Ben Nevis 16th April

Had a good day with John and Scott on Hadrian's Direct. A long day out but well worth the effort. Watching John deal with the hot aches after the first pitch was probably the highlight of the day, after lots of moans, screams, swearing and calling out for his Mam! he then decided to be sick on the very small stance I had kicked out for me and Scott, dirty bastard!

Weather has crapped out for now. See what the start of May has to bring.

Helvellyn 24th March

Did 3 routes on Red Tarn today. V Corner, Wall and Ramp then finished off with Gully 1. All in good condition, V Corner only deserves a II today due to the banked out ice and neve. I counted at least 10 teams out today.

Ben Nevis 19th March

The weather on the Ben this morning was stunning, no wind, blue sky, and it was baltic.
Nathan had forgot to pack a rope, so with only one we decided Thompson's route was a good option. The approach up to No3 buttress is pretty easy with the amount of snow and neve.
But on our way back down Nathan got more than he bargained for, loosing control with a bum slide down No4, he must have covered over 200m in about 3 seconds till he bailed out...
Great day out.

Skiddaw 13th March

Had a stroll up Skiddaw today. Pretty wintery on top with a savage cold wind blowing. Got back to the Car just before heavy snow / rain started.

Ben Nevis 20th Feb

Scott and I blasted up to the CIC in 1hr 40mins, with the new path making it a much more enjoyable journey. The CIC was ram packed with folk getting ready for the day, so we headed up to Smith's Route V,5 Poor visibility and frequent snow showers was the order of the day. Oh and hot aches for us both, but Scott suffered the most.
The Icicle variation was missing so we climbed the original finish which was in good steep condition if a little brittle. Fantastic route and well worth it's 4****

No3 looked a bit iffy so we descended No4 and made the VERY long and steep approach up to The Cascade IV,5 This also was a great route and we finished it off with 3 pitches of Raeburn's Easy Route.

Top day out.

Pics to follow.

Cogne 3rd - 10th Feb

Fantastic weather in Cogne, with the lowest over night temp of -14.5 ºC and nice sunny days. The Climbing was excellent, but any Cascades in the Sun were starting to suffer...
We Spent one day at La Thuile and another at Courmayeur Skiing and Snowboarding.

Great week.

Great End 22nd Jan

The well frozen ground soon started to thaw on my way up to Great End today, +2ºC at the base of the Crag. I had no intention to climb anything today, just breaking in a new pair of boots, but I headed up Custs Gully for a nose about. Not much in Nic at the moment apart from some of the harder routes. The First Cut is the Deepest V7 would have been doable, although there was a lot of ice in the cracks to, so it would have been time consuming placing gear.