Multi Activity Season

Spring in perhaps my favourite time of year due to variety of outdoor activities that you can partake in.

Since returning from Canada I have had some good days on the hill. First up was Kings Ransom VI,6 on Aonach Beag with Nona. Nona was going through a stage of dropping things, so I kept hold of my camera, so no pictures I am afraid. This gave two good long pitches, the first being an icy gully/chimney, and the second a good icy mixed pitch, followed by some mountaineering to the top. After that a nice stroll back over Aonach Mor, we had a tasty cup of tea in the Nevis Range summit ski patrol hut before heading back down.

High up on Astronomy. Good ice, but not much gear. Photo Iain Small

The next day Iain Small joined us to do Astronomy on Ben Nevis. This is a route that I had always been keen to do, partly for the line and style of climbing and partly as my dad had done the first winter ascent. There is a film of the 1st ascentionists re-climbing the route couple years later. They bivi on the face, and Ian Nicholson dropped their breakfast. We didn't bivi on the face, and thus had already eaten our breakfast by the time we got up there. However, in homage to the film Ian Small did drop his belay plate. It is quite a long route and as we were climbing as a three were not super fast. However, it did mean that we toped out to a beautiful sunset.

The summit of the Ben looking not to bad.

After that I was busy with work for a while, but did manage Observatory Buttress on a particularly unpleasant day. The forecast had not been great, but on the walk in it looked like it might clear up so we pushed on. It didn't clear up however, but at least I got another three star route ticked.
Last week I had a few days off.  Nona and I headed up to Torridon for a few days. There we did Salmon Leap (VI,6) on Liathach. I had not been into that area since I had a wee incident with an avalanche in that area twelve years ago. Salmon Leap gave some good steep interesting ice climbing, with generally good weather except when I was on the crux, when a constant stream of spindrift started flowing down the route.

Good ice on Salmon Leap, and as a bonus nothing was dropped.

The next day was pretty driech in Torridon, so had a wee bouldering session at the Ruthven Stane near Inverness. After that it was time to get the skis out, and had a good couple days skiing at Nevis Range.

Tony showing off his finest disco moves when dropping into Summit Gully. The snow down this gully was lovely. From the base of summit gully a quick 15 minute skin took us up to the top of Stob an Chul Choire, the north face of which gave another lovely run.

Leading the first pitch of Edge of Beyond in less than optimal weather conditions. Photo Iain Small.

Finally a couple of days ago I headed back up the Ben with Iain Small. The weather was not quite as good as we had hoped, but we had a good day doing a route called Edge of Beyond (VI,6). It gave three good long pitches of icy mixed climbing up onto Tower ridge. 

Altogether an enjoyable few weeks pottering about on the hills. Lets hope for more of the same, and perhaps a few rock routes.

 

Upside Down Icicle

I recently saw this pretty cool picture that a friend took on an icicle which has grown upwards out of a small pool.  It is no trick, it really has grown upwards. The surface of the pool freezes first. As the rest of the water freezes and expands, the pressure increases within the remaining liquid. This pushes out the liquid up through the weakest point, which will generally be somewhere near the middle of the surface ice layer. As soon as some water gets pushed through that hole it flows out slightly building up a small circular wall. As the pool continues to freeze, more water gets pushed out, building up wall further and so on to finally produce an upsidedown icicle.

However, conditions (in terms of temperature, shape of pool etc) have to be correct for this process to work. I have only ever seen one picture of one of these before, and it was not quite as good as this example.

Canada Part 2

Checking the snowpack on the ridge above the Kootenay Highway. The highway runs up a deep valley below the figure. The best way to get a feel for the snowpack is to get the skis on, skin up the hill and go an have a look. It had been quite a dry cold year, and the snowpack was basically a metre of facets with a bit of slab on top. I imagine it will all start getting quite interesting in the spring when the temperatures rise a bit. 

Today (Friday the 22nd) is my last full day in Canada. Due to a combinations of factors, not least being offered a lift from the door of my accommodation straight to the airport (which is 420km away) I brought my flight home forward a few days. I have spent the past few days in Nelson which is quite close to the border with the USA. Although close to Revelstoke on the map, the drive to Nelson still took me about 4 hours. Some people from the Nelson area told me that for their holidays one year they had driven North for two days, and still didn't make it to the Northern Border of British Columbia.

 Heading back down after snow pack analysis. Go skiing when it is sunny, start avalanches with bombs and Gasex guns when it is snowing. Not a bad job. 

As expected my few days down in Nelson were interesting and enjoyable. On the Tuesday and Thursday I was out with Nelson Highway avalanche control team, and on the Wednesday with the Kootenay Pass avalanche control team.  I found that some aspects of what they did in terms of snowpack analysis and recording very similar to what we do in Scotland. Also they also felt that despite the large amount of real time snowpack data they have access to (a lot of mountain weather stations, and a professional avalanche information sharing network that about 100 companies and organisations post on), the best way was to get out and get a feel for the snow.

However, due to different objectives (to keep the highways safe from avalanches and open as much as possible) and, in the case of Nelson the huge extend of their area, some of what they do is very different to what we do in Scotland. For example at Kootenay Pass they have about 22 Gasex devices. These are large pipe things which are built in the starting zones, and which at the press of a few buttons can produce a blast to release the slope. For a better explanation of Gasex have a look at http://pistehors.com/backcountry/wiki/Avalanches/Gazex, or this little You-Tube clip of these devices being tested elsewhere during the summer  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_eTO_7g9HE  The folk at Nelson don't think twice about call for a helicopter to take them to where they want to check stability. They had been planning to fly yesterday, but unfortunately the weather was too poor, so we went skiing instead (which wasn't too bad).

Anyway back to sunny Scotland soon, hopefully the nice weather and good ice will still be there when I return.

 One thing I notice was how popular OR kit is in Canada. I found the Outdoor Research trailer in the carpark at WhiteWater ski area, and stopped in for a quick chat with Maddy the OR rep. It was lovely inside with a  small wood burning stove keeping it well toasty. Probably a bit more suited to the Canadian climate than a Scottish one, I am not sure how long it would last parked in the Cairngorm carpark.

Canada

For the past ten days or so I have been in Canada on a tour of avalanche operations. I have been based at the town of Revelstoke in British Columbia. Revelstoke is about a 40 minute drive away from the infamous Rodgers Pass. Rodgers Pass is the route that the Trans-Canada highway and main railway line takes through the Columbia mountains. The top of the pass is 1330 m above sea level, which is almost the same height as Ben Nevis. The peaks that surround the pass are 2000-3000 meters high, and many large avalanche paths run down across the road and railway.

The railway opened through the pass in 1890, but from the beginning they had problems with avalanches blocking the tracks. The worst accident came in 1910 when sixty two railway workers were killed. They were digging out the railway from a large avalanche, when another huge avalanche swept down from the other side of the pass and buried them. 

 Snow build up at the Fidelity research station at Rogers Pass at 1900m. It has not been nearly as snowy as last year, but doesn't look too bad to me.

These days the railway goes through a tunnel long tunnel, and the road through a series of avalanche sheds. As well as this the authorities have an program of aggressive control. This basically involves  shelling the start zones to knock the snow off before it builds up to dangerous levels. Last winter they fired about 1000 shells. This year however conditions have been much more stable, so the highway closures, and the amount of shelling they have had to do is minimal.

Unfortunately the don't let Scottish Avalanche forecasters fire howitzers. However, I have managed some very interesting days out shadowing at Rogers Pass and elsewhere. When not doing avalanche stuff I have been out ski touring for myself, again mainly around Rogers Pass. However, tomorrow the plan is to head down to around the Nelson area, which is about three hours to the south of here, for some more shadowing with avalanche control people down there.

 Ski touring on Mount MacPherson, the base of which is about 10 minutes drive from Revelstoke town centre.  By this point we had already done about 1500 m of ascent and I was feeling pretty warm in the sunshine. It was another 300m or so to the top, followed by an epic 1800m descent.

 Ski Touring above Rogers pass. The road, where we had started that day, is below the biggest area of trees in the background. The terrain and avalanche paths in the background are very similar to those which threaten the road and railway.

 Heading up the Asulkan Glacier with Castor peak on the right and Youngs peak off to the left. The descent from here was superb,  I see why people people buy really fat skis.

 Doing some research with ASACR (Applied Snow and Avalanche Research) students at above Rogers pass. In this case investigating the February the 12th surface hoar layer weak layer.

Scrabble

The view from the base of the route. Not too bad. 

On Tuesday myself, Matt Stygal and Adam Hughes took a wee wander up into Coire an Lochan and climbed the route Scrabble.
Scrabble climbs the first 10 or so meters of the classic Central Grooves, then breaks out up a series of grooves and chimneys to the left. It was put up by Mike "Twid" Turner and Louise Thomas back in 2000 or there abouts. Although I have heard of a couple of teams who have tried to repeat it, they all seem to have been put off by the lack of runners and holds in the section between leaving Central Grooves and the first belay.

 

Adam on the crux. 

Adam made an impressive lead of the crux first pitch. The the guidebook says that the section after leaving Central Grooves has "adequate gear". Adam didn't seem to convinced by this, in fact he took exception to that description, and suggested that Twid should be punched in the face for using the phrase "adequate gear" when in fact "nae gear" might be a better description. To be fair I suspect I might be rather vocal and concerned about my own personal safety should I be where Adam was.
Anyway Adam made it to the belay, and then suggested that Twid was a climbing monster, and it was a "F***ing good effort with leashes and dual point crampons". Something that I felt I agreed with after seconding the pitch.
I led the second pitch. It felt more like what Stob Coire climbing is all about; steep and sustained but with positive hooks and good gear.  Matt led a steep and exposed, but highly amenable chimney crack  and then a final long easier pitch to the top.
All in all it was a pleasant day out. I think Adam forgave Twid for his description, but if you are going to do it, I would take the phrase "adequate gear" with a pinch of salt.

 Seconding the crux. Some thin and tenuous climbing. At least I didn't have to worry about taking any runners out on this section. Matt behind can be seen on the section that is common with Central Grooves.

 Me leading the second pitch. Matt seems unconvinced by such a venture.

No success like Failure

A not very good picture of Iain (he can just be made out in Blue) on the first pitch.

Last Thursday (27th) myself and Iain Small had a wee wander up the Ben. Iain fancied trying a new route on the buttress left of Italian climb. Given the good forecast we were quite surprised when it started snowing on the walk in. After a cup of tea or two (an essential part of the day when climbing with Iain) and a blether with people staying there and some friends who turned up, the weather had cleared up a bit.  Wandering up into the Ciste there was not too much fresh snow about, and after gearing up by a big boulder we got to the base of the route without too much trouble.

Iain leading the second pitch, during a brief clear period.

As Iain seemed to know where he wanted to go, I let him lead the first pitch. However, progress was not rapid, and I could tell from the way he was climbing it was hard. Then the snow started again. The wind was from the South-East, blowing the snow over the top of Tower Ridge down onto us. At first it felt like a little light spindrift blowing about, but as Iain slowly inched his was up the intricate and technical first pitch, the snow got heavier and heavier.

 I was belayed roughly below Italian climb, and at first I enjoyed watching the way the spindrift danced up and down the gully, the patterns cause the the opposing forces and gravity and the up draft. At first the fresh snow quantities were quite small, and it did not feel too threatening. However, as time went on and the snow got heavier, the spindrift avalanches got bigger, and I started to get a bad feeling. It all started to get a bit too reminiscent of events of almost 12 years ago when, young and foolish, I had stood at the bottom of a gully watching the spindrift dancing down wards. I was just about to walk away when the whole slope above the gully released naturally. I had time to take a couple of steps before hundred of tonnes of snow hit me at high speed, and I rag dolled downwards in the midst of the avalanche. I had been lucky that day, and limped away, a badly sprained ankle being my only injury.

What it was like most of the time.

Since then I have spent a lot of time studying snow, both formally and informally.  As anyone who spends a lot of time in an environment does, I have developed a better feeling for it, and at that time the base of Italian route felt like a bad place to be, especially given some events that I knew of there long before I was born. I shifted myself into as sheltered position as soon as possible. By this time Iain was close to the belay. He made himself safe, and it was my turn to climb. I am not sure how the pitch would have felt in better conditions, but that day it felt utterly desperate. I struggled to second what must have been bold and committing as well as technical to lead. Eventually I reached his semi hanging belay in a corner. Above the ground looked difficult, and with it still snowing heavily, I had lost the psych to climbing hard. I offered Iain the lead, suggesting that he would be quicker and more likely to get up the pitch. At first he made good process up into the blizzard. However, under the overlap he soon slowed down, and then stopped for a while. There as a bit of hammering going on. The light was beginning to fade, and it was still  dumping with snow, was he going to bail off. A whoosh made me turn round, a substantial airborne avalanche came down Chute Route, clouds of snow billowing through space. It was all beginning to feel a bit full on.

Iain stepped back down, and launched across the right wall of the corner and soon was on some ledges.  The original plan had been to regain the corner above the overlap, but that looked even harder and bolder than what had gone before. Therefore he stepped right to gain Rogues Rib, a route that he had climbed last winter, and quickly scampered up that for about 20 meters to a big ledge. By this time the snow had eased, and I managed to second about half the pitch before I needed to get the head torch out. Above that Rogues Rib continued up onto the crest of Tower Ridge. However, given the darkness, and the requirment to get down safely to our bags which were near the base of the route we decided to abseil off. Abseiling off after the hard climbing always seems slightly disapointing to me, but given the conditions it was the best thing to do.  One long abseil took us into Italian route, and then another to the base of the route. We wallowed around in deep powder, staying on the rope as long as possible until a quick traverse took us back to flat ground, our bags and what felt like safety.

Setting up the abseil at the top of the route. 

From there it was an easy walk back down to the hut, and then on down to the carpark. As we got down the path a bit the clouds cleared and a full moon lit up the snowy landscape to the point that head torches were not needed.  We discussed what sort of a day we had had. Iain had not climbed the line that he had originally envisaged, I had not climbed well, and we had abseiled off.  On the other hand did do a fair bit of new climbing, had not been avalanched and had had a proper full on winter experience.  It made me think of some lyrics by Bob Dylan; "There ain't no success like failure, and failure ain't no success at all." I am not quite sure what the lyric means (is anybody), but then again I am not quite sure about the days climbing we had just had.

New route on the Ben

I realise that it has been a while since I wrote anything on my blog. Since my last post I had three weeks sports climbing in Spain which was pleasant, but perhaps did not make particularly inspiring subject to write about. Since Spain I have been busy finishing off my summer job (modelling oil and gas flow), and starting with my winter job (avalanche forecasting). I have however, managed a few routes, but have either not had the time or not been inspired to write about them.

Myself on the first pitch our our new route. 

The most interesting thing that I did during that period is a winter (first ?) ascent of Blue Nosed Baboon, a V-Diff on Gardh buttress. This went at about grade V,5. While belaying I had looked over to Trident buttress, and seen an obvious ramp on the lower tier. I had assumed that was the line of The Minge, a summer VS, which was the only route in that area in the guide book.

Helen on the second pitch. From where she is the route stepped leftwards and pulled onto a series of hanging slabs. 

Yesterday (Tuesday 18th)  myself and Helen Rennard wandered up the Ben. The night before when having a flick through the guide I realised that The Minge took a steep crack, and so it seems likely that the line I had spotted had not been climbed. Helen and I had originally planned to do a route high up in the Ciste. However when passing below Trident Buttress the route that I had thought about looked to be in good nick. I suggested that we went and had a wee peek.

Myself on the steep crack that formed the crux of the route. There was some good ice which helped a bit here.

I led the first pitch, a bold but relatively straightforward icy ramp line. Helen then led the second pitch, which climbed a short groove and traversed diagonally big rightwards over some slabs . She belayed below an obvious icy crack. This proved to the crux of the route, steep with poor feet, but some positive hooks and  good ice. Above the crack the climbing remained quite technical for another 10 or 15 metres before easier ground was reached. A couple of easier pitches then led to the top of Trident Buttress. A long traverse then got us back down to Number 4 Gully.

As yet the route is un-named and went about grade VI,7 or maybe VII,7.