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Ben Nevis, Castle Ridge 22-01-14

Another great day today, we did Castle Ridge on Ben Nevis which was in great condition all the way and escaped the weather higher up. A slight thaw later got everything fairly damp and made the descent awkward with a layer of wet snow balling the crampons up.

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Curved Ridge and Crowberry Tower, Buachaille 21-01-14

Great day on Curved Ridge today… Plenty of wind and snow above 500m, some accumulation in Coire na-tuillach but still OK.  Shelf Route was also climbed today.  Good hard snow and winter condition throughout on Curved Ridge.  We took a short diversion onto the Crowberry Tower also.

Definitely winter today and looking colder tomorrow and a bit more settled.


 Crux of Curved Ridge
 Gaining the Crowberry Tower
 Rannoch Wall behind
Snow bollard practice into Coire na-tuillach

SCNL 20-01-14 Mountaineering Course

We had a great day 1 to a 5 day winter mountaineering course today in Lochan, perfect snow and weather for it.

Looked over snow bollards, bucket seats, buried axe and simple pitches..

Many routes looked good despite the freeze line being around the summit.  Scabbard, Dorsal, Twisting, SC and Central Buttress Ordinary route all climbed..  The Unicorn looked white if anyone’s been waiting for that and other steeper routes in that area in particular.

Colder tomorrow which should help improve conditions a bit as well.

 Abb from Bollard

 Dorsal Arete etc..
Central Buttress Area

Ben Nevis, Ledge Route 09-01-14

Great day on the Ben today, freeze line was down last night so damp snow was generally solid. Lots of snow cover, we did Ledge Route looking at some mountaineering rope-work. Teams on various routes, Green Gully I think, some routes on the Douglas Boulder climbed, Tower Ridge etc. Loads to go at if the freeze line stays down, harder mixed routes looking good as well…


 Douglas Boulder
 No.5 Gully debris!
 The Comb, notice big crown wall down and right…
Ledge Route

SCNL 08-01-14

Big depth of snow in Lochan today, all needs good freeze then many routes will be good fairly quickly… We did Dorsal Arete which was good, Scabbard Chimney climbed also today.  One team bailed off Central Ordinary Route perhaps due to unfrozen turf…  No one else in the Corrie today.

Looks a bit colder tomorrow and weekend so could be worth a look?!

Island Peak and Ama Dablam, Nepal

I have recently returned from a great work trip to Nepal expedition leading for www.adventurepeaks.com.  We flew into Kathmandu and then travelled up the Khumbu valley to climb Island Peak (6189m) and then on to Ama Dablam (6856m).  Island Peak gave a great climb as did Ama Dablam, however due to some very heavy late snow fall we couldn’t summit Ama Dablam, we had a relatively short time slot and the fixing of ropes and finding good snow anchors was the issue.  None the less we had a great trip and enjoyed summiting Island Peak and some great mountaineering up to the camp 2 area on Ama Dablam, as well as all the great trekking between and Nepali culture.
Arriving at Island Peak summit (6189m)
First daylight on Island Peak summit day
Lhotse South Face above…
Bridge on route to Namche
First glimpse of Ama Dablam!
Good to meet the owners of the Sherpa Adventure Gear store in Namche
Everest left and Ama Dablam on right
Lhotse South Face memorial
Yaks to Island Peak BC
The Holy bird
Early start on Island Peak
Upper glacier on Island Peak
Island Peak summit
Lakpa Sherpa tells us about his attempt on Lhotse South Face (behind)
Summit ridge of Island Peak, Ama Dablam north ridge behind
The infamous Yeti skull and hand at Monastery in Pangboche Upper (allegedly) 
Carving in Monastery
Prayer wheels
Ama Dablam from BC
Jumar practice on the boulder near Ama Dablam BC
Mule loads arrive (not on little one)
On way to Ama ABC
Yak camp, or ABC, on Ama

My photos ended at this point when my camera took the quick way off from the camp 1 fixed ropes!



This is a shot I took of camp 2 from a previous expedition though and is around this years highpoint for our team…

Climbing, Gorges, Abseiling and Media…

We’ve had a variety of great courses running recently from private guiding on some of the Lake Districts classic mountain rock climbs, instructional scrambling courses and multi activity group events…

The last few days we were joined by Steve from  movieit.co.uk who has been putting together some great movies using various innovative filming techniques including a drone (remote helicopter) with camera attached.  The main aim is to produce incredibly fast turn around films for presentations after events or for promotional purposes as well as delivering aerial shots from unique angles, something that could be useful to a range of customers… have a look at their site using the above link.

Here are some stills from the group Steve joined us with over the last few days…

Church Beck

Cathedral Quarry

Langdale Climbing

Recent Courses

We have had a number of great technical courses running recently and have been lucky with generally great weather.  I have put a selection of photos together of some of our recent outings when I’ve managed to pull the camera out…

Summer Courses – places available

Lots of great ‘Summer Courses’ coming up, some still with spaces and the chance to join a course with others meaning great value as the cost is shared!

Coming up we have a – 
 ‘Learn to Lead Climb’ course with 1 space – 1 Day – dates flexible – Lake District £80
‘Technical Scrambling Skills’ course with 1 space – 10/11th July – Langdale £150 for 2 days/£75 to join 1 day.
See our website for full details of other courses available – Mountain Circles
Its been a busy spell with all sorts of weather coming through!  Some photos below of a recent course we ran in Scotland for Ivan and Bobby taking in Tower Ridge in much better weather than expected and then using Polldubh Crags for a training day on day 2 to hide from the wet and windy weather which came in. We covered lots of skills at Polldubh which are useful to add to your ‘bag of tools’ when looking to become independent in your climbing and to be able to sort out any un-expected situations that could arise… We looked at abb retreat and set up, backing up abb anchors, hoisting a 2nd, climbing a rope using prusiks, placing gear as well as getting some big boot climbing in on the classic route ‘The Gutter’.  Thanks for the photos Bobby!
 Ben Nevis North face
 Pitch out of the Douglas Gap
 Just before the Eastern Traverse
 The tunnel – snowed over for most of the winter

 Just after the Tower Gap
Day 2 on the ‘Gutter’ at Polldubh Crags

Great Weather in the Lakes – Summer Courses

We are finally getting a consistent run of great weather in the Lakes for our summer courses.  It has generally been fairly mixed, despite a lot of unsettled weather there has been some great days for going high up to climb classic routes on the likes of Dow Crag.  This last week has brought our first consistent run of really settled weather of the summer really, its sunny and the crags are dry!

We have had various courses running but the last few days have been particularly good.  I have been out with some folk doing an article about some classic scrambling and easy climbing in the Lakes for a well known mag.  We stayed at Black Sail Hut and had a day on Napes Needle taking in the classic Wasdale Crack (HS) and the Wasdale Roof (E3 5C)  for a little interest on the side!  We also had a wander up Sphinx Ridge and on to Gable.

 Remoteness in the Lake District, the Black Sail Hut
 Napes Needle

 The Sphinx looking over Wasdale

Yesterday we headed for the high level route over to Pillar Rock, we climbed the classic scramble/climb Slab and Notch (M) route onto the Rock, then abseiled into the Jordan Gap followed by a quick ascent of the Pisgah to complete the round.  This is a really great mountaineering route with a interesting approach and can be finished with a quick detour to the top of Pillar itself.  Pillar Rock has an almost unique feel to it, there’s a definite touch of the ‘Alpine’ about it set high above the forests of Ennerdale.

 Morning visitors at the Hut
 Pillar Rock
Exposure on the Slab and Notch route

With the great weather continuing we will be running lots of summer courses in the Lakes and on Skye so please get in touch with any inquiries…

All our courses are on our site at Mountain Circles

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