Road trip to the Alps and North Wales

 

Summer holiday!! Having had a great time on Skye and had plenty of leg fitness training, its time to get the arms going again. So I loaded up my very small Fiat Panda and headed down to wales to catch up with some friends and do some climbing.  

I managed to do some climbing at Gogarth,in llanberis pass, Tremadog and at the Orme. Heres a few picures of some sunny climbing in the pass.

 

 

Matt on the first belay of 'Super Direct' on Dinas Mot, looking down Llanberis pass behind.

Matt about to commit to some crux moves on the final pitch.

 

From wales I collected a good old friend Andy who I have had many a winter adventure with, always with good spirit and laughter. We headed out to alps and ended up in Saas Fee for abit of free uplift acclimatisation.

On the way up the Allalinhorn, a pretty easy 4000er but great to acclimatise with a sleep back in the valley. If you stay in Saas Fee or Saas Grund in the campsites, the uplift is free. Pretty useful knowledge.  

 

That night there was an almighty thunderstorm and Andys tent got flooded. Waking to damp kit and drizzle we ditched our next climbing plan and headed fr Chamonix to get some Beta and see what we could do next.

Aiguille Du Peigne. Another off the lift aclimatisation peak inbetween poor weather days. I had done the pappilons arete before so we did the Lepiodoters route and on to the summit via the normal route. Loads of inspiring routes to go back for on that peak.

 

Finally we went for the North Face of the Grand Paradiso, a nice warm up for North Face climbing. This was a last minute decision as there was another one day weather window. The hut was full so we Bivied, which was great and a cool spot for Andy's first Bivy.

We didnt have it to ourselves, in true alpine style, eveyone climbed together.  

On the final summit ridge.

 

We left the Alps early due to frustration with the weather. So I headed back to Devon to see family and old friends and catch up on some sun bathing before returning to North Wales for some more rock climbing fun.

A different method of trying to get Sophie back to the first bolt. Not very often the belayer gets higher than the climber.  

 

Blair showing us how its done on aparently the best 7c in North wales in beautiful evening sun, after we got rained off Grochan in the Llanberis pass that morning. I stuck to my 6c.

 

A day at Tremadog with Emma dodging showers.

Me squirming on Barbarian

Pink Trousers!

 

 

 

The last adventures from skye.

 

Kelly came over to skye for her first skye experience. She did her first mountain ridge experience with me this winter on the CMD arete ad round o Ben Nevis. I think she was hooked straight away, and since has been getting out learning to rock climb and wanted to see what all the fuss was on skye. So we had a day at Elgol enjoying the sun and taste of the sea air on some steep clean sandstone rock followed by a day in the mountains on Pinnacle ridge up to Sgurr nan Gillean and on to Am Basteir to abseil down Kings cave Chimney where we managed to get the rope stuck. Kelly got a half hour break where I demonstrated some problem solving and prusuking back up the rope.

 

Kelly at Suidhe Biorach on her first sea cliff route - fertility right

Kelly abseiling down to the clif ledge that was exciting in the choppy sea.

Kelly showing off some great bridging techniques of the more technical fertility left.

Kelly abseiling down for a lesson in jamming on jamie jampots.

Evening sun on rum, we definatley picked the right location, it as wet and windy in the mountains, we were basking in sunshine with a fine breeze to keep the midges away and the whole crag to ourselves.

 

Team Dunsmuir

 

This adventurous pair have been out in the Cuillin with Skye Guides a number of times before, they started on the Munro bagging quest and in the process were opened up to all possibilities of more exciting and adventurous ways to the top of lots of the peaks in the Cuillin. Sadly they have a curse of bringing the rain and wind with them, 5th time to skye and eventually we got good enough weather to do the Innacessible Pinnacle, and still it was raining.

We started the three days with the most adventurous way to the top... Nasmiths route on the Bhasteir tooth and up to Am Basteir. This was the highlight as it was their first multi- pitch mountain route.

Stuart on the final pitch of Nasmiths route, quick before the rain.

Half way up the Innaccessible pinnacle

Reaching the top.

Proud of their ascent and safely at the bottom of this magnificent prow of rock. We continued on to do the rest of the corrie laggan peaks, abseiling down Kings chimney to add to the excitement. A good day out in the wet. Despite the weather we achieved all of their objectives and more and they have completed all of their munro's on Skye but are already planning their next adventure with Skye Guides. I think rock climbing is the desire.

Off to North wales now for my own holidays... sunny rock climbing and then out to the Alps.

The latest Cuillin traverses

Until the last few days the weather has been great on Skye and the west coast of Scotland in general. I have been out in the Cuillin a lot with a couple of Cuillin traverses, one with the 'Rush team of four' and guided along side Murdoch Jamison and another with Mark all the way from Australia. Both trips starting from the boat in Elgol and finishing at Sgurr nan Gillean, completing the traverse from end to end with all the major summit reached along the way. Mark had previous climbing experience so we got a days training in at Neist before hitting the more technical sections of the ridge such as the TD gap and nasmiths route. This is always great for me to get stuck in to some climbing along the ridge too.
Inbetween traverse excitement I have had some other great days on the hill, completing Munro's and doing some classic harder scramble even despite a bit of rain. Thanks to all the enthusiastic and Cuillin made clients I have had. Here are a few pictures of some of the action.

Mark on tatties at Neist

Mark enjoying the snshine on The Green Lady at Neist

 

Beginning the traverse from the Boat at Elgol.

 



Mark getting stuck in on the notorious TD gap.



Eveing sun on the Innaccesible pinnacle

 

 Still smiling on a wet abseil on Bidean druim na Rahm



a beautiful sunset as the finish to a great traverse

 

Team 'Rush' on the Inn Pinn

 



 

Abseiling off the Inn Pinn.

 

I have five more days of work on skye, hopefully with a great combination of climbing and scrambling, before heading down to North Wales with Tamsin to get a week of rock climbing in. Hopefully plenty of mileage, laugher and a welsh cake or two.

Climbing in the North West

 

I managed to get off skye for a few trips further north and west in the last few weeks, the first to Ardmair near Ullapool with guy. Great crag, loads of brilliant routes, very gritstone in style and appearance. I had to get my Jam on. Following this I got a couple of days at Ben Eighe with Matt and Ed, camping in the Corrie and climbing until it got dark. I had to leave early today as I had traverse on the Cuillin to get ready for. Truely fantastic climbing up there in an aw inspiring surrounding.

 

Arriving by the loch, swimming then climbing, or climbing then swimming was the debate... only me that wanted to swim strangely.

 



What a camp spot.

Angel Face



Matt on the Crux pitch of Angel face

Top out grin!

 Matt getting his groove on high up on 'Groovin high'

 Evening sun on the final pitch

 



 

 

 

Ardmair

 Guy on town without pity

Highlights from Skye so far

Since returning from fairhead  at the beginning of May, I have been living and working on Skye mostly mountaineering work in the Cuillin a mixture of day trips and overnight cuillin traverses as well as some great rock climbing day both coastal and in the Cuillin. Each day has been unique with fantastic keen clients and a massive variety of new and old options to explore on the Island. It is definately has to be up there as one of the best places to work.

 

Rubha Hunish

 

And a few good days off cragging.

Ian seconding Minch and tatties

Ian leading up the second pitch of Master of Morgana

 

 

The Cioche in style

 

These two chaps were a pleasure to be out with for three days, they were inspiring still so passionate about the mountains and keen to scramble and climb at the the age of 68. So we started with a trip up the cioche and arthur thompson route above to finish off. The crag was a bit damp but they managed well and we had many interesting chats about routes they had previously done on this crag in the 60's and how methods and gear had changed. 

Highlander retake... now they just need to go and watch the film to understand.

Clach Glas and Bla Bheinn
The matterhorn of the Cuillin, clach glas bla bheinn traverse has to be one of my favourite outtings in the Cuillin, plenty of interest both in route finding and climbing. We had the perfect weather so made the most of it.

 

Rod and Philip on the final pitch up onto Bla bheinn.

 

Pre traverse training at Neist Point

 

Joe had been to the Cuillin two years previously and definately got the Cuillin bug, so she was back for a traverse and got some good weather and climbing in too. We started at neist point for some training, climbing, abseiling, movement and generally having a good time getting to know one another without too much uphill walking to save ourselves for the traverse starting the next day.

Joe seconding Tatties at Destitution point

 

Joe on the Green lady, good to get on a stack.

 

Speedy start for the traverse

 

And so we set off for the south end of the ridge, a true traverse end to end. This is a great way to start, speeding towards the Cuillin in a rib with just the two of us, getting dropped off next to the seals and setting foot up the steep slopes to Garsbheinn with none-one around. We had gear stashed at Sgur a Ghreadaidh so with lighter packs we managed to get to all the summits and do pretty much all the interesting climbing sections such as the TD gap (some what damp) and the Kings Chimney. 

Joe making light work of the slightly damp and thrutch TD gap.



Joe pulling through on Kings Chimney on Sgur Mhichonnich

 Dinner and sunset on the Bivy, it can't really get much better.

 

Cioche West

 

Traverse complete, a fair bit of rain on the second day meant the camera didnt come out so much and we got our heads down to get to the end, but we still did all the peaks. Joe was super chuffed but still full on energy on finishing so we planned for yet another day in the hills to do a route on Sron na Ciche. 

Joe on the cioche west crux traverse.

The final knife edge arete of the cioche nose onto the cioche.

 

Sunshine at Elgol

 

Today I met Michael for the first of three days rock climbing in and around the Cuillin, he is keen to develop his indoor rock climbing to outside and do some multipitch routes. So we covered all the basics at elgol and got plenty of mileage under the belt including a couple of E1's which was a great start for him on his first day back on rock this summer. 

Michael throwing for the last holds against the pump on Angel of sharkness.