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/).

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

Ben and Glencoe winter report

I'd been planning a week in the Alps for my big winter holiday but they've had shed loads of snow and the faces were looking more like Patagonia than France. Interestingly the very conditions we crave for winter climbing in this country. With a very promising forecast I swapped Fort William for Chamonix and headed up with Andy Benson. Andy's particularly keen at the moment having had a superb trip a week earlier with Rich Cross (Sioux Wall, FWA Heidbanger and East Face Direct on Stob Coire). On the Saturday we were met with snow down to sea level (the pic shows Andy ankle deep at about 500m alt) and a 4 1/2 hour trail break up to the Ben, much enjoyed by every one who followedAndy approaching Trident buttress with the line of Devastation a summer E1 marked, which we think hadn't had a winter ascent yet.Andy on the steep start to the first pitch. Ther were 2 tough pitches but there was gear available at regular intervals although it involved a bit of digging and fiddling. As a result the route proved easier than expected probably VII,8 Sunday morning dawned a perfect winter day, blue skies and -6c. We headed up to the Raven Gully area on the Buchaille. Eventually opting for Ravens Edge, Rab Anderson's big VII,7.

This proved to be a superb and very sustained route which led us to climb the last pitch, a fairly savage offwidth, in the dark This pic shows Andy on the 3rd pitch, the open book corner with Slime wall and a plastered Guerdon Grooves behind him. As an aside we were able to check out Cubby's legendary route. Which lookeed very hard, insecure and bold especially without ice, although personally it didn't float my boat. The line which I'm sure was logical for the first ascent from afar looks very random and uninspiring, there are other unclimbed lines on that wall that do look superb however.

Ive got a couple more days up here and am thinking of heading up to the North West. For those thinking of coming up, temps have gone up a little, all snow so far has been unconsolidated powder, there is some ice, and exposed turf is frozen up high although most bigger clods were insulated by a blanket of snow and are pretty soggy. There's certainly fun to be had though.

Winter is coming part 1

It's about this time of year that climbers like myself develop a manic gleam in the eye, start fidgeting with ice axes and files, and dust off our SMC guides. Yes winter is on its way. In fact Ive heard that some have already got their first routes in. Unfortunately I won't be able to head up for at least another month or two but to help us all getting psyched here's a few pics. I'll make this a bit of a series this month to get us in the mood.
What a great climb Savage Slit V,6 in the Northern Corries is. It's popular to dismiss the area just because its popular with novices but it's one of my favourites with some of the best technical climbing about. This shot shows Jon Winter "having a meltdown" in heavily rimmed conditions.Andy Benson on Central Buttress VII,8 at Stob Coire Nan Lochan in Glen Coe. Again a fantastic collection of technical test-pieces across the grades. Really hoping to head back here a few times this season. We did this particular route with Garth's direct start called Starting Blocks which made a particularly sustained route defining the upper limits of grade VII.
What could be better? The end of another stellar day on the Ben. Fingers crossed we'll have lots like this, this winter.