A bit windy in them hills!

Ok so winter has arrived, and what a start it was been. 

Last Friday morning I headed off to Simon Yearsley’s house bright and early to meet up with him and head off towards Fort William for the STS on the Ben meet (sponsored by Big Tree campervans) that was being held at the CIC hut on Ben Nevis. 

The meet was for the STS competition winners and special guests, and I was asked to be one of the hosts for the weekend.  Despite the awful weather forecast we managed to get some good routes done with good weather and everyone seemed to have a fun time. 

On the Friday afternoon I teamed up with James Higgins for a route on the Douglas Boulder, we did “Gutlass” which is a fun little IV/5. We climbed this route in conjunction with Malcolm Bass and Harry Holmes who were also on the meet.

Me on the crux of
"The Big Cheese"

On the Saturday I paired up with Fiona Murray and photographer James Dunn for the day. We headed off towards South Trident Buttress to see what was looking good. We opted for the route “The Minge” which is a line that follows a series of steep cracks that cut through the lower section of the buttress. We made the second winter ascent of this VII/8 which was put up by Pete Macpherson and Ed Edwards back in 2009. 

After a good day on the Saturday, we woke up to amazing clear skies on the Sunday and the whole North Face of the Ben as our playground for the day. Again, we headed up towards South Trident area with a couple of routes in mind, but whilst trudging up the hill I spotted a funky looking ice dagger hanging from a roof on Moonlight Gully Buttress. I quickly picked out a continuation line above the dagger and asked Harry and James Higgins if the where keen for trying a new line. They both said they were up for it, so it was off to the bottom of Moonlight full of anticipation. 

After a bit of battling through the roof to gain the ice, I eventually (second try) managed to get situated in the groove and found a fairly restful position which I milked before heading boldly up the thin ices to the belay platform. Unfortunately on my first attempt to get sorted in the groove both my axes ripped out of the thin ice and I found myself hanging from the rope above the starting slab. But I lowered down and got it sent on my second go. 

Even though it was not a super long route and despite the tricky last pitch, it was not very sustained. But the crux was hard and bold, so I opted for the grade of VIII/8**, this might vary depending on the conditions of the ice in the groove. 

All in all it was a really good weekend with the STS group and it was good to see how well all the folk who are psyched for the tooling series got on in mountains. 

Walking in to Creag an Socach

On the Sunday night after the weekend on the Ben, I chatted to a mate Will Sim who lives down south in St. Bees. I told him the conditions in the mountains were good and without hesitation he arrived eager and ready at my front door on the Monday afternoon.

We planned on heading back up the Ben to the CIC Hut for a couple of days, but decided to take a detour en-route to have a look at the well known IX/9 “Defenders of the Faith” on Beinn Dorain which was put up by Dave MacLeod and Fiona Murray in 2006. The route was originally climbed onsight, and was yet to see a second ascent. So off we went.

Gearing up beneath "Defenders of the Faith"

James Dunn, Will and I met up with Adam Russell in the very snowy Bridge of Orchy train station car park and from what we could see of the crag from there, it was looking very white! Filled with new hopes of finding our intended route in condition, and with the amazing blue skies and sunrise above us, we quickly pounded through the deep fresh snow up the base of the coire which gave us a full view of the line. 

After picking out where the route went from the ground Will and I geared up and soloed up to the base of the crux pitch. I set off leading up the pitch and swiftly realised that it was steeper than It looked from below. But I pushed on and after some inventive gear placements and some even more inventive axe placements, I eventually arrived beneath the crux roof at the semi rest position.

Me leading the crux pitch of "Defenders"

I looked around and tried a couple of different moves to try and breach the roof to gain the headwall, but nothing seemed to show itself. So after a bit of dithering around I decided that the gung-ho approach would be best and blasted over in full throttle. Once on the headwall I felt a little exposed and the thought that my gear was now well below me beneath the roof was fresh in my mind. I found some super thin hooks and a sketchy kneebar which was good enough for me to find some gear, after getting some protection the good hooks showed themselves and I was then comfortable and in balance on the face.

Me on the crux pitch 

It was then the thin traverse which leads the obvious hanging corner which bars the way to the easier ground above. I got a half hammered in pecker, then made a long run-out section to the corner across the super techy wall and up to the turfy mantle and the end of the hard climbing. After the hanging corner there is a fair bit of climbing to reach the belay at the end of the first pitch, but even though it’s probably VI/6, it feels pretty easy after the climbing in the first half of the pitch.

Looking down the crux pitch from the top of
hanging corner.

I got to the belay totally stoked after making the second onsight ascent of the route. Will swiftly seconded the first pitch and then shot up the last pitch to reach the top of the crag. Once at the top, we walked back round to the base of the buttress to watch James and Adam for a while before heading back to the car and off to Fort William for some food and munchies.

Will moving up the easier last pitch of
"Defenders of the Faith"

After some food and fluid, James, Will and I headed off to the North Face car park and started what was to be a very long walk to the CIC Hut. Throughout the day the snow had been coming down hard and the path was a deep mass of fresh powder snow. 

Just before the end of the tree line, we ran into Dave MacLeod, Blair Fyffe and a friend of theirs who had been climbing on the Ben that day and told us about the amount of snow up there and that it was hard to reach the routes. It was good to chat to Dave about “Defenders of the Faith” having just done the route a couple of hours earlier, but not wanting to arrive too late at the hut we trudged on and made the rest of the walk with our heads down through the high winds and minimal visibility.

On Wednesday we headed up to Echo wall area to have a look at a new line, but conditions and time took its toll and we ended up doing “The Grate Chimney” IV/5 which is a really fun and distinctive line up the deep cut notch in the buttress. 

Will leading "The Great Chimney"

That evening the wind really picked up and when we woke on Thursday morning the hut was shaking and the wind was roaring hard. We sat out the weather in the hut playing cards and drinking tea, and around midday Blair Fyffe stumbled into the room looking a bit windswept and weather worn. He was up to check the snow-pack and conditions for the SAIS and once he had gained his info and had a quick chat he made a very mental looking decent straight into the wind back down to Fort William. 

Once Blair had departed we noticed that there was some random debris getting caught in the wind turbine. We headed outside to find that a large section of the hut roof had been blown up off and there was a big section missing above the sleeping area.

After seeing this we decided to head down, but after a failed attempt to retreat due to super high winds and 120mph hail stones with no goggles, we were forced to stay in the hut. Thankfully this was not a bad option as when we woke on Friday morning the hut was silent and the wind had totally died. 

James seconding the first pitch
of "The Knuckleduster"

So James, Will, and I headed off up towards number three gully buttress, psyched to try the stunning looking line “The Knuckleduster” which saw its first winter ascent a while back by Blair Fyffe and Steve Ashworth. But on their ascent they did the first two pitches, which included the hard and scary crux pitch, but then veered off right toward the neighbouring route “Sioux Wall”.

Me moving up the incredibly
Icy crux pitch of "Knuckleduster" 

Seconding the crux of "Knuckleduter"

We really wanted to climb the route via the true original line throughout. So this is exactly what we did. The rock was very verglassed with the whole route hiding under a layer of bullet hard ice. This made finding protection very difficult, but Will put in a good effort leading the awesome pitches one and three which where home to some sustained and steep groove features that offered 3 star climbing. I lead pitches two and four with pitch two being the scarily bold and committing crux pitch which was both mentally and physically draining. But we fought on and I topped out under a beaming full moon and clear skies. All the stresses of the previous days weather and the scary climbing earlier where soon gone and I was just happy to be in the mountains on such a beautiful night.

Will leading the 3rd pitch
of "Knuckleduster"

We all headed down from the Ben on Saturday morning after helping Robin Clothier (the CIC Hut guardian) retrieve as much roof debris as possible. 

After 8 days and 6 routes in the mountains, it certainly feels like winter is in full swing. Lets hope it continues!

Check out Wills' blog for his take on the events http://willsim.blogspot.com/2011/12/mixte-ecossaise.html

The CIC Hut looking a bit sorry for itself.