Catch up

It's been a whirlwind few weeks over June and July! The highlight has been the birth of my second son, Glen whose been keeping us very busy (and just a  little bit tired!!!).

Away from home, some great trips have included 3 days on Skye with Steve at Vertical Fever, some mountaineering days in Glencoe and Torridon, Hammer on the Etive Slabs, lots of cragging and MIA bits and pieces and some superb days back out guiding on the Ben. Here are a selection of pics from over the last few weeks...

June on the Ben!

June Crack

Steve enjoying his work!

 The impressive corner of Hammer

Lagangarbh Buttress

Good times on the Ben!

The past few weeks in pictures

Curved Ridge in sun, hail and lightning with Al, and clients Mike and Malcolm!

Drier on the Aonach Eagach....

 Even better on the Forcan Ridge! :)

Ruaraidh giving me some practice for the day!

Meanwhile, Hannah was on the CMD with Eric and Liza....

Three peaks for Ascents of Adventure

Up a snowy Ledge Route and onto the plateau to meet Andy, Carol and Robyn

The fantastic team from Monkey World and their trip to Glen Nevis and Meall an-t Suidhe...

Summit of Meall an-t Suidhe (711m)

 Back on the Aonach Eagach with Al,  Martin and some great clients

 Wet day today doing some rescues practice with Lena and Andy!

Massive thanks to Al Halewood for scrambling shadowing, Andy, Hannah, Steve and Craig for the superb work, Lena and Andy for the MIA practice and all the clients we've had the pleasure of sharing some great days with!

Spring days...

It's finally been a great start to the Spring here in Lochaber with the much awaited high pressure. During the last week or so, I've been working with 1st and 2nd year students from the Adventure Tourism Degree at West Highland College, UHI. We've been looking at coaching climbing, with the first years doing some peer coaching and the second years coaching some young people from various schools.

I've also managed a fair bit of climbing, both with some MIA teaching days and some personal climbing.


Andy and I climbed Time lord (VS 4c **) in Glen Gour and I also got the chance to climb Secretaries Super Direct (HVS 5a***) in Glen Nevis, both great routes.

Joe and Andy came with me to Polldubh as some willing guinea pigs and we climbed P1 and 2 of Pandorra and onto Phantom Slab as well as giving the chaps some coaching on their leading on Repton Right Wall.

I was also out with Prashant on a teaching day on which we climbed Pinnacle Ridge (S), Three Pines (V.Diff/S) and Flying Dutchman (S).

I've also had a few amazing days on the Ben starting with a stunning day with Ian.....

 and  then a chilly day with Victor.......

..... and another stunner with Patty and Geoff on the CMD Arete.

As I write this, there's been some fresh snow down to about 600m here today so it looks like Spring is on hold for the next few days at least. Tempting to get the ice tools back out...