Tuesday Cairngorm

07/02/2012 College Day at Cairngorms

We left the college at around 0830 and headed for Corrie an Sneachda.(‘Corrie of Snow’). On the bus my lecturer gave the class a session plan detailing what we were going to be doing. It was to be a refresher day on a huge range of winter skills. We are to soon to start coaching students these skills so need to be fully confident in our personal abilities. Upon arriving we got kitted up and headed up the path to Corrie an Sneachda. A path that has become very well known to me. On route we discussed avalanches, snow pack and how to teach this to a group, how to address a group, some local information and some chat about the natural history of the area. We cut off the track and headed to the lateral moraines.

Me running to the weather station on top of Cairngorm

On arriving we went over emergency snow shelters, kicking steps and got some more local information. We walked threw the Sneachda to the ice fields at the back where we put our crampons, helmets and harnesses on. My lecture then gave us a lesson on how to deliver a crampon session to a group. I really enjoyed this and learned some new tricks that I can use when coaching. We then went over self belay and how to deliver this as a session to a group.

We were then shown where you can bottom rope ice and mixed climbs and went over how to coach  ice climbing. This was a very interesting session; I never knew there was such an accessable place to bottom rope ice. We all had a go on the ice field practising our self pulling over some awkward bulges of ice. Once we finished this session we headed back into the boulder field in the Sneachda, took our crampons off and walked back to the bus. Everyone fell at least once on the way back to the bus. We headed to the chippy in Aviemore and then back to college.

Overall it was a very good day I learned a lot and picked up some handy tips and tricks that I can hopefully I can use when teaching a group winter skills.

Corrie an Sneachda

Sunday/Monday Cairngorms

On Saturday I headed up north to Corrie an Sneachda for some winter action with Chris, Brodie and Johny (all friends from my college class). We packed all of our kit into Brodie’s car (filling it  to max) and left Falkirk at 21.30 hours.  We had to make a quick detour to Grangemouth as Brodie had left his boots in his house. The drive up was in some seriously icy and fogging conditions, oddly I felt safe being surrounded by four sleeping bags which I figured would cushion me in the event of a crash. We arrived at the top car park of the Cairngorm Mountain Ski Centre at around 12am. Chris and I pitched my lovely tent next to the car, Brodie and Johnny slept in the car. Before diving into our sleeping bags Chris and I packed our bags for the following day so we could have an early start in the morning. Once this was done we dived into the tent and got our head down.

05/02/2012

Awoke 6:15am, quickly put the tent down and headed of into the Sneachda.  Johnny and Brodie left just after us as they took a bit longer getting up and ready. The plan was Johnny and Brodie were going to climb the Runnel and Chris and I were going to climb Hidden Chimney Direct and finish up the Slant. We had two way radios with us so we could stay in contact whilst on our routes. Chris and I got to the bottom of the Mess of Pottage Buttress at about half 8and took our time getting kitted up as we were the first ones there. We built the belay at the bottom of the route and I got racked up. By this time the masses of people had arrived and there was a group of climbers belaying next to us. (They were doing the Haston Line) I looked up at my route, this was the hardest grade I had tried at tech 5 and it was safe to say I was nervous. It was in lean nick and covered with a dusting of about 1cm deep snow so I could not see any placement for my feet or tools.

I placed my tools and stepped up placing a nut as I went. I then hooked higher up pulled up on my tools and tried to get my feet to stick. I couldn’t find a placement for my feet so grabbed onto my tools harder and then the scratching of my feet began. With some screeching and lifting my feet into unusually high positions I got up to a small ledge where I could rest. PHEW! Upon hearing the scratching of my feet and my physical grunting a crowd below were now watching and me gave me some cheers of encouragement. I had made a total of about six moves and I was already pumped and scared. I battered another couple of nuts in and stood there resting, I felt myself breathing heavily and saw large clouds of my breath. The crowd was pushing me on.

 “Time to move” I told myself and I found a hook with my left hand tool, worked my feet up and stood up. I started clearing the snow with my right hand searching for a placement. I found a crack and placed my tool and torque,d hard and stood up again. Holding the torque I fiddled in another nut and moved up again. With some more scratching of feet and a few confidence calls of “watch me” to Chris I made it to another rest ledge. I was now about 25meters high and started to worry. Thoughts of me falling  started creeping into my head. I tried to fight them back but I couldn’t.

I WAS NOW CRAPPING IT AND PUMPED!

 I smacked in two nuts with my ice tool and tried to move up, it was difficult. I stepped back down to my ledge. I had lost my bottle! I stood there for a while trying to force myself on but it wasn’t to be. I shouted to Chris “lower me down, I’m done” and with that my attempt was over. I stripped the gear as I came down but had to leave two nuts and a gold quickdraw behind. (If any reader finds them, it would be much appreciated if I could have them back.)  

Chris’s and the group that had watched my attempt gave me the usual chat after failure, “that was a really good effort” “Conditions made it tuff” etc. etc. I was just gutted and angry at myself not for just failing but mostly for the complete lack of bottle and technique. I sat feeling sorry for myself and resting my knackered arms. GUTTED!

After the ropes where pulled down we decided to just do the slant which was a grade 2.  I needed to get up any route to try and get the feeling of failure to disappear. We walked up the bottom of Jacob’s Ladder and built our belay. I led off for the first pitch, after my previous experience I flew up this route which felt almost like a walk in the park. I built my belay at the bottom of Hidden Chimney. It was very busy there were four other groups with belays set up next to me. I started bringing Chris up. Looking down waiting to see Chris climb round the corner I noticed another climber looking up towards me. He must have been in late 40s and was wearing all blue. He pointed up towards me and in a stern voice shouted “you there take on blue!” he had a voice of authority like a man from the military. I though there was no way he was talking to me and just continued belaying, but again he pointed up. This time shouting “BLUE ….. TAKE ON”. Chis then climbed round the corner and up to my belay ledge and told me there was a bit slack on the blue rope and he had asked the man to tell me to take in.

My ice tool

We sorted the rack and Chris led the second pitch, he led it well and pulled over an awkward bulge in the middle. He reached the belay and found there were very few placements to build a belay. He managed to use another climber’s nut to reinforce his belay. He belayed me up to him and once at his ledge I looked up at the final pitch. It was just a plod up, an easy angled gully. I took off and told Chris that as soon as the rope tightens, start climbing. Once I topped out I ran away from the crag until Chris also topped out. We packed away our kit and radioed Johnny and Brodie to see how they were getting on. They had just topped out to so we waited for them at 1141 (spot height)  We all walked back to the car together discussing our routes.

Me on top off 1141

We headed into Aviemore for a chippy tea and a kit shop traverse. It was still early so we watched the rugby, Ireland vs Wales in Café Mamb before heading back to the car park, pitched our tent, got in and quickly fell asleep.

06/02/2012

On Monday morning I woke up to the sound of a member of staff loudly banging cones on the floor and coughing loudly (obviously a polite hint for us to move the tent.) We decided instead off going to do another climb we would practise our winter skills and bag the Cairngorm munro. Brodie and Johnny headed off and soloed Aladdin’s Coulor. (grade 1 climb)   Chris and I left the car park at 8.40am and headed towards 1145 (spot height), on route we saw some pretty cool looking ‘rime’ attached to a fence line. We cut off and went to the lateral moraines. Upon arriving we had a competition to see who could dig the best snow hole just using their ice tool.  I was cursing my micro adze as it would only scoop out small amounts of bullet hard snow. After about five minutes of digging the sun came out and it was absolutely beautiful weather. We dug until we where happy with the emergency snow holes. We decided that we had made two totally different styles and agreed to call it a draw!

Head bands rock!

We then went on to practise making snow bollards. I made a small one, threaded the rope threw and got Chris to test it. He South African abseiled off it and ‘surprise’ it held. Chris decided to test it further and started bouncing on it, I prayed that it would break but it didn’t.  I also grabbed the ropes and the both of us really started pulling but still it held. We then practised our abseil techniques both South African and Classic style be3fore heading back up hill to 1141. On route Chris hurt his knee so we took it easy and plodded to the top. We sat at 1141 for a while before heading to the top of Cairngorm.  As we reached the top we heard a strange mechanical noise coming from the weather station. Suddenly a part of the station rose  up and a whole range of gizmo’s began spinning around. After a few minutes it sunk back down into the station.  

On route back down top we stopped at the Ptarmigan restaurant for a look at the little museum. It was surprisingly interesting and had a whole range of info including geology, how the Cairngorm’s were formed and the history of mountaineering. We then walked back to the car and waited for Johnny and Brodie to return before returning home.

03/02/2012 Coaching at The Climbing Academy

 Friday I spent the day coaching a class at The Climbing Academy (TCA) in Glasgow. The TCA is a warehouse that has been turned into a massive bouldering centre. The class I was coaching were the same ones I had the previous Friday. This was there first time at the TCA, and I think some of them where a bit wary at the thought of just bouldering. The TCA is very cold because of its size so before we started we had a big warm up. This consisted of tig, backwards running tig, hot lava floor, easy traversing of the wall, mobilization and some dynamic stretches. Participating int the warm up games with this group is always good fun as the majority of them give a big effort and they have a good sense of humour.

The Climbing Academy Glasgow

I had to do another coaching assessment so after the warm up I left the group with Brodie, Johny and Craig (the three other coaches in my college class) and went and marked out some bouldering routes using chalk. Once I had done this I got two students and completed my assessment. My assessment was to deliver a session on crimping and show progression throughout my session.  I used techniques including getting the pupils to climb with ping pong balls in their hands which forced them open crimp and got the students to give each other feedback to keep them focused when not climbing. The session went well and I passed the assessment (same goes for my assessment last Friday).

My assessment completed I went back to coaching as normal. We did a whole range of things including playing bouldering games, trying to complete all the routes of a certain colour, getting the pupils to use tape and mark holds to create their own routes and helping some pupils that climb hard to work some routes. We left the TCA at 15.00 and headed back to college. On the way back to college I chatted with the students and they all said they enjoyed the day but said that they missed the ropes (actually doing routes).I liked hearing this as that’s what I enjoy. Once back at college we packed away and the student’s left.  Next Friday we are taking the same group for a day of winter mountaineering skills. I can’t wait!

Friday 27/01/12

Coaching

On Friday I spent the day on work placement, coaching a group of students at the Glasgow Climbing Centre. There are three certificate levels for the pupils to work through. Level one starts with the basics of climbing (tying in, belaying, basic rules and safety features of bouldering), Level 2 includes, attempting indoor lead climbing and improving hand and foot techniques. Level 3 is more technical including Trad climbing and independent abseiling.

 Glasgow Climbing Centre

All of the pupils had passed the level 1 and are close to finishing level 2. The session was spent helping the students finish their level two certificates. I really enjoyed working through this with the students as they are a great bunch and very funny.

I had an assessment to complete for my own college course which involved me coaching two students how to ‘smear’ (friction contact with the sole of the shoe) and show progression in this skill. This had to be videoed and last 30 minutes and accompany this with a written session plan. I did this near the end of the day. I think it went ok, although I did not feel so comfortable in front of the camera. I will find out on Tuesday how I actually done.

 Nicole and me practising coaching techinques

Overall the day went really well and I could not be happier coaching these students. I am looking forward to taking them climbing outdoors and helping them to progress in their climbing.

Temperature -3 Cambusbarron Trad Brrrr

It was cold outside minus 3 to be precise. There was ice everywhere and the skies where blue. I could not go up north to winter climb as I could not find anyone who had access to a car and I had college the next day. The bus was not an option as this would mean staying overnight or getting the last bus down is 18.30 which would have severely limit me.  Bugger it, let’s go climbing at Cambusbarron quarry near Stirling!

There was only two e1s with stars left in this part of the quarry I had not done before.  Doobie Brothers, e1 5b two stars, I had tried this route earlier this year but had fallen off at the crux.  I decided this would be my objective for the day. I sent a group text out to my fellow class mates to see who would be up for a freezing day cragging. Not surprisingly I didn’t get a huge response.  Johnny and Craig were up for it.

On arriving at the quarry i felt the rock…….. it instantly sucked the heat out off any part of the body made contact with it. It was dry so I was still keen. I got kitted up at the bottom of the route. Kitted up and ready to go I started up the route, bloody hell it was cold!  I started to doubt if I would be able to hold on to the rock let alone make this route. I was positive I would fall so laced the route with cams. I moved up to the crux, my hands and feet where numb which made my technique suffer. But with a bit of a grunt and a few foot shuffles I made it past crux for the first time. I was chuffed and continued up the route. There was one final obstacle to overcome; large patches of ice covering the top out. I picked my hand, foot and knee placements carefully and I did it. Another route here bagged. I was chuffed and forgot (for a short time) that my feet were completely numb. I brought Craig and Johnny up enjoying the knowledge that they would be as cold as I had been.

Unknown Climbers on Doobie Brothers e1 5a

Once down we built a fire to warm up and discussed who was next to climb and on what route. It ended up with Johnny and Craig doing rock, paper, scissors to decided who would climb next. Neither of them that keen as the temperature was now dropping even further as the sun started to go down. Craig lost and chose to climb Easy Contract HVS 5b, a brave choice as it was his first try at a HVS and he could barely feel his fingers. He racked up and started to climb with Johnny belaying him. He made a couple of moves and got some bomber gear in. Concentrating so hard on the route he no longer felt the cold. Craig cruised up to the middle of the climb where he placed more gear. He then hand jammed and a couple of big steps with his feet and he climbed right through the crux without even knowing it. He placed a couple more cams and made it to the top. He had done well. I seconded him to the top and was greeted by a lovely pink sun set. At this we called it a day.

Easy Contract HVS 5b 

Baring the cold was well worth it as we all had a great day out and managed to tick off two good climbs. Craig managing his first HVS and me completing an e1 in freezing conditions made it well worth it.

Cambusbarron quarry is split into two parts Forth quarry (this is where these routes where) and Thorntons quarry (this is mainly high end grades). The rock is Dolerite and because it is so steep dries quickly after sun. The Closest train station is Stirling train station. Outside the station is a taxi rank and a taxi from here to the quarry cost £4. Wildlife spots in this area are Ravens and Peregrine Falcons. For any further details click on the following links:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=1197

http://www.scottishclimbs.com/wiki/Cambusbarron_Quarry

Apologises for no photos of this day, I forgot my camera. The photos here are just to show the routes. 

22/01/2012 Coire an t'Sneachda

THE RUNNEL

21/01/012 12.30am

Two friends from college (Chris, Craig) and I arrived at the top car park of the Cairngorm Mountain Ski Centre. The wind was howling and snowing big heavy snow flakes. The plan was to pitch a tent but with the weather we decided to spend the night in the car. We set alarms for 06.30am, slithered into our cheap Lidl sleeping bags and tried to get some sleep. I say tried as all of you that have slept in their car will know it is not a comfy experience. (made worse by three men, rucksacks and gear squashed into a Peugot 206)

22/01/2012 06.30am

I awoke to the sound of exceptionally loud dance music that Craig had kindly decided to choose as his alarm! It was freezing cold and still snowing but the wind had died down a little. The rucksacks were in the boot. I decided the best way to get kitted up is to dash out of the car, grab my bag and sprint under the roof of ski centre where I can get kitted up out of the snow.  I packed as light as possible only keeping in my rucksack, harness, helmet, rack, ski goggles, tools, crampons, Micro Puff belay,1l water and a couple of packets of jelly snakes. I decided to put on my waterproofs straight away as it was snowing hard. We then headed off for Coire an t'Sneachda. We were first to walk in and visibility was very poor. After about 25mins walking I starting to seriously doubt we were on the right path. I asked the others what they thought, and after a quick chat we decided we were on the wrong path and started to cut down hill to where we thought the correct path would be.......WRONG CHOICE. We walked down into the middle of nowhere and had to walk all the way back up hill to the same path we started on.

After another hour of walking walked into the middle of a frozen pond, only noticing as we heard loud cracking noises. My spirits rose when I saw a glimpse of a rock face. I thought we were either in Coire an t'Sneachda or in Coire an Lochan. To tell you the truth I was so disorientated at this point I couldn’t even tell you what part of Scotland we were in. Luckily we heard voices coming from the whiteness. We nominated Craig to ask the probing question “What route are you guys climbing?" a way of confirming we were in the Sneachda without sounding like complete nomptie’s . Luckily he did confirm that we were in the Sneachda and not in fact on another planet.

09.30am

We got kitted up at the top of the boulders that were scattered up the banking on the way up to the ‘Runnel’. This was ok except for Chris walking onto a sheet of ice and having to shuffle his pack off his back, remove a second tool and shuffle his pack back on, all whilst balancing on a tiny patch of heather. This is perhaps a good time to point out that this was Craig's first winter climb and Chris's third. Craig was looking decidedly nervous at the look of the opening gully, so I roped him to me and we moved to the first belay stance. Chris led off first, conditions were very lean and he only managed to find four bits of gear for his 50m lead, BOLD. "Safe" he shouted and almost immediately the wind increased. I had no idea the spindrift would come up the gully at that speed. It was freezing everything it hit, eye lashes and eyebrows instantly turned into chunks of ice. I went up second, Craig third. The belay was not the most suited for three so I did a tiny lead up to huge party ledge that was a little  off route ( to the right). Then brought up the others.

11.30 am

I led the second pitch which had a lot more gear in it. I caught up and group that had overtaken us earlier and asked them politely if I could go past. They agreed and I squeezed past and carried on upwards only to hear "15m left mike". This was fine as I could see the belay of the last pitch would be in range. But then something amazing happened the rope must have shrunk or my legs must have grown massively as I took two steps and "That's you mike" Bollocks! Forcing me to search for a belay that did not exist. I started to down climb which made me nervous and slightly embarrassed as I had to down climb right past the same group I had just overtaken. I eventually dug out a crack that took a hex and a couple of cams. Phew! I brought Craig up to me and made him safe before bringing Chris up.

1.00 pm

Knowing that there was not much gear I asked Chris if he would lead the next pitch. Chris accepted and did a great lead to the next belay, finding a couple of cam placements along the way. He then built a belay at the bottom of chimney and brought me up. I helped reinforce the belay with a couple cams having to give a dragon cam a gentle persuasion to get in a crack! I shouted to Craig to dismantle the belay and climb up. He had to leave the  hex that I had welded it into the crack!

2.00pm

I  led the final pitch, that was not the grade two ice pitch we hoped for, but was in fact more grade 3 pure rock mixed climbing. I flustered with my first bit of gear and dropped my blue Camalot but luckily the guy behind us had ninja reactions and caught it!  Thank God. I then continued the climb and slowly but steadily got to the top. The full force of the wind then hit me. No longer the gully for shelter, I got on the plateau by using beach landing techniques I had seen on Saving Private Ryan. Running in a crouched position and hiding behind boulders for shelter. I found a belay spot but realized there was no way I could shout to the others to tell them to climb. Luckily Chris had his phone on and I managed to tell them to climb. The command was "the belay is bomber, climb fast" because at this point I was so bloody cold and having failed to put my goggles on my eyes they were hurting from the needle like spindrift. Craig came up second to a shout of "that was a bit bloody hard" followed by a help as he managed to miss swing and punch his swore finger into a boulder.  After a quick phone call, Chris he was climbing. He was climbing fast, because of the rate I had to belay to keep up with him. Then he appeared over the top shouting " I Ueli Stecked that", I was happy he did as the cold had now penetrated my core.

4.00pm

We quickly took off our kit and packed it into our rucksacks. No coiling ropes, just stuffing them straight into our rucksacks. Before we set off back to the car Craig had the awkward moment...having to help Chris with the tie of his water proof trousers ( with gloves on, teeth were necessary!!). We then headed down and off the plateau to 1141 and down the ski slopes.  Finally getting treated to a few, brief breaks in the clouds letting us see some views. When we reached the car we were wet, our kit was wet but we were happy. We had just been out in the harshest of conditions and managed to complete our route. We treated our sells to a poke of chips at the Happy Haggis and then headed home.

Conditions

Coire an t Sneacda was very lean on Sunday and only the weather made it feel really like winter. There was ice in the ‘Runnel’ which was not the best and there was basically none on the final chimney pitch. The other buttress looked like you would be dry tooling rather than climbing but there was to be continued snow Sunday night and today. So there may now be a bit more snow. I spoke to groups of climbers that topped out Hidden Chimney Direct who said it was like dry tooling and a group that did Crotched gully that said the conditions were OK.

First post and So It Begins

INTRODUCTION

Below Facaill Ridge

Before I start I thought I would point out that if you a lover of the English tongue my unique version of spelling and use of grammar could leave you slightly frustrated......... you have been warned!

 Easy Contract HVS 5b Cambusbarron

Well here goes my name is Michael I am 20 years old and live in Falkirk. I am currently studying a HND in sports coaching at Forth Valley College. I am a active climber/mountaineer and since I am a student I get a lot of opportunity to coach varied groups different sports from gorge walking to Trad climbing. Not only this but it also means I get alot of free time to get out and enjoy myself. I have done both my ML and SPA training and am hoping to do the assessments this year. I enjoy all aspects of being in the outdoors but Trad and winter climbing are my favourites. After finishing college I want to work in the outdoor industry and possibly one day even become a guide.

Hidden Chimney III Corrie an t'Sneachda

This blog will follow me and what I am getting up to and my thoughts on a range of outdoor orientated subjects. As you will find out I am a bit of a kit freak so I shall also give my personal review on the kit I am using and abusing.
I am by no means a professional climber I do not have the chiselled chin, dread locks or wear narly spandex but I do get out a lot and hopefully you can find something here of use or interest and if not well there will be some nice pictures to look at.

Tagging a Golden Eagle Chick for the Scottish Raptor Study Group