Ardnamurchan

We took a gamble on the weather today and Glenda, Karen and I headed to Ardnamurchan in the hope for some sun. We were not disappointed and seemed to avoid all the stormy showers we could see in the distance. We climbed selection of routes on the lovely rough gabbro including the classic Yir (VS 4c), Claude (VS 5a) Crater Comforts (VS 4c). An amazing day, well worth the drive.
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Meall a' Buachaille

Up in Aviemore today and went for a stretch of the legs along to Ryvoan bothy and along the Meall a' Buachaille ridge. Managed to avoid the heavy showers blowing through and got a stunning view up to the Northern Corries, which are looking pretty white again.

East face of Gearr Aonach

To make the most of the stunning morning we headed to an Alpine looking Glencoe to do some climbing on the East face of Gearr Aonach. We climbed the Mappie, a VS 4c multipitch route and descended the zig zags. This was a great route with a fairly bold traverse on good clean rock.

Polldubh climbing

Malcolm was up today to go climbing in Polldubh. We covered various bits and pieces, looking at using two half ropes, setting up belays amongst other things. Malcolm wanted a shot climbing some harder routes so we did a selection ranging from Severe up to VS 5a. No midges yet...

North Ridge, Stob Ban

Decided to make the most of the nice weather and went down to Glen Nevis. I've wanted to do the North ridge of Stob Ban for ages so today was the day. After a steep start the ridge levels out and improves with height until a lovely little scrambly section, just about grade 1 but nice all the same.

  I headed up to the summit of Stob Ban and soaked up the views across to Glencoe, Ardgour and beyond.

 I finished the day along to Mullach and it's outlying peak Meall a Chaorainn before heading back down the Glen. There was still a little bit of snow around and I reckon on any of the peaks above 1100m or so an axe and crampons would be worth sticking in the rucksack. Saw an RAF Helicopter hovering around the zig-zags on a wintery looking Ben just as I got back. Hopefully they were  just out training...

Quick route in polldubh

Had a spare hour or so this morning so headed down Glen Nevis for a quick play on Polldubh. Went up Pine Wall a friendly HS 4a. Hopefully get back down the Glen over the weekend for some harder routes...

Winter returns...

We decided to try another route up Ben Nevis today so headed to Glen Nevis to head up the Waterslide. This route couldn't be more different to the Tourist track with little or no track, a feeling of remoteness and stunning views! Didn't see a soul until the summit!

We headed onto Carn Dearg just as the weather deteriorated very quickly. A few very loud and close sounding rumbles of thunder caused us to quicken the pace onto the plateau.

 By this time we were in a full on white out with very few things to sight on. We swiftly picked up the line of cairns and followed the usual bearing to the zig zags.

 A quick bike ride down the Glen to pick up the car finished an awesome day!