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.
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