatory gully we had a spring in our step after leaving some of it behind. Well, donald did anyway, racing up tower ridge to fix a rope for paul to climb up.
I was lucky and got the main pitch which had superb rock spikes to grab hold of any time the ice got a bit hollow. Andy's pitch, where marshall used a point of aid on a short overhanging barrier was indeed steep. Thankfully his crampon points weren't placed inches above my head for too long and we were up into the mild afternoon air on tower ridge.
Paul did well to move quickly into position up his rope and his footage of the climb showed off the fine rock architecture of the cavernous slit through the ridge. Tomorrow we might be deviating from the itinerary of Marshall and smith and heading for pigotts route next. We'llsee what the morning brings.
Sent from my iPhone
the great chimney, we made a great fun ascent today in superb
conditions. No wind, some good ice and neve, and temperature just
hovering on zero, we couldn't have asked for more.
Apart maybe from some extra bodies to help with the morning carry,
which was a litle hard on backs and shoulders. We hauled a ton of
rope, kit, and cameras to the hut to kick things off, so leaving to
stroll up observatory gully we had a spring in our step after leaving
some of it behind. Well, donald did anyway, racing up tower ridge to
fix a rope for paul to climb up.
I was lucky and got the main pitch which had superb rock spikes to
grab hold of any time the ice got a bit hollow. Andy's pitch, where
marshall used a point of aid on a short overhanging barrier was indeed
steep. Thankfully his crampon points weren't placed inches above my
head for too long and we were up into the mild afternoon air on tower
ridge.
Paul did well to move quickly into position up his rope and his
footage of the climb showed off the fine rock architecture of the
cavernous slit through the ridge. Tomorrow we might be deviating from
the itinerary of Marshall and smith and heading for pigotts route
next. We'llsee what the morning brings.
Sent from my iPhone
Marshall-Smith week starts tomorrow
Big Days
Monday 1 February 2010
Night out
We were given some tickets to a gig in Glasgow last night - the Prodigy. It was a fun night. Good to have a quick break (after a session on the board of course). Recovery from three entire pints of beer consumed curtailed todays activities to shop work, but tomorrow it’s time for winter action to resume in earnest.