Grim in the Gorms...

Me and Dan headed up to the Cairngorm on Sunday with a view to get some routes done Monday and Tuesday. Unfortunatley we arrived 2 days late!
Most of the Scottish highlands recieved amazing weather over the weekend, with clear blue skies, and great climbing conditions. But Monday was totaly at the other end of the scale!
With an extensive and low cloud base, that rarley broke throughout the day, strong icy winds, (especialy on the Cairngorm plateu), which created severe wind chill, and persistant rain, which wasnt forecast to be as bad as it was, we had a truley grim morning out on the hill.
Having made our way into Coire An T- sneachda, we struggled to find any of the routes as even the base of the crags wernt visable. With already being wet from the persistant rain, it was clear that today wasnt going to be a day for a hard mixed route as we would have liked, as standing at a belay for 40 mins in those conditions would have been horrendous.
We finaly located the base of the Mess of Pottage, after firstly overshooting it and ending up nearer to Aladins Buttresss. We decided a quick romp up Jacobs Ladder, lasting less than 5 mins!, was about all that we could manage, and then a rapid exit from the plateu to 1141 and then down back to the car.
Conditions wise, from what we could see, certainly the Mess of pottage was nicely rimed up. Jacobs ladder and i presume the other easier gully lines was in fine shape, with good neve all the way,(in the morning anyway!) enabling us a quick solo ascent. The gully walls were also nicely rimed, although any ice that had previously formed was dripping today as the thaw set in! The slopes below the Mess of pottage which can be prone to avalanche in unstable conditions, today were pretty firm underfoot in the morning, although i can imagine with the ammount of rain, the snowpack could have became quite saturated throughout the day. Another freeze and some periods of cold weather, would bring some good conditions again as there is still a decent cover.
The Plateu was fairly thin and patchy after the thaw, but more snow is on the cards towards the end of the week.
Also the SAIS starts up reporting this week http://www.sais.gov.uk/

Swedish Ice Mines

With our planet seemingly becoming warmer, its only a matter of time, (although a good while yet) before climbing ice will be a thing of the past. It looks like Will Gad and Andreas Spak have found the answer......
Ice Mines!!
This footage was shot a couple of years ago, but well worth the watch.

Check this out.......... Mental!!

Crib Lem - Llech Ddu Spur........ and Welsh Winter Over (for now!!)

With the high temperatures the last day or two, pretty much all the snow on the Welsh hills has been stripped. All that remains are small insufficient snow patches, and a blanket on the very tops, well thats on the Carneddau anyway! The Glyders, Tryfan, Snowdon and the other highest peaks unfortunately look to be in a similar condition.

I headed in to Cwm Llafer, where the black ladders where looking pretty bare. Amongst the black buttresses, only the sheltered ledges, gullys and ramps held the remaining snow. We chose to scramble up the Llech Ddu spur on CribLem. Described as the finest scramble in the Carneddau, this long exposed ridge of rocky aretes leads up to the summit of Carnedd Dafydd, taking in the dramtic atmosphere of the secluded Cwm.
Once we had gained entry to the ridge itself, the route became apparent, and looking ahead, the description as the finest scramble in the Carneddau didnt look wrong!

The ridge is technicaly easy, but at times although not that often, there is some serious exposure! Which combined with the route being of substantial length and in a fantastic setting is fully worthy of its 3 star rating!

Its highley reccomended and growing in popularity, so well worth doing. I would however reccomend taking a rope and a very small rack to protect the couple of tricky steps annd exposed situatons if taking a newbie or for people not so use to scrambling/exposure.

New 'Ram's Head', lower-off's at Horseshoe quarry

The BMC have recently employed a rope access team to re-equip 6 routes on the Main wall at Horseshoe Quarry. They have done this as a trial project and have replaced the bolts with, 'p' bolts, and replaced the lower-off's with a new, 'Rams head' design lower-off.
I havent seen them in person, but they look a brilliant idea which doesnt require the leader to untie and re-thread a lower-off as you would normaly do. The new style lower off's enable the leader to neatly and efficiently place the rope behind, 'the horns' of the lower-off without having to faff about pulling a bight up, tying on, untying, passing it through etc etc.
It will be interesting to see how people take to the new design.

For full illustrations of how to thread the new lower-off's, you can visit the BMC website here:
http://www.thebmc.co.uk/Feature.aspx?id=3419

Welsh Winter Has Arrived

Today me and Dan headed up to the Dinorwic slate quarries, so we wernt up on the tops to give an extensive report. What we did note though was that, the hills of Snowdonia got recieved a good ammount of snow last night. It fell as low as the Pen Y Pass, which is about 350 - 400m i think. All the high hills looked pretty plastered, and the good news is on our return this evening the snow had only retreated to around  600m, so good building conditions. Having not been up high today, i cant state too much, but i really doubt the soft, fresh snow = climbable!! More snow is forecast tomorrow, so this with a few freeze thaw cycles and some low temps then maybe!!

Snakes and Ladders (and Tunnels)

A while back Dan heard of, and told me about an amazing sounding route that runs through the slate quarries of Dinorwic, North Wales. Im unsure of how to describe the route, its kind of a Via Ferrata/climbing/adventure experience. Anyway today we finaly got around to doing it!

The route, 'Snakes and Ladders, and Tunnels', isnt in any guide book of sort, the route has seemed to develop through word of mouth, but all we knew was it took roughly 5 hours and is given an about grade of HVS, so armed with only a guide book to use to navigate from quarry to quarry, (as its our first time here) and a very brief route description written down of the internet, we set off in hope.

We found Dalis hole, where the route begins, a scramble up the slate scree slope leads to a tunnel on the east side of the quarry which inturn leads to another tunnel which led us to California.

Once in California, an old chain, left from the years when the quarries were being worked, has to be climbed to reach another tunnel, easier said than done. With the slate absolutely dreanched, few footholds and wearing big boots, this wasnt going to be easy! Every foot placement slipped of the rock like ice, so i basicially just had to haul myself up, clipping large screwgates through the chain as protection. At the top of the chain is the enterance to the tunnel where a nicely placed bolt and an old spike provided a thankful belay anchor.

From here the short tunnel leads back to Dalis, and an abseil took us down to the bottom of the crag. A short walk to the north end of the quarry, up the slate steps and we arrived in a long, pitch black tunnel, and apparently its cheating to use your headtorch!! Hence we didnt!!

The tunnel terminated in Australia, where a sludge up the oil drum glacier following white paint on the scree, brought us to a series of old fixed ladders, again left here when the quarries closed down. These are to be ascended up to the g'day level and a couple are looking pretty doddgy!! (just look what greeted me as we reached the top, gulp!)

Next was a walk up to the amazing, Lost world, where time has stood still. Here is a extreamly rural industrial settlement, probably late 1800s, where buildings and machinery awaiting the next days hard labour, which never came, have been left to deteriorate ever since the quarry was closed.

From here a series of abseils and ladders enable you to rech the bottom of the lost world via the Heaven walls, a vast quarry which is massively impressive! Another tunnel leads to Mordor, then climbing the final ladder brought us to the Kyber pass!

A fantastic day and a fantastic adventure, really ideal to do on a wet weather day also!

Dean Potter - Adventurer Of The Year

American all rounder Dean Potter has just recently been named 'Adventurer of the year', by National Geographic magazine.
http://www.planetmountain.com/english/News/shownews1.lasso?l=2&keyid=37100

Dean was filmed, as seen in the video below, flying in a specialized 'wingsuit.' He's since worked toward perfecting the art of human 'flying' from several locations around the world. On one of these outings, Dean flew nearly 4 miles in around 4 minutes and breaking a record. His stunts have captivated the world and, apparently, the editors of National Geographic.