Lochaber – Winter 2013

Ben Nevis & Carn Mor Dearg

This year’s extended winter may have put spring very much on hold, but the persistent high pressure and lack of frontal weather has produced some stunning conditions in the Scottish mountains.   I was lucky to experience these at first hand last week with Paresh who enjoyed his first time in our winter mountains in conditions far removed from his native Mumbai!

Challenging Conditions on Aonach Mor

We took the Nevis Range gondola and chairlift to 920m, well above the snowline, in order to maximise our time in the white stuff.  The temperatures up here – as for much of the northern UK – have been sub-zero for weeks now and the ground is well frozen.  Crampons (or skis!) were required immediately as was all the thermal and windproof clothing we had with us to ward off the biting easterly wind. 

Ice Cliffs on Aonach Mor

The summit plateau of Aonach Mor was in cloud which greatly facilitated Paresh’s first attempt at mountain navigation.  This he executed with great aplomb, utilising his newly-gained map-reading, compass bearing and pacing skills to locate what few navigation features there are up there to help locate the diminutive summit cairn of Aonach Mor (1221m; little ridge).

Aonach Mor

He then used map, compass and timing to find the narrow neck of ground that leads to the summit pyramid of Aonach Beag (1234m; big ridge).  Still in cloud, this mountain’s summit cairn is always buried under deep snow in winter and you just keep walking up until the ground starts to descend in order to claim the summit!

The Mamores From Aonach Beag

At this point, however, all the cloud was swept away revealing miles of expansive winter mountain landscape that simply took your breath away.  Thirty two photographs later (you can’t take too many), we retraced our steps back down to the neck and across Aonach Mor, now bereft of most of the hardy skiers we had shared the mountain with earlier in the day. 

The Grey Corries From Aonach Beag

Some stunning views across the Great Glen accompanied our descent to the gondola station with Paresh bravely nursing aching limbs to arrive just 10 mins before the last gondola.  The prospect of walking down the mountain was just too traumatic to contemplate!

The Loch Lochy Hills 

The next day, we wandered up Glen Nevis to see the impressive spectacle of Steall waterfall only to find it surprisingly silent and cloaked in ice - as most things are up here just now!  Still, it was a pleasant day to round off one of the most memorable visits to this part of the world – an early contender for highlight of the year.  

A Frozen Steall Waterfall; Glen Nevis

Check out my plans for the coming season at: http://www.hillways.co.uk/summer/summer.htm

The Cairngorms in Winter – II

I’m just back from a wild and wintery couple of days in the Cairngorms with Roger and Erik who were looking for some winter experience before tackling Mont Blanc later this year!  Two days of snow, sub-zero temperatures and a biting wind should certainly have provided that for them and I don’t think they felt short-changed in what the Scottish winter mountains threw at them!

Day 1 saw us circling Coire Cas from the ski car park, up to Spot Height 1141, then on to Cairn Gorm and down Sròn an Aonaich (thanks Erik for the most agreeable hot chocolate at the Ptarmigan)!  There was enough new snow since my last visit a fortnight ago to make progress tiring.  There were near white-out conditions on top of Cairn Gorm (1245m) where I managed to get the only photo of the whole weekend!

Day 2 was even more challenging.  We left the ski car park and headed SW to climb the westernmost encircling ridge of Coire an Lochain (Miadan Creag an Leth-choin).  We entered cloud at about 800m and from then on it was either near, or total, white-out conditions for the remainder of the day.  Keeping to the ridges to avoid the windslab-loaded slopes, we stumbled upon the summit of Cairn Lochan (1215m) before clawing our way eastwards along the summit plateau over Stob Coire an t-Sneachda (1176m) and Spot Height 1141 before descending back to the car.

It was not a day for the faint-hearted, but it did demonstrate just how challenging and inhospitable the mountains can be in winter.  The avalanche risk over the weekend was Considerable (3) with a lot of weakly-bonded windslab overlying previous snow.  If nothing else, the guys witnessed at first hand just how much the avalanche risk needs to influence where you go and what you do.  The information provided by the Scottish Avalanche Information Service (www.sais.gov.uk ) is invaluable in this regard and you ignore it at your peril.  Thanks again to them for the continuing great service!

I would love to have shown you some more photos from the trip but you’d have got bored with all the whiteness! 

Check out my plans for the coming season at: http://www.hillways.co.uk/summer/summer.htm

The Cairngorms in Winter – I

Coire an t-Sneachda

The new season has started with a welcome return to the Cairngorms with Natsuyo from Japan and Andy from a little closer!  Sustained low temperatures and generally settled weather have consolidated the snowpack and maintained a reasonable amount of snow for early March.  We weren’t out to break any records; it was just a gentle introduction to winter mountaineering for Natsuyo and an opportunity for Andy to get the old boots out and get back to the hills!

Day 1

The Kincardine Hills

By way of easing gently into things, we opted for a traverse of the Kincardine Hills – that shapely heathery ridge above Glenmore that always come in useful as an alternative to the high tops in poor weather.  We started from Glenmore, wandered leisurely through the forest past An Lochan Uaine (the little green lochan) and up to Ryvoan bothy.  The new(ish) path up the hill from the bothy makes for a very straightforward climb and it’s less than an hour to the large stone cairn atop Meall a’Bhuachaille (810m; hill of the shepherd).

Meall a’Bhuachaille

It was cool and breezy on top and the atmosphere was fairly hazy – and not from heat either!  So no great views today.  We continued our traverse over Creagan Gorm (732m), the unnamed double top (711m) and finally, Craiggowrie (687m).  Natsuyo’s camera battery ran out of power half way through the day – no laughing matter if you’re Japanese, I can tell you!  In the event, it wasn’t a great day for photos or hill-top picnics and we didn’t linger long anywhere.  There were very few other souls about and we were soon heading down through the pine trees towards Milton Cottage and the waiting car on the Coylumbridge road.  We would try something harder tomorrow…

Meall a’Bhuachaille & Creagan Gorm

Day 2

We awoke to clear skies and bright sunshine so headed up the ski road to the Day Lodge & Funicular car park at 630m.  Quite a few dedicated skiers were enduring the challenge that is Scottish skiing and winter skills groups seemed to be everywhere, heading off to practise their belays and ice axe skills and maybe building the odd snow shelter. 

Coire Cas

We kept to the access track initially but left it soon after passing under the funicular and struck up across the open hillside on the western flank of Coire Cas.  Very low temperatures had produced an icy snowpack so we donned crampons almost immediately and they didn’t come off until nearly back at the car!

Approaching Spot Height 1141 (Natsuyo loving the crampons...)!

We moved up the well-defined ridge of Fiacaill a’ Choire Chais to its termination at Spot Height 1141 – a top very reminiscent of the Silberhorn above Interlaken in the Bernese Oberland.  Arriving here opened up impressive views across Coire an t-Sneachda and the Cairngorm plateau.  Cairn Gorm itself lay conveniently close.

Orographic Cloud Over the Cairngorm Plateau

Natsuyo was moving effortlessly in her crampons (my words, not hers!) and we quickly traversed across and then up to the ice-caked automatic weather station and summit cairn of the UK’s 6^th highest mountain, Cairn Gorm (1245m; blue mountain).  Unsurprisingly, there were more people up here enjoying the intermittent views as thin cloud washed across the summit taking the sun away for the first time that day.

Approaching Cairn Gorm Summit

We descended almost reluctantly, but quickly, past the colourful crowds thronging around the Ptarmigan restaurant area.  We took the well-constructed path that leads down between the ski runs and along Sròn an Aonaich and back to the car park.  A most agreeable day.

Cairn Gorm & Coire Cas

Day 3

The Fiacaill Buttress

Our last day saw the same cool and clear conditions prevailing, but with no blue sky or sun to enhance the occasion.  We returned to the ski car park and traversed around and up into Coire an t-Sneachda.  Again, the slopes were covered in numerous winter mountaineering groups up from Glenmore Lodge, and other places no doubt, and the occasional ski tourer.  We heard, and then saw, some ptarmigan and I managed to get reasonably close for a clear photo of their winter plumage.

Mr & Mrs Ptarmigan in Winter Plumage

On reaching the heart of the coire, we spent some time admiring the surrounding ice-girt cliffs and a couple of intrepid ice climbing parties before climbing out to the east and returning once again to Spot Height 1141.  From what was now quite a cool and breezy summit, we reversed the previous day’s climb and descended through the ski runs and back to the car park.

 The Cliffs of Stob Coire an t-Sneachda

All in all, this was a most enjoyable start to the season and it was good to be back in the hills with nice people doing what I do.  I’ll be returning to the Cairngorms next weekend for some winter skills and, as fresh snow is falling up there as I write, I can’t wait! 

   

Check out my plans for the coming season at: http://www.hillways.co.uk/summer/summer.htm