Spidean a'Choire Leith (George)

Date:

12.02.2013

Characteristic:

Alpine climbing

Duration:

8:00h

Distance:

8.0km

© Hannah Vickers Third day of our climbing course up in the northwest highlands, and also supposedly the final day of settled, beautiful weather before rain was going to set in. So to make the most of this, and the excellent snow and ice conditions we'd experienced so far, it was decided that we would head towards Torridon and attempt one of the 'classic' routes called George, which is located in Coire Dubh Mor on the northern side of Liathach. Since the route was 4-5 pitches long and the drive from Strathcarron would take around 45 minutes it also meant having to drag ourselves out of bed for another early start. But it would probably be worth the effort as the previous two days' trips had proved! So at 7am we were out of the cottage and bundled once again into Ken's van. It felt pretty mild outside, still >>>

Sgorr Ruadh (Post Box Gully)

Date:

11.02.2013

Characteristic:

Alpine trip

Distance:

14.0km

© Hannah Vickers After out first day out climbing Access Gully on Fuar Tholl, we had a small discussion about whether to go somewhere with a long walk-in, or a shorter walk-in for our second day of climbing. As things turned out we ended up heading for Sgorr Ruadh which was the longer walk-in option. I was secretly happy about that. The mountain itself was located in the same valley as Fuar Tholl, but slightly more to the north-west. To get to Post Box Gully, which was on the north side of the mountain, we first had to walk 6 to 7km from Achnashellach along the river Lair, with Beinn Liath Mor to our right and Sgorr Ruadh to our left. It was not too taxing, rising gradually from Achnashellach. On the other hand, with all our climbing equipment loaded onto our backs it was no walk in the park either, especially >>>

Fuar Tholl (Access Gully)

Date:

10.02.2013

Characteristic:

Alpine trip

© Hannah Vickers Today’s objective (today being the first day of a 5-day winter climbing course) was an ascent of Fuar Tholl via Access Gully. Fuar Tholl is one of the mountains more local to Strathcarron, where we were staying and only about 5 minutes drive down the road. On the course with me were 2 other guys, Ryan and Alex and our instructor Ken who I will best remember as being cheerful and enthusiastic with a natural walking pace which seemed to match his enthusiasm for instructing. We had what was deemed to be a ‘late’ start by leaving the lodge at 8.00. If that was supposed to be late, I expected the rest of the week to be a struggle……. Nevertheless, everyone managed to be ready with the kit sorted out on time, and we were soon heading swiftly up the lower south-eastern slopes of the mountain >>>

Resurrection (III,V)

Date:

29.01.2012

Characteristic:

Alpine climbing

Duration:

10:00h

© Hannah Vickers We woke up to a clear sky in Strathcarron and with an early start we left the cottage at 7am and drove north to the Fannaichs, a nice little bundle of munros north of Torridon/south of Ullapool. It wasn't all that cold outside, but after disembarking from the van it felt very chilly with the wind blowing once again. We began the walk-in from somewhere on the A835 and headed straight out in a more or less southwesterly direction towards the coire, passing Loch a' Mhadaidh on the way. It was roughly 7 or 8 km just to reach the foot of the climb, and with all our climbing gear weighing down the rucksacks, it made for quite a lengthy day out ahead of us (and hence the early start)! Sadly too, by the time we reached it, we'd been abandoned by the sun and it was windy enough to have both Debbie and >>>

Right End Buttress (III)

Date:

28.01.2012

Characteristic:

Mixed climbing

© Hannah Vickers We (Debbie Spencer and myself) climbed a mixed route called Right End Buttress on Fuar Tholl with Martin Moran during a weekend of instructed climbing.It wasn't a particularly dry day and for the most of it we were in low cloud and damp air; the walk up from the valley and into the coire itself was a bit wet underfoot, and very mild. But it wasn't properly raining, which was a positive thing! We climbed as two teams of 3, with Ewen leading the guys; it was a beautiful route with some elegant moves and I thoroughly enjoyed the problems. Overall I think it added up to 4 pitches (?) in length, the hardest of which were contained within pitches 1 and 2. There are opportunities for harder variations of the route (which we of course found ourselves climbing since it was Martin leading!) The summit >>>

Forcan Ridge

Date:

17.04.2011

Five Sisters of Kintail

Date:

16.04.2011

Did this route with James Yip and Andy Laing on a rather dull and damp day after coming back from Svalbard. Still, I'd had a good night's sleep at the Ratagan youth hostel compared with the other alternative of camping in the rain, so it wasn't all a bad start! The route has a reputation for being a really fantastic high level ridge walk with great views and an airy feel about it, but I don't think we really got to appreciate it's finest moments with the weather we had. Only after we'd left Sgurr Fhuaran and were well on the way to Sgurr na Carnach did it start to brighten up a little - enough to actually see the loch at the eastern end! But by no means sunny. It was overcast but not quite as misty, and the descent down the steep and wet grassy slopes into Glen Lichd wasn't that pleasant either >>>

Glovers Chimney (III)

Date:

12.12.2010

Characteristic:

Ice climbing

© Hannah Vickers Some old pictures from a really good route. Fantastic ice at the first pitch, followed by good quality neve in the main gully. Didn't bother belaying too much there and moved together on a long rope for a lot of the time since the conditions were so good. Last pitch up into Tower Gap was fun, but finished in the dark, the rock on both sides of the gully was completely glazed in ice but surprisingly OK for finding ice axe placements. Continued up Tower Ridge to reach the summit plateau before descending. This trip will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

Broken Fingers (III) and Red Gully (II)

Date:

22.03.2010

James' boss had quite kindly let him borrow the chalet just outside Aviemore for a few nights, and so we had only a short drive to get up to the ski car park where we took the short walk into Coire an t-Sneachda. It was a pretty quiet day, windy on the tops as always but not too many other climbers on the routes. Fortunate for us really! James had done Fingers Ridge (IV) not too long ago so we decided on a variation of Broken Gully and Fingers Ridge, otherwise known as Broken Fingers. Snow cover was a bit lean after leaving the gully, but it was a fantastic route nonetheless. Some nice delicate moves to work on and we found ourselves topping out in almost no time. After a descent back into the coire, we went up Red Gully. James lead the first pitch, I did the second and then we almost moved >>>

Gardyloo Gully (II)

Date:

20.03.2010