Tuesday 17 June 2008

Brixton Climbers in Scotland (3-7 June 2008)

At the beginning of June, a team of four explorers ventured north of the border, and then some, to Glencoe and Skye, for mountain adventures! We were: Jonathan, Chris, Adela and Nina. Adela and Nina had joined us after finishing their exams on the same course as Jonathan.

Tuesday 3rd June
At lunchtime Jonathan, Nina and Adela arrived at Glasgow Central station, and were picked up by me, having driven from Ayr. We headed west and north on the M8 and were soon enjoying picturesque waterside views. Pretty soon afterwards we were doing a quick about turn, having realised that the views were of the Clyde coastline rather than Loch Lomond. In the afternoon sunshine we drove through Bridge of Orchy, Crianlarich and Tyndrum and were crossing Rannoch Moor with Buachaille Etive Mor rearing up ahead of us.

At about 3pm we were at Lagangarbh, preparing for our afternoon’s objective, a grade 3 scramble up Creag na Tulaich, a crag on the western side of the Buachaille’s north top, Stob Dearg. Within half an hour we were donning helmets to clamber up the first of the buttress’s three tiers. A slightly exposed move or two led to easier scrambling to the second tier, which we climbed direct. The crux, on the third tier, was a 6m chimney, followed by easier scrambling up a gully with loose rock, to the top. Barely 3 hours after we had started we had descended the walkers’ path in Coire na Tulaich and were wheel spinning our way out of the car park (almost burning out the clutch in the process) and on to a picturesque but midge-ridden Red Squirrel campsite at the western end of Glen Coe.

Scrambling is the term given to mountain routes involving just too much climbing and exposure to be considered hill walking, but too little in the way of difficulty to be considered a graded rock climb. It is great fun and doesn’t necessitate rock climbing skills, and Adela and Nina much enjoyed their first taste this afternoon. However, as it is usually unroped and includes some very exposed situations, it would be wrong to treat it any less seriously than a full on rock climb. Over the next few days there were many occasions when having the rope in the bag to use if required provided much needed reassurance, and one or two occasions when it was called into use.

Tuesday evening was spent cooking tinned food and pasta (our staple diet) in the last of the evening sunshine, before the midges drove us to the make the short walk to the Clachaig Inn and to plot our next day’s adventures. Jonathan and I would attempt the classic traverse of Aonach Eagach; Adela and Nina would head off in search of the lost valley and up Bidean nam Bian.


Wednesday 4th June
The weather forecast had been predicting rain for the rest of the week, but on Tuesday, the weather had a major change of heart and the outlook was predicted to be fine for the rest of the week. Wednesday didn’t disappoint, and by 10am we were heading off on our respective routes serenaded by a piper busking amongst the coach parties in the car park.

Aonach Eagach is said to be the finest ridge traverse on the UK mainland. It is a grade 2 scramble and narrows to a teetering arête in some places. It’s the sort of route for which the Harvey’s map includes a health warning, with a continuous scramble for 1km between Meall Dearg and Stob Coire Leith from which there is no prospect of retreating from other than by continuing the ridge.

Although I’d done the route before, when the three people we passed each mentioned that they had thought better of the first tricky descent from Am Bodach, as Jonathan and I hauled ourselves up its SE nose, we both started to get a distinct sense of trepidation. Fortunately the going wasn’t quite as tough as they had made out and we were soon having lunch on Meall Dearg (Munro #1), ready for the ridge proper.

The scrambling didn’t disappoint with chimneys, arêtes and quite a number of tricky downward steps. This time round I was determined to savour the exposed situations: I found the very exposed block that previously I had barely crawled over and stood up on it triumphantly. Jonathan, not unreasonably, looked at me as if I was mad.

Eventually we reached Stob Coire Leith and bounced up to Sgorr nam Fiannaidh (Munro #2). After a lengthy descent on an awkward scree covered hillside we reached the road and hitched a ride back to the day’s starting point, where we met Adela and Nina.

Adela and Nina had certainly found the lost valley, a huge hanging valley not visible from the roadside but had wisely turned back when they found the headwall of the corrie blocked up with thawing snow (even in June)! They had, however, exercised their new found enthusiasm for scrambling, seeking out adventurous lines (and quizzical looks from fellow walkers) on the way up.

We couldn’t face the damned midges again and so opted for food from the Clachaig, which we ate outside looking across the valley at Aonach Dubh. Whereas mosquitos, ticks and other insects menace humans with bites and illness, a midge’s bite is mild, even ticklish, and it carries no diseases. Midge warfare is psychological: dwell too long in one place on a still, cool summer evening in Scotland and you are engulfed by maddening clouds of the wee things.

With the weather this good, we decided, we had to get to Skye that evening – at the very least, there might a breeze that could ground the midges – and we set out, via Fort William, down Glen Shiel and over the bridge to Skye. We arrived at Sligachan campsite at 10.30pm, but still with enough light to pitch our tents by.

Thursday 5th June
Jonathan, Adela and I would be heading up the last Munro on the Cuillin ridge, Sgurr nan Gillean. Nina, after spending the morning on Skye would get the bus back to Kyle of Lochalsh and the train to Edinburgh via Inverness.

The ‘tourist’ route up Sgurr nan Gillean’s SE summit ridge is itself a grade 3 scramble but we decided that we would warm up with a grade 3 scramble on its eastern spur. This route took us along a wonderful path down Glen Sligachan, before crossing the valley floor and up a rocky slope. The scrambling started in difficult and exposed fashion, up awkwardly sloped slabs before gaining the crest of the ridge, which became a series of rocky steps and walls interspersed with grass.

Our lunch spot was nothing short of perfect, allowing me to sit with my legs seemingly dangling above a drop of nearly 100m. The view took in Pinnacle ridge immediately to our north and, to our south east, the toothy profile of Blaven and Clach Glas – two classic Skye mountaineering expeditions. Beyond that we could see the Red Cuillin, the Old Man of Storr on the Trotternish ridge and, on the mainland, the mountains of Applecross and Torridon.

The view of the route ahead was less benign. In front of us was 20m of climbing up a gully. The easier routes were on crumbling rock; the better rock was on steep slabs. After a nervous few minutes, we emerged on to a boulder field, which we crossed to gain the main summit ridge. From here on it would be simple, right?

The climb up to the top presents a multitude of lines up several steep walls and chimneys. As Jonathan soon found out, all but one or two of these lines would count as a rock climb. Now we were really on the high-friction gabbro rock that forms the majority of the Cuillin ridge. As we got closer to the top, the ridge narrowed to a wonderful narrow arête and the summit (Munro #3) itself was barely any bigger (there was just enough space to pitch a tent, though you’d be mad to want to). We grabbed a sandwich and a photo and took in views south to the sea, and south and west to the rest of the Cuillin.

It was on the way down that Jonathan’s 60m half rope was first called into action. A particularly steep section we felt was just too steep to downclimb unprotected. Eventually we made it back down to the boulder field we had crossed on the way up and we set out on the ‘tourist’ path back to Sligachan. Here we first experienced quite a common Skye phenomenon: the path that deposits you on the side of a crag. There are no easy routes on or off the Cuillin ridge, and the downclimb that we had to negotiate would have been even more treacherous if we had encountered it in mist and rain – that is assuming we wouldn’t have simply walked straight off it. Future BCC expeditions please beware!

Friday 6th June
Adela had to leave this morning to join up with Nina in Edinburgh. That left Jonathan and I… and we had a rope!

The view from Sligachan campsite is breathtaking. Towering over us we could see Sgurr nan Gillean, Am Basteir and Sgurr a’Bhasteir. On the west side of Am Basteir there is a large overhanging pinnacle called the Bhasteir Tooth. The direct line to the top is a V. Diff. rock climb called Naismith’s route. This was our objective for the day.

We slogged up into Fionn Choire to Bealach nam Lice, which lies between Sgurr a Fionn Choire and Am Basteir, and from there had our first up close look at the tooth. Jonathan was having “serious exposure issues” and wasn’t happy at the bands of rotten rock that constituted the first few moves of the climb. I was having some exposure issues of my own, to put it mildly, and was only too glad to adopt the alternative plan of scrambling up Am Basteir, a Difficult rock climb because of an awkward step caused by a recent rockfall.

As one of Jonathan’s goals for the trip was to practise some Alpine techniques, we decided to put the rope to good use and practise moving together. This is a useful technique, and not too difficult (if only you can remember how to finish off the chest coils…). At the summit (Munro #4) we could look down on the Tooth: it didn’t look much good from above either.

The descent was by the Bhasteir Gorge, past crystal clear rock pools and natural showers (Jonathan cooled off by standing under one). However before we got there we had some serious downclimbing to do, and example number two of a Skye path to nowhere. Again we were ejected on to the mountainside with the path visible 40m directly below us.

At the campsite we had one final drink in the Sligachan Hotel bar before setting off for the King’s House hotel in Glen Coe, which Jonathan’s guidebook said allowed free camping in an adjacent field. We reached the campsite before last orders.

Saturday 7th June
Today was to be rock climbing on the Buachaille. Jonathan had picked out a V. Diff. route on Central Buttress called North Face Route, which would take us to halfway up Curved Ridge, where we could scramble to the summit. Well that was the plan… I now think we inadvertently climbed D Gully buttress (Severe) instead.

Having trudged up scree slopes to the foot of the climb (“a Scottish roadside crag”) we set off up some scrambling to the foot of the climb, but soon beat a hasty retreat and tried again on an easier looking route. After some more awkward scrambling we reached a ledge where we roped up. I led the first pitch, Jonathan the second, up broken, often vegetated ground. We came to a steep wall and, around the corner, a chimney offering some glorious climbing on good holds, which I led (continuing to follow my personal agenda of finding threads for runners and belays). The next pitch was the crux, which Jonathan led: nearly 50m of sustained hard climbing, beginning with a knife-edge arête (“your sort of route, Chris”). A final short scramble, moving together, took us to Curved Ridge which we decided to descend, as the route finding earlier had taken longer than anticipated.

The descent of Curved Ridge should have been, in theory, straightforward compared with the climb we had just finished but what followed was probably the most daunting part of the day. We had only been going a short while before we encountered a section that looked far too steep to descend. We sniffed around a bit and found another route, which looked only marginally easier, and, between the two, a chock stone that had previously been used as an abseil anchor. We eventually decided to rope up and treat the easier looking line as a climb: I would descend and place as much gear as possible, Jonathan would follow. After a few nervous minutes we were back on easier ground and making the long, careful descent back to the scree slopes, back to the car and back to the central belt, leaving the Highlands behind.

Dinner was in Crianlarich, and we reached Ayr at about 11pm where we crashed before getting the train to Glasgow and going our separate ways on Sunday.

It was an incredible trip: 5 days, 5 graded scrambles, 1 graded multi-pitch rock climb, 4 Munros, and a lot of exposure! I can’t wait to go back – there’s so much classic mountaineering still to do and you don’t need a passport to get there!

So, what did we learn?

  • Midges are evil
  • Exposure is scary, but you get used to it (until you have to do a hard move!)
  • Moving together on a rope is much slower than soloing but feels safer. Pitching is much slower than moving together but feels safer. All of the above are quicker than standing around trying to decide whether to rope up or not.
  • Going down can be harder than going up. There's no shame in rigging a rope for the 'inappropriate descents', especially if you're not in danger of getting benighted / missing last orders.
  • Make sure it's actually safe before taking off your helmet (just as we were on a very tricky and loose steep section of the descent on curved ridge, a party directly below us decided to take off their helmets and pack their gear - directly in the fall line of anything that would be dislodged from the route!)