First Blood

Recently my job as a climbing magazine editor has been particularly frustrating. Despite a rather late start to the winter season it seemed everyone was making up for lost time with a string of very tough sounding new routes and repeats of several of last years hardest routes. Finally just before Christmas I was able to stop reading about everyone else's fun and get some action myself. I hooked up with Greg Boswell and James Dunn hoping for a few days high standard adventure, unfortunately as soon as I arrived temperatures began to soar. We got out early on the first day realising it could be our only chance and managed a fine first winter ascent. I had an inkling the E2 Jumping Jupiter could be promising and so it turned out with a committing and steep start followed by thinner technical climbing with a slightly bold feel. Greg led this first pitch and after both of us had tried the summer second pitch, Greg led through a lefthand detour to finish. I reckon it's worth 2 stars and Greg reckoned VIII,8 (it certainly felt a good grade harder than the neighbouring Time Traveller).

After that rain stopped play apart from a quick visit to Birnam and a chance to do my back in on Fast and Furious, followed by a training session in Greg's cave. Despite the rain it did feel great to give the winter rat a decent tit bit. Here's hoping there's plenty more to come.

Ship of Fools

After a month or more of reading about everyone else having fun up in Scotland I finally managed to get up there myself. A great day out with young hotshot Greg Boswell, and nice to end the season on a high note rather than watch the season fade away.

We knew we'd need to head high for conditions, and it doesn't get higher than Indicator Wall. I had my eye on Ship of Fools a route established by Iain Small and Simon Richardson in 2007. Greg starting up Pitch 1

I'd been intrigued by this route ever since I read Simon's exciting account of their first ascent in the new Ben Nevis history book "...his monopoints only half penetrate the ice before they hit rock; his tools barely reach their first notch. There are no gear placements in sight. Iain commits to a meticulous dance. Every placement, each step, has to be perfectly executed the first time;a second kick, or another swing, and the delicate skein of ice will shatter....The ice sheet vibrates as he makes his second placement, but it holds his weight as he manoeuvres himself over the roof and levers his right crampon onto a finger-width, sloping notch. Four moves later and he reaches the foot of a narrow ice ribbon. It is solid, ten centimetres thick... I breathe a sigh of relief. I've just witnessed one of the finest leads in Scottish ice history."

With a write up like that I couldn't wait to find out what Ship of Fools had in store.
Me on pitch 2, contrast with the shot below of Iain on the first ascentIt turned out that the route was in different condition than on the first ascent. Whilst whiter the crucial ice patches were often not weight bearing and so I climbed a little to the right of Iain's line. Not as elegant but still highly exciting. The quality of the white stuff made sure that all 3 of the top pitches needed our full attention. All in all a superb route and great to pull over the top and belay on the summit trig point of the Ben. Finally on ice that didn't fall off as soon as it was touched.
Greg Boswell, a name to watch in future seasons (Greg blogs about his adventures here http://gregboswell.blogspot.com/).

Final Highland Fling

This time of year I often feel the onset up schizophrenia. There are so many options it can make the head spin. I was rock climbing on lat week, fell running the weekend just gone and now it looks like I'll be back on the Ben winter climbing this weekend. This will be my last chance of anything wintery this season and i haven't been able to get up for the last month so even though it feels odd beginning to get excited about the cold stuff again. Here's a few pics from Hans Hornberger from my last trip up on Beinn Eighe. Blood sweat and frozen tears pics Hans Hornberger

Ines's Story

Ines Papert has written a nice piece about her trip to Scotland. You can read it here http://www.planetmountain.com/english/News/shownews1.lasso?l=2&keyid=37290#

And here's one of Han's pics of me from the trip on pitch 2 of Blood Sweat and Tears

photo Hans Hornberger

Further team hotshot pics and new Eighe route info

Team hotshot should be queuing for flights about now. They finished off their trip with a classic on the Ben, Ines and Hans on North East Buttress and Audrey and Matt on Minus Three Gully. On Friday, our second day at Beinn Eighe, Audrey, Matt and Simon did Poachers Fall on Liathach. Ines was desperate to do a new route so we set the alarm for 3.20am and dragged ourselves back up and over Beinn Eighe's summit. After how wintery it had been on the West Central Wall I thought the Eastern walls would be more wintery than they were. Checking out three or four of my new route possibilities only yielded bare rock. Then Ines spotted a neat looking line just left of Far East Gully, which had a well "whited" lower section although a little leaner up high. Never the less it proved a fun 2 pitch route perhaps useful for parties who fail early on the Far East wall mega-projects. We called it Little Nipper unless Ines comes up with a better name.

All in all a great week. Ines was talking about how she thinks trad protected mixed climbing could be the future for her winters, while Matt was recognising the possibilities for Scottish style stuff at previously untouched cliffs back in Quebec. I'll probably pull together a full report for Climb Mag and put more photos on Simon's site www.bigtreecampervans.com

In the mean time here's a few more pics and a description of little Nipper
Sunrise on Thursday
Me on pitch 1 of Little Nipper (It starts up the diagonal groove - poor but essential ice)

Ines starting up pitch 2 of little Nipper

Ines on pitch 3 of Blood Sweat and Frozen Tears

Post route celebration for Ines and Audrey
Brocken Spectre on Eighe's summit

Beinn Eighe Far East Wall

Little Nipper 60m VI,8

1. 30m Boldly climb the shallow right facing groove 5m left of Far East Gully to ledges and then the steep crack to belay below a prominent corner with a crack in its left wall.

2. 30m Climb the corner and then cracks trending slightly left to easier ground.

F.a Ian Parnell, Ines Papert 19th February 2010

Scottish Pride

Ahhh, Yes! At the moment I just have an overwhelming feeling of pride. Proud that team Arc'teryx had such a great trip, proud that out of their comfort zone they climbed so well and most of all proud that Scotland really pulled out all the stops over the last couple of days. The kind of days that keep you going the rest of the year. Heres a few pics more to follow.

The early start pays off on the summit plateau of EigheThursday's route with Ines - Blood, Sweat and Frozen Tears a 4 star VIII
Ines picking up the Scottish game very quickly on pitch 1 of Blood Sweat...Audrey, Matt and Simon on Central Buttress

Our home for the night courtesy of Simon at www.bigtreecampervans.com

Happy campers Hans, Ines, Audrey and Matt

The Exstatic Fly

Team hotshot visited Glen Coe today. Audrey and Matt climbed Central Buttress with Blair, whilst Ines and Iain climbed Unicorn. I suspect Ines's lead is the hardest by a woman in Scotland. She was raving on the phone about how beautiful it all was. So thumbs up from Germany. This is a shot of Guy's from Saturday of me getting very scared trying to climb the crux section of Extasy sans ice. Just one dodgy pecker for pro at this point. Sanity intervened and I lowered off shortly after.

Off up North again tomorrow to pick up two campervans including one from Simon at http://www.bigtreecampervans.com/ for a hopefully fittoing finale to the hotshot tour in the North West.

Welcome to our world

So the Arc'teryx hot shots tour of Scotland continued with a visit to Meagie on Saturday, with Audrey and Matt nipping up the super classic Smiths Gully, whilst I met up with Guy Robertson for an attempt on Extasy. Unfortunately this was devoid of what turned out to be crucial ice on pitches 3 and 4. Eventually we ended up climbing the middle section of the Fly before returning to the final pitch of Extasy. The Extastic Fly is probably VII,7 but with quite a lot of pitches worth VII in their own right. Guy on the crux? of The Fly on horrifying junk ice.The steep final pitch of Extasy, which Guy managed a more direct finish. Guy has just reached the first bit of properly decent turf in the pic.
Ines and Hans finally arrived after 2 days of flight delays (Thankyou Easyjet!), so were desperate for some Scotch and made sure their guide didn't have a rest day. We headed up to Aonach Mor for a couple of laps of Stirling Bridge. This gave a nice introduction for Ines with some helpful neve and some good footage for Hans' film.Ines happy to be finally climbingA rather large cornice at the top of Easy Gully
Ines getting hooked on Stirling Bridge.

A taste of Scottish

Ironically half my team of visting hotshots was snowbound in Munich. So I headed out today with team Quebec Matt and Audrey to the Northern Corries.They seemed to like what they saw - a very buried Coire an lochanWe dug our way up Fall Out Corner and earned our reward of a round of Fish Suppers .....they liked that too (honest!)

Faith Healer

Iain starting pitch one of Faith Healer and discovering a hidden layer of ice on all the slabby bits out of shot.

This week I had a couple of days that illustrated how tenuous the chase for conditions in Scotland can be. I had spent the last few weeks reading about everyone elses adventures only for thaws to set in on my days off. I was beginning to feel I was training for nothing. Eventually after many many phone calls I lined up 2 sets of partners for a 2 day trip. Day 1 involved a ridiculously early start to walk in to the Northern Corries only to be met by completely black crags dripping with water. We were back out drinking lattes in Aviemore by 9.30am. Day 2 I joined up with Iain Small, someone I hadn't had the pleasure of climbing with and had wanted to hook up with for awhile. The big question was would we find any conditions to climb.

We opted for the banker of Ben Nevis, the mountain that just keeps on giving. And again it didn't disappoint. My heart initially sunk as from the hut you could see Coire na Ciste was pretty black. We headed up Observatory Gully jokingly hoping for a cold pocket hiding conditions. As we gained height we gradually ticked off option 1, 2 and 3 before being pleasantly surprised to find the wall above Echo Wall on the Upper East Flank of Tower Ridge have a light coating of whiteness. We opted for righthand of two prominent leftward slanting slabby groove lines (the lefthand one is the summer route Rolling Stones. Iain's initial pitch revealed a surprisingly and highly helpful coating of inch thick ice over all the ledges and slabs. The Ben was doing its magic once again.

Two highly enjoyable pitches, the first well protected, the second run out led steadily to a big snow ledge. From here we traversed left to a steep groove that had begged to be climbed from below. This proved to be significantly harder than anything below. It reminded me of an iced up Migrant Direct only steeper and bolder but luckily half the length. Never the less there was potential for a 40ft ledge fall from some hard insecure moves. The state of the ice will make a difference here but only whether the moves are 7 or 8. Committing to poor "pulling through snow ice" hooks less than an inch deep with my crampons on quarter inch verglas on the overhanging walls I remember thinking this wasn't a married mans pitch. I was also aware that my arms were luckily in good nick after all the recent training. A few screams were still needed to clear the final bulge. Excitedly I announced to Iain that this was my 9th new route on the Ben, he replied it was his 3rd this week! For me this route had been a real Faith Healer. What a mountain. The two Ians/Iains on the summit plateau The line of Faith Healer.

The crucial top groove marked

Faith Healer VIII,7 * 170m

An absorbing and delicate icy mixed climb based around the striking groove line just to the right of Rolling Stones. Culminating in a superb but savage sting in the tail. Ice on the ledges and slabs was found very useful on the first ascent, but the final corner will always be hard and serious. Avoiding this last pitch by taking easier alternatives to join Tower Ridge would give a worthwhile VI,7.

Follow the ledge of East Wall Route to a belay (insitu) below the start of the Echo Traverse Groove/Chimney.

1. 50m. Climb the groove/fault of Echo Traverse for a few metres before a delicate traverse left around a steep nose gains a prominent ramp which is followed leftwards for 30m. Move up to belay at a sideways pointing spike at the base of the big leftwards slanting corner.

2. 50m. Climb the corner to a large snow ledge.

3. 50m. Follow the snow ledge diagonally up left until below a steep corner on the left of a rock prow. Climb the first section of the corner for 10m on helpful turf to reach a ledge on the left. Follow this leftwards and step down a short corner to belay on insitu threads.

4. 20m. Step back right and climb the steep corner to reach the large snow ledge of The Eastern Traverse of Tower Ridge.

5. 150m+ Follow Tower Ridge to the summit.
First Ascent Iain Small, Ian Parnell 28 Jan 2010

More Magic

Heres a couple more pics from Pete Macpherson of our ascent of Hung Drawn and Quartered on Skye.Me leading pitch 2

...and 2 more seconding the third pitch.

Pete is definitely someone to watch at the moment, having had a great start to the season with Martin Moran ticking several grade VIIIs and numerous hard VIIs. He has some good pics of his climbing here http://www.macmountaineering.co.uk/acatalog/Winter_Conditions.html on the website of the family outdoor shop he runs in Inverness http://www.macmountaineering.co.uk/acatalog/index.html

Skye's the limit

Just got back from a weekend in Scotland. After driving through the night I arrived in Sheffield just before 7am and managed a full 10 minutes in bed before my daughter woke up. I could of course have sampled more of the excellent conditions in North Wales or the Lakes and had a full nights sleep, so was it worth all the hard work and suffering... Hell Yes!

After a fine day out on Saturday with Dave Macleod in Glen Coe I joined up with Pete Macpherson in search of the very elusive Skye winter conditions. A 2.30am alarm call was rewarded with this dawn over Bhastier Tooth. We set about attempting the second ascent of Nick Carter and Martin Moran's masterpiece Hung Drawn and Quartered (VIII,8) Pitch one warm up through the 20ft cave roof!Man of the moment - winter climbing machine Pete Macpherson
The art of extreme chimneying. The final of three grade 8 pitches. All in all an extraordinary route and an incredible day of pure Scottish winter magic.

The Ben and Southern Highlands Report 19-20 Dec 09

Got back at 2am this morning after a superb weekend in Scotland. Despite an intimidating forecast of blizzards and very high winds Malcolm Bass and I managed to get a couple of fine routes done. First was Sidewinder (VII,8) on the Ben which we luckily had got up early for after only 1 1/2 hours sleep. So the first two pitches (we climbed the summer start - highly recommended and more in keeping with the rest of the route) were climbed in calm weather. During the final corner the snow and winds got up and the spindrift started which was expected but still a little trying. It didn't take the gloss off an excellent well protected climb though.

On Sunday we were joined by Simon Yearsley, Malcolm's long time climbing partner, who has recently started a camper van hire business http://www.bigtreecampervans.com/ This was a novel bonus as we got a full nights sleep in warmth and comfort, tea and bacon for breakfast and the dubious pleasure of a bottle of Slovenian Death Juice. We opted to avoid the forecasted 60 mile an hour winds and lightning! with a visit to Beinn Dorain in the Southern Highlands. We climbed Messiah (VII,7), a great line and a truly mixed climb, lots of ice, frozen turf and snowed up rock. Highlights included the committing crux traverse on the first pitch, half our belay ripping out and one of my front points collapsing at the start of the third pitch.
Creag an Socach with the line of Messiah marked

Simon (with rather fine gaitors) linking turf blobs up the first pitch.
Myself on the final pitch
Simon and Malcolm appreciating the luxury of a post match brew in the van. The Slovenian Death Juice in the foreground isn't standard issue on all rental vehicles.

The weekend should have finished about 11pm Sunday night back home but snows, and lack of grit just north of Glasgow saw us lose 3 hours in traffic meltdown.

Migrant Direct

A couple of pics from last weeks ascent of Migrant Direct with Rich Cross.
Rich posts about his and Al Powell's adventures on their company site here http://alpine-guides-blog.com/2009/12/04/scottish-winter-season-arrives/

N Corries trip report 9-10th December

First trip up of the season and it didn't disappoint. Rich Cross and I arrived just before 5am after driving through the night. After a couple of hours kip we walked in to Coire an Lochain and were pleased to see how white everything looked.The view from the loch into Lochain on day two (Thursday 10th) with everything still as white.

With pretty much everything wintery enough it was more a question of which were too buried. We opted for Nocando Crack but after leading the first pitches it became obvious that the route would be a nightmare for gear as it was covered in several inches of ice. Instead we carried on up the overhanging corner of Migrant direct which proved to be superb.The line of Migrant direct (note Rich's cleaning efforts in the corner)

The following day we headed back up a little worried about the MWIS forecast which had the freezing level at 1250m. The reality was closer to the Met Office's projected 700m and if anything the cliffs were even whiter. We headed up Ventricle which turned out to be super sustained, luckily once again Rich was firing on all cylinders and did the bulk of the hard bits. I got the last pitch in the dark which had many "moments" including an off route lob when a block pulled and a particularly terrifying last move.

Rich feeling the steepness on Ventricle.
We got back to Sheffield at 4am, happy satisfied and very tired.