Raeburn's, Lochan

Today Syam wanted to climb a nice route while learning about building belays and
placing runners. We headed up to the Lochan in Glen Coe climbing Raeburn's route(IV). This offers lots of good rock belays and protection, so plenty of opportunity to practice. The route itself was in good condition with the rocks looking white and plenty of useful neve on the ledges. In all it wasn't a bad day with shelter on the route and the occasional view as the clouds swirled in and out.

Other groups were on the Twisting routes, Dorsal and Boomerang.

Hadrians - a little bit fatter

Today I was working with Syam who was up for the weekend. With a good day in store he was keen for Point 5 action but unfortunately so were numerous other parties. Instead we opted for a much quieter Hadrians Direct. A little bit more ice on the first pitch than the other day, it again offered great climbing.

By the afternoon the skies cleared and later an inversion to the south. There was a slight dusting of new snow around, but otherwise similar conditions to the last two days.

Pinnacle Buttress Direct

Chris and I went back up to the Ben today, keen to swing our axes at more bomber neve. After speaking to Mike yesterday about nice ice on the route we decided to head up to climb Pinnacle Buttress Direct which offers continual interest with a variety of icy bulges up to the Great Tower.

With a bit of time spare we then nipped back down and into Glovers to ascend a The Gutter which also offered a fun pitch and a half before snow slopes returned us back onto Tower Ridge.

Various other teams on Green and Comb Gully at the back of the Ciste. Little bit cloudy today, so the view was limited.

Hadrians, Ben Nevis

Up in Scotland now for work and play. I see i haven't blogged for a while - too many other things getting in the way. I have been out though with a trip to NW Scotland over New Year and kayaking in Wales when the rain fell (unfortunately washing away all the snow too).

Anyway today I headed up onto the Ben with Chris to revel in the frozen snow. We decided to climb a well formed Hadrians which offered good ice. We also added some variation pitches higher up to avoid the steep snow slopes - they seemed like hard work!

Blue skies, no wind, freezing below the CIC hut made for a relaxed and pleasurable day.