Winter begins

The start of Scottish winter has been fleeting, you have had to grab it when it comes, but I think it has finally arrived. I have managed to steal a few routes so far: The message, Savage Slit and Hidden Chimney. Hopefully more to come this weekend with recent heavy snow fall.

The Message 

The first taste of snow in November and a few excited phone calles later, we are heading in to the Northern Corries to see what was happening. Turf... not frozen, but there was plenty of snow and the buttresses were white with rhyme ice so we picked one of a few select routes that we felt were inkeeping with the ethics. The message, a route which was on both our hit lists for this coming winter so we were chuffed to start the season with this classic.

 Andy bridging up the classic corner pitch.

 

 

A momentary break in the clag on our way down.  

Hidden Chimney

 

 

 

For Josh his first winter route, a much cheerier finish than our first outing which sadly involved a rescue of a fallen climber outside of our party.  

 

El Chorro

November is the time for sunny sport climbing trips, to escape the darkening nights and damp scottish weather. So we set off on a girls rock trip to El Chorro, a well known sport climbing destination in the south of Spain. An area new to us all. Myself and Nona headed out first from scotland to be joined by team North wales, Megan and Siobhan later in the week.

Frontales, only 10 minutes from our accomodation at the Olive Branch in El chorro village, we climbed at sector solarium to soak up some winter sun.

 

A cold start to the week so we went to explore the historic camina del rey ( kings walkway) and the magnificent gorge.

 

Nona on valentines day, great four pitch route at sector Austria. Check out our colour co-ordination.

Megan and Siobhan arrived and we got stuck in  for a team ascent of the classic; Amptrax (6a). Plenty of colour and laughter, it was lucky we had the route to ourselves.

 

 

 Nona on the classic traverse pitch of Amptrax

 

 

Trying my best to enjoy slabs at Turon.

 

 

Bladerunner and El Canalillo de la mari, fantastic lines at Esalera Arabe 

 

By the end of our ten days we had managed to visit most of the major crags around El Chorro, drink plenty of wine and perhaps get a little stronger.