past few weeks

After a busy few weeks it has been time to update the old blog. It’s been a busy few weeks with lots of work with some play jammed in in-between. Here is the low down of what I’ve been up to:

Emerald gully on Ben Dearg – I climbed this a few weeks back with a good friend of ours, John McLeod Britain’s manliest man, and Tony. We were off to climb penguin gully but the slopes looked loaded and it is really far away!  This was a great cold climbs tick and the main pitch was ace, totally fat! However the next pitch was a bit thin and when tony set off half the pitch came off, I didn’t fancy it so off john popped, giving it the McLeod shuffle and sending it!

Smoking the white owl on Aonach Mor – this was James’ first winter route and what a cracker it was; we didn’t even leave the house until midday! I have wanted to do this route for a while and was curious about whether it was III 4 or IV 5, probably IV 5 taking the last pitch quite direct! Super conditions although the gondola was winded off!!

No 6 gully on Aonach Dubh – some friends of ours, Craig and Marie, were down from Aberdeen and were keen to do a bit of climbing, it is an excellent climb and another cold climbs classic, it was also Craig’s first lead on ice, what a dude!!!

Left twin – I climbed this, again with Craig and Marie and it is well worth the three stars it gets, with that 60m ice pitch at the end being very full value! Although I am not sure I would like to be up there with this sun melting everything as it is!!!

Italian climb – last week I had an awesome day out on the Ben with Scott Kirkhope, this wasn’t our first option or even our second but we opted for something in the shade that neither of us had done before. Scott was happy for me to lead the meaty pitch and I was keen. As I started leading the pitch I noticed the ice was solid, and I do mean solid!!!! As I looked up I began to wonder if this was bit of a mental pitch but it turned out was a lot nicer than it looked and one of the nicest pitches of ice I have climbed.  We shared this route with two climbers from Bingley of all places, called Scott and Ian who were nice enough to invite us back to the CIC for a wee cup of tea. They have had a good week and climbed Orion face direct and zero gully, reporting, as expected awesome conditions, even if the crux on Orion is a little thin. Check out the wee video I put together below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUz_nmX1vh0