Not many out on the Ben today, few on Ledge route and down around the Douglas Boulder and Carn Dearg Cascades.  There were some pockets of slab about, notably there was a layer of dry powder between the slab and old snow below creating a very unstable combination.  That said, we went into Coire Ciste and climbed Green Gully and were able to complete the whole day without leaving good well frozen hard snow.  Green Gully itself was thin but good for the first pitch and after that was in great condition with good ice and well frozen snow all the way, all 3 exits looked good, we finished up the left on good ice.  Exit slopes were fine.  We descended the Redburn which was fast with snow all the way but had some pockets of slab to watch out for.  No.4 Gully had been used in descent today and looked OK, can’t say for sure though as we didn’t use it…  No.3 Gully Buttress looked good also and looked to have been climbed probably yesterday.

So it seems a lot of routes have been blown clean of powder and are fine but no doubt there will be pockets of significant wind-slab about to watch out for.

Still great conditions on the Ben, ice is starting to form again in places and the mixed routes are still well frozen and white.  No.3 Gully buttress looked great but even mixed routes down on the Douglas Boulder were still in good condition.  More wind today has formed reasonable wind slab in places and there was a lot of snow moving about the mountain, teams were up and down No.4 Gully and Ledge route but it may change over night as the wind is set to continue…

Richard was keen for another days mixed action to build on the previous days routes and to do some more technique coaching so we headed for Cutlass VI / 7 *.  This was a brilliant route with 3 contrasting pitches before joining the SW ridge and I’d think worth more than 1 star?!  After that we looked over setting up abseils for retreat and using pegs etc before heading for home.  Another great day out.

Another great day of conditions on the West.  A little cloud about today and after a clear start we ended up loosing the views with a little very light snow on Aonach Mor East face.  We abbed down Easy Gully which was fine with a fair bit of loose snow but nothing too serious.  We broke trail over to the Prow area also which was all good.  The crag was in great condition for mixed climbing looking white and with bomber turf.  There was also some good looking ice on Nausea and in that area.

I was out with Richard again today who I’m with for 5 days on a climbing ‘Improvers’ Course which he’s taken to well.  He was keen to try something a little harder than yesterday so we went for Stirling Bridge VI / 7 ***.  This again was a great mixed route with some great climbing for Richard to experiment on and play around with axe torques and various mixed climbing technique.  The top out gave a bit of cornice related excitement but actually wasn’t as bad as it looked from below, however many of the other routes in the area had large steep cornices at their tops.  Others were out on various routes to the right of Easy gully in the Twins area and were using an abb approach from the posts above.

Great mixed climbing conditions and perfect weather today in Lochan.  Most mixed route were in good condition looking white and well frozen.  The new snow is still dry and powdery and the routes required a fair bit of clearing.  Broad Gully was used as a descent and seemed to be safe enough.

Scrabble received an ascent which looked great and fairly exciting, great lead by Adam Hughes on the 1st pitch.

I was out with Richard again today who was keen to try a harder mixed route to get a feel for what steeper mixed is all about so we did Crest Route V/6 which was great and gave Richard the chance to experiment a bit with climbing leash-less and movement on steeper ground.

Yesterday we went over to the east to Sneachda.  There was very little humidity in the east and the snow condition was much better despite the high temperatures.  Whilst the snow was good for ‘skills’ courses etc there were only a few easy climbs looking complete.  The Runnel, Jacob’s Ladder and Aladdin’s Couloir were all OK and complete.  A few other routes may have been possible but were thin.

We decided to have a look at some leading yesterday looking at placing gear and making belays etc.  We climbed the Runnel which was good with a couple of icy mixed sections.

On returning to the west last night the drizzle had become much heavier rain and it was about 9 degrees at sea level so its hard to know how this will have effected the remaining ice up on the Ben.

The thaw that has set in across Scotland has stripped a lot of snow from the hills.  The West has been damper than the East meaning the snow conditions are better over East, however there are only limited steeper routes possible, its mainly the easy gullies.  Apart from some snow cover most of the regular West coast venues are very thin on ice and the rock is damp and black.  The main exception to this is on the Ben, the Observatory Gully ice routes in particular are holding out.  I am currently working on the West and today we climbed Tower Scoop and Tower Gully with a descent down No.4.  Various routes (that I could see through the clag) still looked complete.  Smiths Route, Tower Scoop, Tower Cascades right and left, and possibly Indicator Wall (or something near it) were all complete.  There is still ice in Point 5 and on Hadrians Wall, but there were also large holes/thin sections.  In the Ciste there didn’t seem to be as much, left Central is complete, North Gully and possibly Green Gully also (?).  There is most likely other routes looking OK also but the visibility was poor so I’m not sure.  All  the routes will need a freeze to make them safe really, there was a lot of water running and it was very humid today.  Tower Scoop had good ice and was just passable without feeling too unstable, but I’d guess that most of the other routes I saw would be too wet/unstable currently to climb.  Looks as though a freeze might be a bit off yet so hopefully some of this will survive…

Tower Ridge and Ledge Route looked to still be holding reasonable snow cover also.

After a soggy start to the week a lot of the easier snow and ice routes have come in to fairly good condition. The snow that had been very wet is now frozen hard and any ice that survived has now got better.  I was up at  Blea Water yesterday and there was some climbable ice about but the main Gill only had some overnight ice on it, it might be better by tomorrow though.

Elsewhere Great End is in good condition, there is some good ice to climb and the snow is well frozen with a frosting at the top of the crag.  Central Left variation is reported as being good.  With the turf getting better again there may be a chance of some good mixed tomorrow as well with the crags starting to frost up a bit.  Tomorrow will be the day to be out with a great forecast, after that things will change fairly dramatically for a spell of warmer wetter weather.

‘1984’ is an E5 6b summer route on Flat Crags and climbs the huge bottomless groove that is situated on the eastern corner of the crag.

With many visits to Bowfell and Flat Crags I often walked under this route and always tried to imagine how it would go in winter, it was obvious that the entry to the hanging groove was going to be hard but the eye catching groove itself always looked like it would provide great winter climbing in an amazing position.  So taking the detour up to the base of Flat Crags a couple of times and looking up the pitch it clearly had cracks and slots that would provide potentially good, and very steep winter climbing, so I decided to give it a try…

This was a few years ago and it wasn’t until the following year that I was able to get up with Steve to have a look.  Many many visits were made with this route as a possibility but ended with climbing on Bowfell and North Buttress as Flat Crags were not in condition.  Having walked past the crag many times, usually in winter when conditions were good, we knew that whilst the top corner is often snowed up or frosted, the steep sheltered roof section and below doesn’t often look white or iced…  So when we arrived to find the crag white and the overhanging wall beneath frosted I decided to give it a go.  This attempt failed as I ran out of steam and couldn’t get through the steep crux moves which involved high heel hooking and pulling up on a couple of very thin hooks whilst carrying a large winter rack.  I lowered off a nut and retrieved the gear.  Last season, despite a lot of watching I failed to find the crag in condition, it was not the best winter for the Lakes generally and many of the reliable venues were in condition much less than normal.

So over the last week the Lakes has seen some good conditions developing, the combination of good freezes, unsettled snowy windy days, and then settled cold days, there was a chance that Flat Crags would be snowed up and the turf would almost certainly be bomber in the upper groove.  So a visit with Tom earlier in the week was rewarded with a plastered crag, with ice hanging below the overhang and snow blown around the route.  I decided to get on and have another go, eventually managing to get over the crux section and start into what I’d later find was the last hard moves to gain the upper corner I heard the clanking of a falling tool, the hook I’d stored the tool in was blind and the rope must have rubbed past the tool and knocked it out, unable to get stable I lowered off.  The effort required at the crux and time meant another go was probably not going to happen.

So yesterday, having had another windy snowy day Thursday and knowing the turf was still good up high, and with the added pressure of a stripping thaw forecast, me Brian and Tom went back up.  At this stage the ‘on-sight’ was obviously gone but I was looking for a clean ‘ground-up’ ascent.  So arriving at the crag it was obvious that the crag was plastered but we couldn’t see the overhanging wall start without detouring to the crag, so going up around the corner we saw that the ice at the grooves bottom and icicle was still there, there was more fresh snow blown around the lower part of the route and now was also ice in the cracks to clear.  So happy with the condition of the lower section of the route I gave it another go.  Repelled with some sequence confusion on the crux which I new from before and then the pump setting in I returned to the deck, rested, and started again…  This time I got through the crux, gained the upper corner still with both axes, and climbed the brilliant upper corner to the belay.  The pitch was seconded and cleaned with initially some aid to gain the corner.  On the belay with a short exit pitch to gain snow to the Great Slab it was clear the thaw was arriving, the day had changed and things were starting to drip.  We topped out up the upper pitch at about IV and returned around to the crags base, by this stage the lower part had stripped bar some ice and the rest of the crag, and other crags in the area were stripping fast.  It was great to get this climbed and the climbing quality, hooks, and nature of the route gives a brilliant winter route with 2 contrasting sections.  I am not really too sure about the grade but would suggest IX/9 possibly… The on-sight is there for the taking, but the bigger challenge could well be finding the route in acceptable condition…

 The bulging upper corner yesterday

1984, Flat Crags.  IX/9 ***

Pitch 1 – 26m  9  Climb the overhanging crack through the footless bulge (crux) to below a capping roof.  Move right with some awkward moves around in to the groove, great climbing leads to the belay at some stacked blocks.  A brilliant technical and strenuous pitch with generally good hooks needing an inventive approach.  

Pitch 2 – 20m  4  Climb the groove behind the blocks being careful not to trust the blocks too much (!) and finish up snowy ramps to the top.  If you don’t like the look of the blocks there would be some other Pitch 2 options left and right of the belay…



Generally the thaw will likely have stripped most steep routes, there was some drizzle coming in later which will speed up the strip.  If the turf doesn’t thaw too much and we get another good freeze then we could get some brilliant conditions coming in, perhaps not for steeper routes at first but the saturated snow will freeze hard and some ice could survive and hopefully get better.  Gully routes, for example the Great End gullies, could be worth watching when the temperatures drop again.