New Year in Glen Shiel

Posted on January 11, 2015 by yellowvanmountaineering

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Links to more Photos:
Dave’s Photos (trying flickr out)
Jo’s Photos (still struggling with picasa/google)

The most fresh snow we saw over our New Year trip to the Highlands was in Bradwell on the night before we left. Dave had arrived earlier that day to discover that the forecasts he had been using to deduce that we would be fine getting out in the morning unfortunately did not refer to the Bradwell in the Peak District, where in fact we were and where heavy snow was now falling. However, some pre-emptive action (leaving the car at the bottom of the hill) and some efficient gritting meant that we successfully escaped. In fact we were rather surprised to arrive first at Shiel Lodge, after narrowly avoiding being tempted out by a snowy, sunny Glencoe.

Luckily, that wasn’t quite all the sun and snow for the trip. We had a couple of great winter days out on part of the South Shiel Ridge and on the Three Brothers of Kintail, with snow-covered tops, some interesting ridgy bits and a whole day of alpine views. Best winter walking days for ages, and finally proof that the winter photos in the Munro book might actually not have been faked… It was also a good chance to practice a bit of snow examination and avalanche awareness without a howling gale for once, not to mention some boot skiing on the way down.

Inevitably, the snow all but disappeared and the rain and gales returned, but we managed to get up A’Ghlas-bheinn near Morvich and then Beinn a’ Chapuill near Glenelg on the two subsequent days. Both pretty wild but with surprisingly good views, and a splendid way to work up an appetite for DC and Mary’s excellent New Year’s Eve dinner! Even worse weather the next day encouraged us to get up late, enjoy a brunch of bacon, eggs and waffles, and later make a token effort by wandering along Loch Duich to the cemetery beyond Ratagan and going to visit the local llamas. We still got soaked.

On the final full day we ignored the predicted risk of whiteouts and thunder for a really quite pleasant ascent of Sgurr Airgid near Morvich. Increasingly windy and icy underfoot, but also wonderful winter light and snow-dusted views (at least when it wasn’t hailing), and all the better for being so unexpected. The light was so good that we went out again to inspect Eilean Donan – by which time, of course, it was dull and drizzly again, but we had fun nosing around the shore and the brightly-painted village of Dornie.

We bagged a final bonus Corbett on the way home: another glorious day, so we stopped at Kinlochleven to run up Garbh Bheinn and salivate over the Mamores. Another marvellous ridge (even if the steep nose was a little reminiscent of our scree-running-on-ice experience in Kyrgyzstan), and great to be among the mountains for a little longer.

So, some reward for the past three years of miserable Scottish winter weather – but hopefully that’s not it for another three…

Pitlochry and Bethesda

Posted on November 15, 2014 by yellowvanmountaineering

A couple of weekend trips in the last few weeks – one to a cottage near Pitlochry to meet family, the other to a bunkhouse near Bethesda to meet friends.

The cottage in Pitlochry was suitably old and drafty but held great views over the the autumn colours in the glen. Forecasts for 50 mph gusts and 50% chance of cloud free summits made the 3 tops of Beinn a’Ghlo the objective for Saturday. With weather worsening in the afternoon, we sped along the ridge to have lunch on the last top, descending the south ridge and enjoying the long tramp back to the car in sunshine. Good views from the first two tops, and occasional glimpses from the last. The wind was also less than expected.

The next day was spent cycling through the autumn colours, which we had forgotten were quite so good in that part of the country. A bit of rain damped things, but better than expected.

A final morning was spent with a quick walk through the woods before heading home.

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Wales the weekend after was a different story. With high winds and continuous rain forecast, we headed up to Carnedd y Filiast, Elider Fawr and onto Foel Goch and Y Garn. It didn’t stop raining and the wind made sure we were thoroughly wet. The wind coming off the NE ridge of Y Garn was enough to blow us over a couple of times. The log fire back in the bunkhouse was well earned and appreciated.

Sunshine tempted us on Sunday to go for another walk, so we headed up around the northern Carneddau, on which it rained for an hour or so. Luckily the sun came out on the way down, and we finally dried off, before finding ourselves deep in farm mud a few metres from the road.

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Wind awareness and capsize drills

Posted on November 5, 2014 by yellowvanmountaineering

Living next to England’s largest reservoir (by surface area) AND not having too many weekends away planned was just too fortuitious a combination of circumstances to miss, so we decided that this autumn we would learn to sail dinghies. Not only would this be fun in its own right, but we also hoped it would help us with sail trim on yachts, and shore up (no pun intended) our general competence with boats and their behaviour.

So we booked a combined Level 1/2 course with the Rutland Sailing School based at Edith Weston, constituting four full days spread over two weekends. Our first day coincided with a national junior sailing event which saw an astonishing quantity of vans and Volvos converge on the sailing school car park. Escaping the chaos, we met our instructor Tony and headed out in a Laser Bahia to learn the basics. Although we were confused by various bits of rope that never get touched on yachts because nobody knows what they do, we made good progress and by the afternoon we were sufficiently practised at tacking and gybing to be allowed to move onto (deliberate) capsizing. This was surprisingly good fun, and not too cold.

Day two was cancelled owing to a comprehensive lack of wind, so we enjoyed an unexpectedly restful day of conker-collecting and picnicing at Burghley Deer Park. A fortnight later we reconvened after a hasty revision session – lots to remember, though I think some of it was beyond Level 2 (one of the hazards of learning to sail with an aero engineer is that things get complicated very quickly). A slightly windier day meant that it was easier to see the boat respond to things we did – ideal conditions for sailing round triangles, picking up buoys, “jetty bashing” and making ourselves dizzy via repeated circuits of floating pontoons. We spent the evening recovering in the rather nice Wheatsheaf pub in Oakham, where they have two log fires and very tasty chips.

On the morning of the final day we were sent out in the Bahia to fend for ourselves, while Tony laughed at us from the comfort of a launch. It was windy enough for a reef in the main sail, and we had some fun zooming back and forth across the lake before tackling a triangular course. We successfully negotiated the gybes but twice fell foul of gusts that tipped us up when we failed to respond to them quickly enough. But we got significantly wetter after lunch, when we tried out a couple of single-handers – a Laser Pico for me and an RS Q’ba for Dave. Conclusion: great fun, but more practice needed – we only got a short way up what I suspect is a very steep learning curve! For the final session of the course we were back in the Bahia, defying the safety boat, which wanted us to go home (but it was only 3.30!), and doing timed laps around yet another triangle. Once we’d got our making tacks and laylines sorted, our times were remarkably close. It’s always the crew’s fault, anyway…

We are now apparently deemed competent enough to hire boats from the sailing club, so are looking forward to some more capsizing practice in the near future, as well as hopefully trying out some dinghy tactics in the yacht.

Wetton Windy

Posted on October 28, 2014 by yellowvanmountaineering

A short weekend escaping to the nearest hills and using the van. Based around Dovedale, the Manifold valley and Wetton. It was windy all weekend, and rained enough for a good blog title.

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Tour de Melton Mowbray

Posted on October 12, 2014 by yellowvanmountaineering

We never actually got to Melton – we just cycled around it. We got half way to Leicester, then headed north to the border of Nottinghamshire at Nether Broughton. There we decided that continuing would risk coming into contact with some merry men, so we headed more directly home, thus encircling the home of the pork pie.

The autumn colours were just emerging which helped, but a number of range rovers on single track roads without passing places made keeping momentum for uphills difficult. A short 75 km, but the headwind on the return made it feel long enough.

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Western Fells (or Bivvying on Buckbarrow)

Posted on October 5, 2014 by yellowvanmountaineering

This time last year, CUHWC was just beginning its Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Year. As part of the celebrations, a challenge was set (I forget the details, but I strongly suspect Michael was involved) for the club to put a present or past member on top of every Wainwright within the twelve-month academic year. Valiant efforts were made, but as the deadline approached, Phil and Joe decided that concerted action was needed to ensure success and set about calculating how two people could possibly bag the remaining scattered fells in a weekend.

Fortunately, this unlikely scenario was in the end unnecessary. There was plenty of enthusiasm from within the ranks and, a couple of weekends ago, nine of us headed to the Lakes to finish the job. We convened at Syke Farm in Buttermere on Friday night, before splitting into crack bagging teams and, having been given our marching orders, heading our separate ways the next morning.

Since Dave has banned himself from weekends away for a while, I was paired with Eleri. Our rather ambitious tick list took us on a traverse of four of the remotest valleys in the Lakes: Buttermere Valley, Ennerdale, Wasdale, and Eskdale. We set off from Buttermere amid a throng of assembling triathletes – so warm and calm was the day that I almost envied them their swim!

Our first objective was Pillar, and the quickest route there – over Scarth Gap Pass, across Ennerdale and back up to Black Sail Pass – was not particularly quick. It was 1 o’clock and definitely lunchtime when we made it, dripping with sweat in the windless air, to the summit. But once we were up high, further summits toppled relatively easily as we ticked Scoat Fell, Steeple and Haycock in about an hour. The next challenge was Caw Fell – we had trouble locating the top not (for once) because of poor visibility or even a featureless summit plateau, but because of Wainwright’s idiosyncratic choice of hills and the failure of our maps to make clear what he was thinking. Eventually deciding he meant the lower ring contour, we made an out-and-back to bag it. Eleri promptly declared – quite possibly uniquely – that Caw Fell was her favourite Wainwright (so far).

On Caw Fell we also briefly met Joe and Phil, who had gamely volunteered for the Lank Rigg group and were now in search of something more interesting. Leaving them to run over Haycock, we traversed around the side to meet up with them again en route to Seatallan. We were also glad to find the first water since Ennerdale – it was one of those rare days in the British hills when two litres is barely enough.

Seatallan was a bit of a sting in the tail, but the hazy views from the top were fabulous. A short hop down Nether Wasdale Common later, we had set up camp near the “summit” of Buckbarrow and enjoyed a quite passable four-course meal of various rehydrated substances plus a large golden syrup cake. Bed soon beckoned, and from the green ledge on which my bivvy bag nestled, I had a glorious view of the lights of Sellafield as the sun set…so much for getting away from work.

Sunday dawned greyer and cooler than the previous day, but rays of sunlight parted the clouds to land in Wasdale as we descended towards it – the boys having run ahead on a heroic mission to Green Crag. The woods and fields at the western end of Wast Water, just on the cusp of autumn, provided a pleasant low-level interlude during which I nearly lost Eleri to a couple of very tiny piglets. I managed to drag her away eventually, and we soon reached the summit of Whin Rigg via Greathall Gill. A short stroll to Illgill Head followed, then a descent to Burnmoor Tarn. No one else was around and the expansive col felt surprisingly wild, with rocky cascades tumbling off the slopes that led up to Scafell, and sun dancing on the water.

And then we were just about done; all that remained was to coerce our sore feet (I really must do something about those boots) down the track to the relative civilisation of Eskdale. Due to meet the rest of the group shortly at Hardknott Pass, we didn’t really have time for a well-deserved celebratory pint of “Rosie’s Pig” at the Boot Inn – but we had one anyway!

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Sailing the South Coast

Posted on September 28, 2014 by yellowvanmountaineering

So, having failed to get the Baltic this year, we instead took Puffin out on the South Coast for a few days. This was the first time Jo and I had a boat as skipper and first mate with no-one else experienced on board. We didn’t lose anyone, so it must have been fine.

Wind was patchy, so we didn’t get as far as Lulworth Cove as planned, but instead stopped at Studland Bay. The next day we spent moseying around Studland and Poole Harbour. We may have found the bottom on the way into Brownsea Island. On the way out, a communication error lead to slightly too much sail being hoisted. Chaos ensued as we avoided buoys and dinghies sped around us until we found a spot to reduce the sails again.

We were enjoying listening to the tireless efforts of the coastguard, so it came as some embarrassment when we came close to calling them out ourselves. I’d been getting a bit close to the land a few times (according to my crew – the chart and the depth were fine). Once, after turning away from the shore, the tiller came off in our hands.

After some messing around we eventually managed to manoeuvre the boat to point into the wind, where we had a race to reattach the tiller before being blown onto the shore. We managed a bodge and got the sails down, and motored round the corner to fix it properly.

My proudest moment of skippering was anchoring for lunch just in time to miss a rainstorm. We never had to put waterproofs on all weekend.

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Saas Alpine Adventure

Posted on September 15, 2014 by yellowvanmountaineering

Been quite busy moving house and starting to finish a degree, but we did go to the Alps around a month and a half ago.

Our aims for the couple of weeks were to play around with some multi day routes, traverses, bivvies – basically enjoy the relative security and safety of the Alps compared with more remote places.

Our aims dropped slowly through the week, passing ‘a couple more one day routes’, ‘some valley climbing’, to end up with us appreciating the couple of hours of sun we eventually found on the way home.

After a brief warm up we headed up the Alphubel. Followed the guides’ recommendations and did it in a day from the lift station. Excellent little ridge over the Feechopf to start the mountain proper. Given the large amount of snow, the rest was just a slog. A lack of acclimatisation and heat of the day made it a struggle, one that was only just made worth it with the cloudy views from the top.

After consigning the next day as a rest, we headed up in the afternoon rain to the Mischabel hut. A good hour’s walk up relentless zig-zags, followed by 2 hours of ladders, chains and staples. Eventually the hut appeared out the mist and we dried off in the fantastic hut.

The next day was clear, so we set off (with everyone else) up the hill. We soon found ourselves towards the front of the groups. Jo then led a storming pace up the ridge (following a very speedy UK guide). We didn’t realise we were leaving everyone behind for a while, but it was fun chasing the guide. Also meant that we had the top to ourselves, before the 8 groups behind us converged on the tiny summit of the Nadelhorn.

We found the guides very helpful, and it was fun to be on the mountain with other people after a few years of remote mountaineering.

After zooming down the ridge (Jo in front again), we took in the Ulrichshorn and headed down into the cloud and the 2 hour descent past the staples and chains.

The next few days were spent at lower level. We spent Saturday night in a hut – great fun over dinner, but a bit busy for sleeping. Unfortunately the next day was raining despite everyone’s predictions. We spent a day on a blumenweg learning alpine flowers instead. Over the next couple of days we managed the Joderhorn and the Mittaghorn in the cloud and snow.

Having effectively given up on mountaineering for the trip, we then found an SAC guidebook with the Stellihorn, and thought we might be able to squeeze this under-appreciated peak in on the last day. This started by alarming everyone at 3am by revving the van out of the ruts it had established over 2 weeks and driving to Mattmark. While walking up past what would be an incredible bivvy site, we got very confused by silent flashes illuminating the night sky. Eventually as daylight broke we saw the most enormous thunderstorm heading our way from the Italian border. We decided to turn back if it started raining. We took a wrong turn and ended up in a large boulder field, at which point it started raining. We decided to keep going. Eventually we found the remains of the glacier, and (as usual) the top was still an hour away, despite looking so close. The summit pitch even provided some icy fun and our decisions paid off – we just managed to get a view from the top.

Writing our names in the summit book, it seemed that the mountain was only summitted once every 10 days or so. On the way back down, we found a party of three following us up.

It was good to be out in the Alps again, but the weather was disappointing – I think everyone found that this year. Maybe next year we’ll get the chance to do something more interesting without having to guess the weather every few minutes.

I almost forgot to write about the van – because it worked so well that it felt like our home from home. It was a really good thing to have with the weather this year, and our friends with small tents appreciated the tarp and outside chairs. The best thing was we didn’t come back with too many alterations, additions or repairs to implement in the near future.

Links to photos – Dave’s and Jo’s

Van updates

Posted on July 13, 2014 by yellowvanmountaineering

So we’ve been working quietly away at the van making updates and new features, and fixing old ones.

Included in the pictures is the new wine rack, a new shelf in the front for the passengers (made from perspex), new storage pockets, various storage attachments and some other things.

We’re almost ready for the Alps – just a few more things that could be done, but they may wait until afterwards.

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Ogwen Weekend

Posted on July 10, 2014 by yellowvanmountaineering

A couple of weekends ago, a group of old friends came together from London and Cambridge and ended up in Snowdonia, camped below Tryfan. A misty murky morning on Saturday meant a slow start. We opted for some scrambling, doing a route on the East face of Tryfan. We actually started up the face one gully too early, so ended up on a different, but no less good route. Good to get one of the route-finding failures out the way early in the season.

Ending up on the north ridge a bit early, we zoomed up the easier rock, until finding more interesting challenges. We continued straight over the top to avoid crowds and headed on to the north face of Glyder Fach. Despite the mist, the rock was in good condition, so up another scramble, then down to the campsite.

As we’re rarely in Snowdonia in summer, we made the most of the daylight with a quick route on Tryfan Bach before a late dinner. We then managed to get everyone hiding from the midges inside the van quite comfortably.

Sunday dawned with slightly better weather, so we headed for Idwal for easy approach and exit when the weather inevitably turned.

Once at the bottom of the crag, the weather turned for the better, so after splitting up a bit, we made a mountain day of it. Jo went off to sketch, I moved together with Joe up an easy route on Idwal, scrambled out the top, and ended up on the great Central Arete. I wonder if I’ll ever pitch a route again, as it was so much less faff to move together. We met up at the top and descended over Y Garn to an ice cream.