Spidean a'Choire Leith (George) (12.02.2013)
Written by hmsv1 (Hannah Vickers)
| Start point | Loch an Iasgair car park |
|---|---|
| Endpoint | Bridge ca. 2km west of start point |
| Characteristic | Alpine climbing |
| Duration | 8h 00min |
| Distance | 8.0km |
| Map |
|
| Ascents | Liathach - Spidean a'Choire Leith (1,055m) | 12.02.2013 |
|---|
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 a few degrees above freezing and no wind. Suited me perfectly. Ryan and Alex still seemed half-asleep in the back of the vehicle, so it was a pretty quiet journey up to the parking space by Lochan an Iasgair.
It was quite exciting to see the eastern end of Liathach - Stuc a'Choire Dhuibh Bhig rear itself up in front of us as we drove through the valley though. Last time I had visited this mountain in 2010 we had had torrential rain on the journey there and thus not seen a thing. Today looked set to be perfect again.
From the roadside we were treated to a very well constructed path to complete the 4km walk to the foot of the coire along the Allt a'Choire Dhuibh Mhoir. We made pretty good time I think, even passing two mountain guides on our way who were enjoying a more leisurely pace than that we seemed to be going at! The walk up into Coire Dubh Mor was no more difficult though even though it was no longer on a path; the snow was solid and easy work to gain the height into the heart of the coire and arrive at the base of the route. It was pretty impressive to approach; Ken pointed out a couple of the harder and well-known routes such as Poachers Fall and Salmon Leap which were a little bit to the east of George but were apparently in good condition.
Although I must admit that to me it just looked like a large collection of impressive ice falls, I couldn't really distinguish one route from another! Fortunately, with such a speedy march in to the coire, we found ourselves alone at the base of the route - which I think was a relief to us all. It meant we could afford to spend a little extra time on the route itself and practice leading. We geared up before the gradient in the bottom of the gully steepened up appreciably, and set up a belay quite early on in the route while we were still on relatively easy ground. Ryan volunteered to take the first pitch, followed by Alex on the second.
On both pitches there were good opportunities to place gear, and the snow was perfectly hard - quality neve was a joy to crampon up and easy to sink the axes into! I took the third pitch, which I had hoped would be a little more challenging but although it was steeper than the previous two, I did think it was a bit disappointing. At no point was it really that necessary to give the axes a decent amount of swing. I was beginning to wonder what it was about this route which gave it so many stars in the guidebook. So far it was just as easy as grade II Post Box gully we climbed the day before.
After belaying Ryan and Alex to bring them up to the stance, Ken took the lead for the final two pitches of George. They proved the most enjoyable in my opinion. Well, I guess the best really was saved until last in this case! Immediately out of the belay was a fairly steep pull up quite a narrow channel on solid ice. It brought us up to the entrance of the legendary tunnel we would have had to squeeze through if it hadn't been banked up with snow. But since it was blocked, the route took a slightly steeper diversion up the right hand wall of ice to get to the next belay stance which would perhaps have been more fun if we hadn't been three climbing at the same time. It was inevitably more awkward to move together and climbing that pitch felt a little discontinuous when we had to wait for one of the others to stop and take out gear. But at least it felt like we were finally doing some proper ice climbing. More fun and games followed on the final pitch, with the crux moves straight out of the belay. There was a short section of mixed climbing to get over a small roof, which in fact took me probably at least 5 or 10 minutes to figure out. It wasn't very difficult but definitely required some problem solving to decide on the best axe placements and footholds.
But that was what I enjoyed most - it wasn't straightforward and at last I realized why the route was highly rated. Ryan managed the moves pretty well but Alex struggled a bit with the less-technical axes he was using. I think it makes a difference to how straightforward the technical moves actually feel if you have a good pair of axes to use. Eventually we topped out in beautiful sparkling sunshine with fantastic views in all directions.
Some panoramas
I don't think it could have felt any more alpine than the conditions we had there and then. What a fantastic day! A 10-minute walk to the east took us up to the summit of Spidean a'Choire Leith where we spent a good 10 or 15 minutes soaking up the atmosphere, views and sun. Such a good feeling - and I had always dreamed of being out on Liathach on a day like this, so that moment had finally come true!
A beautful ridge crest led us down to the col between Spidean a'Choire Leith and the next munro top to the east, and from here a steep run down perfect, crisp snow gave us a fast descent back towards the valley bottom. Only from about halfway down was the snow cover a little more patchy and rocks started to get in the way again so we took of crampons and the rest of the climbing gear here before joining a nice path shortly afterwards.
From where we picked up the path it was only perhaps another half an hour at a leisurely pace before we hit the road again, finishing off a brilliant day in what seemed more like late autumnal sunshine. Ken had already gone on ahead of us, hitched a lift back to the van and driven back along the road with the plan to meet us at the bridge. It was immaculately timed as he pulled up just as we ended up at the roadside!
User comments
What a set
Written by mortenh 25.02.2013 20:22of incredible nice pictures. Appearantly it's possible to enjoy som really good winter alpinism in Scotland as well!
Thanks for sharing!
Re: What a set
Written by hmsv1 26.02.2013 19:10yes, winter climbing in Scotland can be a surprisingly super experience! (it can also have absolutely awful weather and snow conditions, so don't become disillusioned from the pictures)