Category Archives: Snow

Alps 2018

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Finally getting around to updating the blog….

Over the summer, we headed to the Alps. Dave headed up some peaks, while Jo did some lower level walking, cable car riding and intensive resting in the campsite.  It was the first time we’d taken the van to the Alps in summer since the rather soggy Saas trip of 2014, and we were relieved that this one didn’t follow suit (although our expectations have probably evolved somewhat in the intervening years).

We were based initially in Bormio, Italy, where summits reached included Monte Cevedale and Punta San Matteo.  We also drove up and down the Stelvio Pass a silly number of times, explored the WW2 front line, and can highly recommend the pizza and gelato at the campsite.

We then transferred over the border to Morteratsch near Pontresina in the Engadine, Switzerland.  The highlight from here was Piz Palu (just sub-4000m), and we also made friends with the marmots around Piz Languard, were introduced to Megacremeschnitte (Dave promised to recreate these at home, but for some reason hasn’t got round to it yet) and did some valley climbing.

A mainly (upward) traversing warm-up walk from Bormio 2000 lift station
Valle di Sobretta
Back in the high alps
Refugio
Monte Cevedale
Alpine start views
From Cevedale, looking back towards Gran Zebru
Approaching the summit
From Monte Cevedale, first look at the ridge to come
It was a straightforward (but rarely done) ridge across over Monte Rosole to Palon de la Mare
Looking back over Monte Rosole to Monte Cevedale
Palon de la mare summit
Views across the Ghiacciaio dei Forni
Descending the interesting glacier to finish our one way alpine day with minimal guidebook instruction – success!
Meanwhile, Jo went for a wander up the valley and round some alpine forests
Only got a bit lost with Italian maps and their lack of resemblance to reality
A mainly (downward) traversing walk taking in Monte Scorluzzo. Leaving the ski areas behind
Views from Monte Scorluzzo 1
Views from Monte Scorluzzo 2 (and the ridge ahead)
Views from Monte Scorluzzo 3
Down scrambling (don’t think this is in any list of approved pregnancy activities, oh well)
Filone del Mot, a most enjoyable ridge
Military village
The van got a flat tyre. There was a garage at the bottom of the campsite hill. The other residents were bemused
A one day attempt on a peak (Punta San Matteo)
First issue – river crossing. It’s not meant to rain later is it?
Summit reached, just as the snow starts
Descending the narrow ridge with care, before a snow/hail storm with lightening too close for comfort engulfs us. Some inspired navigation meant that only a few feet went into crevasses and we appeared at the bottom of the glacier wet but safe.
Starting to dry out, having had an ‘interesting’ river crossing
Sunshine meant I had dried out by the end of the walk, despite not having waterproofs….
A misty Piz Languard
Clearing up on the descent
Marmots!
Wandering around Alp Languard
Megacremeschnitte!
Evening view of Piz Palu and friends from the Diavolezza hut/hotel (the others having gone to bed while it was all still cloud-covered)
Piz Palu has one of the more crevasses and serac-y glaciers I’ve travelled across
Tricky finding the right path through the seracs, but great views
Exciting, but the glacier thoughtfully had easier points around every hour to allow for short breaks.
Zig zagging through the many massive crevasses that protect the col
Simon emerging from a successful Bergschund crossing
We had managed to stay near the front of all the groups on the mountain, giving us relative quiet.
The summit! Only stayed here for seconds as we needed to get down the narrow summit ridge before other parties came up – passing places didn’t exist
Just starting the narrowest section.
An attempt to give a sense of the narrowness and exposure – the right hand snow field dropped away steeply for many hundreds of metres
Picture of the summit of Piz Palu. Some Swiss mountaineers assumed we hadn’t done this as we didn’t have a guide…
Surveying the slighly less narrow, but still interesting section
Waiting at a passing place
Off down the glacier again
Soon after this photo, we took a ‘short cut’ and ended up lowering/downclimbing into/across crevasses. Fun was not had by all during this.
A look at Piz Palu, with the three summits. One of the best glacier/snow alpine days.
Piz Palu at breakfast time (there might be some specks on the summit…)
View from Sass Queder (waiting for the mountaineers to return)
On the way to some crags below the Morteratsch glacier
Valley climbing
Friendly dog wants porridge
Mainly (downward) traversing walk from the Julierpass to St Moritz
St Moritzersee

CUHWC Winter Skills 2018

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So once again we headed to Glencoe, this time to meet up with 4 current CUHWC members who had agreed to let Dave lead a winter skills course.

The 4 (Sarah, Bronwen, Chris and Simon) had been out the day before, and had some experience between them, so it was an intense couple of days covering lots of skills and lots of ground to practise them on.

First up, we headed towards Buachaille Etive Beag, to run through the basic personal skills – footwork, crampons and axes. After lunch we put these into practice by walking over both Munros and taking the direct route down to the car.

The next day, we planned an ambitious ascent of Bidean Nam Bian, ascending up to Coire nan Lochan, again recapping on the personal skills, while also talking more about route choice, planning and avalanches. The ascent onto Stob Coire nan Lochan provided some slightly more interesting mixed ground and some fantastic views on top. The consensus was to head for Bidean instead of doing any more skills, so we pressed on, up an imposing looking snow arete to find Bidean was also out of the cloud when we arrived. Knowledge from a passing helpful mountaineer told us the descent into the Lost Valley was not suitable. This wasn’t much of a surprise, so we retraced our steps and descended from Stob Coire nan Lochan back to the car, managing to fit in a brief demonstration of rope work and enjoying the good slidability of the snowpack.

It was a fantastic couple of days, with great weather, surprisingly good conditions and good company. Thanks to CUHWC and the guys

Found our first snow not too far from the road
Learning to walk again
Off to find another patch of snow
How not to hold an axe
“Now trip yourselves up”
‘Self belay’
SLIDING!
Surprisingly effective snow for both sliding and stopping
Stationary practice of the self arrest position
Dave goes for a slide
Mid arrest
Head first – looking good!
Another head first
We’ll try that again
Stomping in crampons
Let’s try this for real on a hill.
The top of Stob Dubh
Found an interesting way off
Looking back at Stob Dubh and the group coming up the ridge to Stob Coire Raineach
A lovely snow ramp direct to the car
Next day – into Stob Coire nan Lochan
Starting up the ridge to the summit
Found some rocky sections
More fun
Everyone (except photographer) on Stob Coire nan Lochan
The ridge to Bidean was too nice to miss out on
Taking care on the exposed slope
From Stob Coire nan Lochan, looking north to Glencoe and the Aonach Eagach
Good cornice avoiding on the way down
Final romp down the glen.

for a great weekend, I hope they all continue to enjoy the winter mountains.

Proper Scottish Winter

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In February, Jo took a couple of days of work and we zoomed up to the Glencoe area to see if winter was still around. It was.

Stayed in the van, but with the luxury of campsite showers and ‘shore power’ for the heater. Van living, combined with 4 consecutive quality winter mountain days out and a trip to the Clachaig made us feel a bit closer to being real Scottish mountaineers.

Victoria Bridge, setting off into a typical Scottish day
Slogging up to the ‘other’ Aonoch Eagach (on Stob Ghabhar) – we found snow!
Great ridge in a bit of sun
Looking NE out to Rannoch Moor
Approaching the interesting section
Stob Ghabhar looking rather fine
Aonach Eagach (a dog followed us along here, with owner)
Dave in mountains
It then got windy, cloud rolled in and we didn’t see anything as we summitted. After a bit of compass work, we were back on the ridge, descending this time.
Dave wondering if this slope is a) the correct way and b) safe
Dave lolloping down the deep snow
Once again, the weather turned as we climbed up Stob a’ Choire Odhair, so no photos. This is Dave again playing in the snow as we descended off Beinn Toaig towards the van
Another day, another slog up a hill to start.
Steep initial climb up above Ballachulish
Warm enough for base layers, and getting higher
Great views over Loch Leven.
Onto the NE ridge of Sgurr Dheag. Lots of parties attempting the East ridge, but few made it.
Loch Leven, the Pap and the Mamores
Good winter conditions
More fantastic views
Approaching the final ridge to Sgorr Dhearg.
Again, the cloud came in, and after some compass work we descended to the col, in high winds. We decided to give Sgorr Dhonuill a shot
Again, pretty windy and cloudy, which made the top exposed section interesting, but no photos until we were descending into the forest
Snow down to the sea today, so we ploughed our way into Coire nan Lochan. The path is in the photo on the right.
Dave deep in snow, thankful for not being the first person.
Having decided the snow was too deep for climbing, we took all of our gear on a jolly trip around the top of the coire, via Stob Coire nan Lochan
Dave being silly on the way down. He then had to try to be sensible to navigate down from the ridge to the path in low vis.
Our final day, on Buachaille Etive Beag. Dave got up early to allow him to break trail all the way.
On the ridge out towards Stob Dubh
After floundering in a cornice in high winds, we turned back around 200m from the summit.
By which point our footprints had filled in so we could break trail all the way back to the bealach
Finally, a summit (Stob Coire Raineach) with views – after good conditions all week, this was a blue sky and sunshine day to top it off.
Views of Stob Coire Sgreamhach
More of the same
Back down the ridge, wondering what the massive crowd is doing at the bealach
Decided to run off the side in the lovely powder, and also avoid the big group
Final few km back to the van. Amazing weather.

Swiss Christmas

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Breaking with tradition, this year we took the van to the Alps over Christmas and New Year.  This was somewhat experimental and I won’t pretend it wasn’t all rather stressful leading up to the trip, but once we actually left things greatly improved.  The outcomes: 1) We didn’t freeze to death, get stuck in the snow or get fed up of each other during the long dark evenings.  2) Fairy lights might become a permanent feature in the van.  3) We did manage three days of sunny ski touring, two days of snowshoeing, one day faffing about on snow in high winds and flat light (not sure it could really be called “skiing”), a very cold morning on piste, and several days with expat friends in and around Zurich to see in 2018 – most of which was a lot of fun.  4) We did miss Scotland and might have to go there a lot this year to make up for it.  5) We might do it again sometime…

Campsite in Davos
First morning – SNOW!
Setting off on the first day
Skinning up the road
Slow zig zag towards the summit
On the final ridge
Nearly there on the Jorihorn
A friendly wolf on the top (the owner described it as his wolf. It really enjoys snow apparently)
First tracks of the year
Starting to remember how to ski
Another early morning skin
Stafelalp (came back for coffee later)
Christmas day skinning (ridiculously warm)
Along a ridge
Cutting the corner off the ridge
Summer path was obscured
Chorbschhorn for Christmas lunch
Action shot – almost perfect tracks in perfect snow (Jo’s are far right)
Back along the ridge towards coffee
Another clear day meant another skinning session
Bit more weather around today
Ill thought out route choice meant a horizontal tootle for a bit
Bouldering interlude
Decided to go for the bigger peak -heading leftwards
Top of the Sentischhorn
Great view of lummocky snow on the next valley over
Taking the shorter route down (Davos on the left)
And slogging back to the van
A windy, poor light day on the Pischagrat
More SNOW!
Playing with snowshoes
A horse just galloped past us.
Rare-ish slow snow slide on corrugated roof
Zurich wandering
Artistic Tree
Zurichsee
Snowshoeing on Rigi
Admiring the massive contorted lakes of Switzerland
Along the ridge
The ridge had lots of up and down, some on awkward snow
More massive lakes
Sunset on top of Rigi
Looking West (Jo’s PhD field area is just over the two rocky peaks in the middle)
Looking SW (ridge we walked along in the foreground)
Looking S to Eiger area
Eiger just picked out with sunlight in the centre
More snow, water and sunset – the last of 2017.

Spring catch-up

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A selection of goings-on from the last few months, none of which seemed deserving of its own post!  But I have photos and nowhere else to put them, so here they are.

First, our annual New Year trip to Scotland, this time to Mull.  Staying right on the shore, we enjoyed spotting otters, sea eagles and the Northern Lights, plus a Corbett, some Grahams, a cave, some pottering and a great sunny/snowy mountaineering day out on Ben More.  Unfortunately I’d forgotten to charge my camera battery and didn’t have a spare…

On the track at the start of the way up Dun da Ghaoithe
Beach at Lochbuie

Next, I joined an Eagle Ski Club off-piste skiing course taught by the highly recommended Alison Culshaw, based in Chamonix.  It was the coldest week of the winter (-20), but sunny and very profitable from a learning-to-ski-properly point of view.

Tricky snow
Wearing everything
Regular hot drinks definitely required
Grand Montets
Guided day touring from Les Contamines with Jonny Baird and Dave Rudkin
Kick turns with springs…

Dave was feeling left out, so we planned a weekend in Scotland at the end of January to try some Scottish skiing.  But we didn’t think there was enough snow, and reverted to Plan B (some efficient bagging of the Lawers Munros on foot).  However, the van had other ideas when the alternator packed up on Friday night in Glenogle between Lochearnhead and Killin.  Having spent the night there we visited the local garage, who couldn’t fix us and advised that we “enjoy our holiday” and get the AA to tow us home on Sunday.  By now having wasted half the day and being stuck in Killin in steadily falling (slightly solid) rain, Lawers was out the question.  Instead: brunch, then a walk back up Glenogle and a consolation Graham, Meall Buidhe.  We spent all of Sunday getting home…

On the trail of some mad cyclists
At Meall Buidhe summit, following some excellent navigation practice
Not quite sure what we had to look so happy about
Slightly improving weather!

My birthday fell on a Saturday this year, so we invited the local duffers for a walk round the Langdale Pikes (really just an excuse for a get-together).

Stickle Ghyll
Harrison Stickle
We did more talking than walking…

David came to visit us for a weekend to tick off some of our local Marilyns.  We’d been up Sharp Haw on the Skipton skyline before, but our route this time (from Flasby) was much nicer, and this time we visited neighbouring Rough Haw too.  As that was a short morning’s work, we headed to Ilkley in the afternoon to explore its famous Moor (it was too cold for any baht ‘at nonsense, mind you).  On Sunday we visited Brontë country for a slightly grim circuit of Boulsworth Hill, Top Withens and the Walshaw Dean Reservoirs.  The mist didn’t lift all day, hence no pictures…

Sharp Haw
Exploring the Cow and Calf, with Ilkley beyond

At the start of March we visited Eleri in St Andrews.  Rain and mist confined us a walk along the Fife coast path on Saturday, from which the sea was only visible when we were actually on the beach.  On Sunday, we did a pleasant loop from Auchtermuchty around Pitmedden Forest.  Highlights were the nice woodland, views of the Firth of Tay, a deer farm and the slightly incongruous hot tub business.

A proper forest…not too many trees
Firth of Tay

Snowy November Lakes

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Although most of the snow was fast disappearing by the weekend, we did manage a couple of days on the hill. Firstly a round of Kentmere, with a surprising number of friends that responded to our last minute plans. The weather was amazingly warm and windless, so combined with the snow made for a fun day. After sampling a selection of offerings at Hawkshead Brewery and Wilfs Cafe on Saturday night, we managed to drag ourselves out for a second day around the Fairfield horseshoe, which was less snowy and more cloudy, but still good fun, and only a couple of hours from home.

First of the snow
Clockwise around the horseshoe
Follow the wall…
Excitement of snow
Views out south
Warm enough to chat!
good snow cover on the tops
Dave off enjoying the snow
admiring the view
Sliding
Not much snow on the slopes though
Late afternoon light in the Kentmere valley
Searching the way up Fairfield
The other side of the route
Which way off is it?
Final views of the weekend

 

Jolly slushy

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Our annual Cairngorms jolly with expedition friends was the first for years that we haven’t snatched at least one climb (soft, melting snow made the gullies unattractive and meant anything more interesting wasn’t in condition).

Instead we headed onto the plateau, aiming for an unlikely ascent of Macdui amid strong winds and deep slush, more than half expecting to decide not to bother before we got too far into the blanket cloud. Amazingly, another pair of unenthused climbers decided to join us, and we were very grateful for the extra trail-breaking capability! There was a strong headwind on the lower slopes, but even when it started raining and we lost visibility it didn’t really seem bad enough to turn back, so on we went. Actually the snow was reasonably solid up high. Dave thoroughly enjoyed navigating in a whiteout, especially when we found the summit at the first time of asking after several featureless kilometres on the same bearing. Somewhat surprisingly it wasn’t windy at all there, so we enjoyed a sandwich before heading back to the corrie edge, pausing to inspect some palatial snow holes on the way. Less surprisingly, we didn’t see anyone until we reached the top of the climbs and the ski slopes. Back at the car by mid-afternoon, feeling quite pleased with ourselves!

A similar venture the following day didn’t appeal and we opted for a low-level walk up to Loch Eanaich (between Sgor Gaoith and Braeriach). Varied scenery, a good leg stretch and quite spring-like in the lower reaches of the glen.

On Monday there was time for a morning’s outing before heading home. In glorious sunshine we drove towards Schiehallion, only to discover that it appeared to be the only mountain in the Highlands in cloud! Luckily it dissipated before we reached the summit and our main concern was the brilliant reflections off the snow patches (we’d accidentally left our sunglasses in the car)…

Gleann Eanaich (no pictures of the Macdui expedition – although if you look at a blank sheet of paper (preferably wet) you’ll get the idea)
Loch Eaniach
The glen again
Rothiemurchus forest
Way up Schiehallion
Snow 🙂
The summit
The view
The view the other way
The selfie

Finding the snow in Snowdonia

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Along with most of the other climbers based in the south of the UK, the forecast of heavy snow followed by sunny days was too much, so we headed on a last minute trip to Wales.

We joined a number of other vans in a quiet car park for Friday night, before joining the rush out the car park and onto the hills. The snow was plastering most of the hillside and although deep drifts were likely in the gullies, the icy paths and blue sky got us excited for some ridge based winter climbing. However, as we approached our intended ridge (Cneifion Arete), the snow was refusing to crisp up and the rock was looking decidedly black. A close inspection showed unfrozen turf on the crux and no ice or snow, so we passed. Another team decided to give a ‘summer’ ascent a go, and we watched from afar as they made possibly the slowest ascent ever seen.

We headed for objective two, an ascent of Seniors Ridge. However, the 2 inch crust of snow delighted in cracking under any weight, often resulting in sinking to knee depth. Any attempted respite from breaking trail was in vain, as the snow had a wonderful secondary compaction quality. Whenever the second (or indeed the lead, if they stopped and restarted) put weight on compacted snow, it gave way to greater depth. An adventurous spirit, dogged determination and misplaced optimism about better (colder) conditions higher up meant that the tempting looking gullies were sought out, only to be floundered up finding ever more frequent waist deep holes. Packs full of unused winter climbing gear and warm layers (it was quite warm) simply added to the excitement by increasing the chances of toppling over and requiring extra effort to extract limbs from the depths of the snow.

The fun ended too soon, and we were on the top by lunchtime, so after a quick relocation on the summit of Glyder Fawr, we headed over to Glyder Fach.  The wind scoured plateau and a path that was well compacted by the huge crowds meant it was easy going. Until I got bored and attempted the direct route out of the col onto Castell y Gwynt. Once again into the holes and crusty deep snow covering a boulder field. After about 30 minutes of slogging, we came over the top and back onto the path, 200m from where we had left it. A quick jaunt up to see the cantilever, and we were once again tempted off the path towards the top. It soon became apparent that no-one had attempted to reach the summit of Glyder Fach. The summit being a massive boulder field with human sized holes covered in snow, this is hardly surprising and once we remembered this, we also aborted. Some of the most tiring and trickiest conditions we have ever been out in.

Our final excitement for the day was a descent of Y Gribin, which had been heavily compacted over the day, giving compact slippery snow; an excellent complement to the morning’s powder which might have been slightly less interesting had we bothered to put crampons on.

A pub meal followed by another night in a friendly car park meant we were raring to go on Sunday morning, and an ascent of Snowdon from Rhyd Ddu was chosen as a new route up an old mountain. The final ridge was airy (but cloudy) and good fun. We didn’t stay long up high due to excess people, but descended over slippy grass, slippy rock and slippy snow before making a quick ascent of Y Garn and heading home via the usual chippy.

Gearing up in the car park – along with all the other optimistic climbers
Llyn Idwal – Snow!
Hard going on the approach – Cneifion Arete behind
Demonstrating floundering technique
From Seniors Ridge down to Llyn Idwal (left) and Cneifion Arete (black stripe on right)
First dig feet into snowdrift, then attempt to get out, any direction is good, up is slightly advantageous but harder to achieve
Well earned rest on a rock
Surveying the route down (Y Gribin)
Australia lake (upside down, obviously)
More ridgy than expected on Snowdon
Slipping down to Y Garn

 

 

New Year road trip

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Ascending Win Hill on a glorious morning, with Hope and Bradwell in the background
Win Hill summit scarp
Enjoying the sun
Dark Peak scenery – looking onto Kinder
View back to Sgurr nan Conbhairean from Sail Chaorainn
Improving conditions
Gorm Lochan and Loch Cluanie
Drochaid an Tuill Easaich
A gloomy (well named) Meall Dubh
Turbines looming out of the mist
Party on ascent of Carn na Caim
Snowy tracks and hints of blue sky
Meagaidh and Coire Ardair – on the windy ridge from Carn Liath to Stob Poite Coire Ardair
Meagaidh summit plateau
Descending to Aberarder and Loch Laggan

Here are a few pictures from our travels around the country over Christmas and New Year. None from the first part of the trip in Surrey – we did manage a couple of muddy walks in the North Downs in between the showers, but didn’t take the camera. Heading north, a brief sojourn in the Peak District provided the opportunity for a sunny wander up Win Hill before we continued on to Scotland.

Although we were van-based, it was a more sociable trip than the last time we took the van to Scotland over New Year as we spent time with groups of friends in Shiel Bridge and Kingussie on most evenings, and joined them for several walks. The weather was better in the west, so we headed there first and walked up Carn Ghluasaid and neighbours north of Loch Cluanie. Quite windy but still enjoyable, especially when the clouds cleared for the third Munro and descent. The following day Storm Frank hit the Highlands, but with some careful planning and a bit of bloody-mindedness we found a suitable Corbett – Meall Dubh from Glen Moriston – that we could walk up the lee side of, partly on wind farm tracks. It was pretty wet and breezy and steep heather away from the tracks made hard going, but still good to get out.

Our next plan (to park at the bottom of Geal Charn near Glen Markie) was thwarted when we drove into the River Spey on the approach road. Hastily retreating, we arrived instead in Kingussie to find flood warnings and sandbags – but the waters were already receding and they weren’t needed. We joined a mass New Year’s Eve ascent of Carn na Caim and A’Bhuidheanach Bheag, which were quite snowy and almost sunny, despite being in the cloud. An excellent forecast for the 1st led us to a repeat round of the Creag Meagaidh hills, which we had previously done in blizzard conditions. Although the visibility was significantly better this time, there were also very strong winds and spindrift, so it wasn’t entirely dissimilar!

After a cold night in the van in the Meagaidh car park, we were uninspired by the options for the last day of the trip and enjoyed a lazy few hours pottering around Loch Morlich and Rothiemurchus Forest, before returning to Kingussie to help deal with an excess of wine and an underused snooker table…