Tag Archives: Hillwalking

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.

Lakes Camping January

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So it’s been a while since we went winter wild camping in the Lakes, and we thought it would be good to do again.

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The aims for the weekend were to find some snow, walk a long way over many hills and use our expensive tent, rucksacks, sleeping bags that are lying around not doing much. The van was also designed to make such wild camping trips easier, but we haven’t got around to doing this.

What we found was:
The majority of the snow had melted. There was still enough, and we did use crampons once, but not the bucketfuls I was hoping for.
The winds were much stronger than expected, from a different direction, and with heavy bags on a narrow snowy ridge, this provided much needed entertainment and some potential nasty knee problems. We were almost reduced to a crawl, which is something I haven’t done for a very long time. Luckily the knee seems to be holding up and getting better.

We did manage 12 Wainwrights near Braithwaite for those that count such things, including Grisedale Pike, Hopegill Head, Whiteside, Grasmoor, Whiteless Pike, Wandope, Eel Crag, Sail, Scar Crags, Causey Pike, Outerside, Barrow. Since we were in the cloud all weekend, I still need to do them again to get a view.

We also managed to forget about using the gas canister for a weekend in the autumn, meaning we took a nearly empty one. We just about scraped by; melting snow and getting it just hot enough for the dehydrated meals. The lack of food and drink made the night colder and longer, with an interruption by some mad mountain bikers coming nearby around 8pm. In the morning we dashed back to the van to avoid the rain and find some water. The van then came into its own by providing endless hot drinks and hot lunch and snacks, although it took me until mid Monday to get back to normal. I’ll triple check the gas next time.

Looks like we still have some things to learn about winter camping, so will give it another shot in a few years time. Maybe earlier if we use something cosier like a bothy or snowhole.

Pitlochry and Bethesda

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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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Sun? in Scotland?!

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So for Easter, we got a bit excited, and after 8 hours of driving and looking at weather forecasts, we stopped at the Kings House Hotel (round the back on the old road, not actually in the hotel) for a few hours and then started up the hill at 3 am.  Amusingly, this qualifies as one of Jo’s earliest alpine starts.

The idea was that if the forecast snow had come, we wanted it frozen not slushy for the Aonach Eagach. In the end, there was no snow, only dribbles of verglas and an incredible dawn, with sunrise coinciding with us drinking hot chocolate on the first Munro half way along the ridge. Shame.

So after the rather fabulous start to the trip, we ambled along the rest of the ridge, picked up an ankle injury and got back to the van 12 hours after starting.

Dave soon found that although walking anywhere with boots on was painful, trainers were fine – so we were constrained to easy trainer walks. Although not ideal, this was better than nothing. We made the most of the sun, walking around the coast near Kentallan (south of Ballachulish) before heading across the Corran ferry. A quick wash in a river and we were presentable to walk into a posh pub/restaurant (the Salen Hotel) to meet Jo’s parents for dinner to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.

A great couple of days were then spent based at Druimnich on the south coast of Ardnamurchan, a small estate owned by Jo’s family friends Dave and Jenny Kime. After a short expedition around Druimnich (from the new jetty to the water butts, admiring the seals, viewpoints, vegetable garden, wind turbine and pine martens). We then explored Ben Hiant, Sanna Beach, Ardnamurchan light house (for ice cream) and Ariundle ancient oak woodland. We didn’t quite get on to the volcano – next time.  Weather was excellent, although the haze spoilt the views somewhat. There has to be some reason to return though!

It was a shame to come home in good weather, but we’d had a relaxing time (rather than the usual knackering) and the drive home was slightly more pleasant than the usual driving rain. Luckily there are some more bank holidays in the not too distant future.

Dave’s photos

Jo’s photos

Compacted Winter Skills

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A couple of Saturdays ago, I headed up to Aviemore to run a winter skills course for some friends from CUHWC. Very soon (0830), the van broke down. Turned out to be nothing dramatic – just the brake pads rubbing, but as the breakdown service had lost my policy details we took all day to get back to Cambridge.

On Sunday we took a second attempt. This time in the Polo, with minimal gear, and all of us booked into a hostel. Success! We got to Penrith for the best bacon butties I’ve ever had, and got to the Cairngorm ski car park by 5pm. We jumped at the opportunity to spend an hour on a small snow patch going over the basics and stretching our legs.

As we had lost a day with the van breakdown, I was worried about trying to squeeze a 3 day course into 2 days.. Luckily the wind and snow conditions meant that going high and getting some Munros done (the original plan) was unlikely to be sensible or beneficial. The group were also excellent, having loads of previous walking experience in all weather and picked up things quickly, allowing for some fast progression.

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So on the first day we headed into Coire an t-Sneachda, had a quick session on moving on snow, resulting in some sliding fun (ice axe arrests). We then moved into the Coire proper to have a look at some old avalanche debris, and use crampons. Despite the consolidated and melting pack, we found some (non vertical) ice to show what crampons do really well. As the group we picking this up well and conditions were good, we headed up an easy angled gully next to the goat track, looking at avalanche avoidance and testing on the way.

After that excitement, we went for lunch in Coire Domhain. Unfortunately there were no remnants of snow holes to look at. The plateau was pretty devoid of snow, but we headed to Cairngorm summit anyway. After bagging the Munro, we headed back into Corrie Cas for some more detailed avalanche tests and a walk down through the ski area.

The next day we concentrated on rope techniques, going into Coire an Lochain and getting a good look at the great slab. After some digging and testing of various snow anchors, we practised our bucket seats and buried axes while ‘pitching’ up an easy slope. After some navigation to the top of Cairn Lochan, we used a snow bollard to descend onto Fiacaill Corrie an t-Sneachda. The further descent gave some more practice of classic Scottish mix of snow/ice/slush/rock. The wind was picking up and it was getting late, so we rushed off back to the hostel catching a rain shower in the last 30 mins.

Despite the less than ideal conditions, the course was enjoyed by everyone, and there was much discussion about running it again next year.

Sun and Water in Patterdale

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So we took the van in its part-converted state on a hillwalking club trip to Patterdale in the Lakes. It was so hot and sunny, we decided to try ghyll scrambling – a great way to cool off, get some good scrambling done and have a lazy day. We also explored a very beautiful deserted valley – quite impressive for the Lakes on a nice weekend. We ended up on Fairfield and took a quick dip in Grisedale Tarn before returning home.

On the second day, we did a quick round of some hills we haven’t done before near Kirkstone Pass. We also managed a quick paddle along a stream.

Links to our photos are here:

Dave’s photos – nice landscapes and a few of scrambling

Jo’s photos – mostly ghyll scrambling