What did you get up to at the weekend? We asked you to send us
some pics and a quick rundown of your oudoor escape last weekend and
while we had fewer submissions than normal - maybe some OMers have
gone into hibnernation till spring - the ones we did get were
brilliant.
Anyways, without further ado, here's a quick rundown of what some
OMers got up to, enjoy and many thanks to everyone who responded.
And the editor's weekend? Trapped at home by a misfiring car, it
was a cold, frozen bout of synchonised off road mountain bike
crashing in the Peak. In front of the farmer. Who was spreading grit
across the shgeet ice on the track, doh...
Alison Stockwell and Friends - Northern Corries, Cairngorms (pics:
Stuart Queen)
On Friday six of us drove to Kingussie to stay in the very
welcoming and newly opened Happy Days hostel. Our journey started in
London, so it was a long drive and we arrived after midnight.
The weather forecast wasn't too bad and we were up at seven and
out into Coire an t' Sneachta as soon as we could. We were pleased to
see that there was a fair bit of snow, although it was very powdery
and we weren't too sure what the gullies would be like. We couldn't
see the climbs at all, just thick clag and gloom but we expected
everything to be out of condition; probably just soft snow on rock.
Natasha and Stuart decided to have a look at Central Gully and the
rest of us had just about plumped for the Goat Track when the cloud
lifted and the whole crag looked infinitely more inviting. With a
snap change of plan we headed for Aladdin's Mirror. Jim didn't
feel well, which left Jon and Olly to climb with me.
Once we were established on the route the climbing turned out to
be far better than expected; powder on top of consolidated snow and
frozen turf, with quite a lot of ice. Six months of climbing and
scrambling in the rain has done wonders for my confidence and I found
the leading quite exhilarating. With three on the rope progress was
slow but it was all very enjoyable. Towards the end of the second
pitch the climbing got harder and I escaped out to the right, where
crampon marks in the snow showed others had been before.
This led out of the gully and onto more broken terrain. The route
is supposed to go left at some point but I never found that. Instead
I was drawn to the right and found myself at the foot of an imposing
ice runnel; not steep, but requiring care. I got a good ice screw in
and was delighted by how smoothly the pitch went. We reached the top
at about 4:00 p.m. and were back at the car by five-thirty. Natasha
and Stuart had had a great day on Central Gully - Natasha pictured on
the route below - and by leading through they had made much faster
progress than us.
The next day they did the Runnel and we did Central Gully and what
a fantastic route it was; continually interesting, with lots of ice
and good pro whenever it was really needed. Another party were just
in front; and I met a girl at the first stance. She
looked looked apprehensive. "This is the first time I've done
anything like this" she said, "apart from one day on Little
Tryfan."
We heard a couple of disturbing stories that day about people
falling and ice screws ripping; no-one badly hurt as far as we
know, but the ice seemed good where we were. I only had
one scary moment; quite near the top, when I got onto a short, steep
ice wall. I'd put my last ice screw in about six feet below, and had
a good foothold for my right foot. My left foot scrabbled around and
found nothing, and I desperately needed a good ice-axe placement.
Every strike found impenetrable hardness or dinner-plating brittle
ice and kicking blindly with my left foot I
knocked the crampon loose. I couldn't go down and it
was one of those times when you think "how am I going to get out of
this one?" Flailing about, I eventually struck a good axe
placement way over to the left; awkward, but good enough to haul up
on. To my relief it was just a few steps to a good crack, where I
placed a bomber nut. I must have been feeling shaky because Jon could
not get the nut out again despite hard bashing with his ice axe.
We got back to the car at five. Natasha and Stuart had been
waiting ages and had had a great time on the Runnel. The car
journey home took forever, but it was well worth it, and I finally
got home at 3:00 a.m. What a truly brilliant weekend!
Christopher Gould - Carneddau, North Wales.
I left Ogwen at 9.10 and picked my way very slowly
and carefully up Pen yr Ole Wen. Conditions were extremely
delicate; there was a thin smear of water ice over everything with a
sprinkling of fresh powder on top. The scree bits were not
stabilised, there was not enough ice to get a pick or crampon points
in.
The steep scrambling section near the top was very slippery
and serious and needed extreme care; although good handholds were
there somewhere, they were mostly concealed by snow, and the
footholds all had a thin layer of verglas on them. I would have hated
to try and climb down it and I hope nobody tried!
Several members of a young party behind me had real epics on this
bit; I felt like lowering them a rope but I didn't have one with
me.
Conditions so far were good, warm sun and not much wind.
Arriving at the top, the wind really hit me, it was very strong I
would estimate 40 or 50 mph from the NNW, air temperature was about
minus 5 but the wind chill made it feel like about minus 30. There
were quite a lot of people around the top, for the most part they
seemed well equipped. I met very few people after this point.
While I was traversing from Carnedd Dafydd towards Black Ladders
the cloud started to close in, I took the picture below during
one of the last moments of good visibilty.
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Ysgolion Duon (Black Ladders)
looking towards Carnedd Llewelyn at 12.30 pm on Sunday Jan
23
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At the top of Carnedd Llewelyn there was a small party trying to
shelter from the wind in the summit cairn, visibilty was by now about
5 metres and the wind had strengthened even more.
I called in at the tiny hut on Foel Grach and brewed up, I met a
couple there who were also sheltering from the wind. Duly refreshed I
made my way down to Melynllyn. Visibility was still very poor
and there were no tracks to follow in the snow, it's at times like
this that a GPS really comes into its own.
From Melynllyn I followed the excellent track down to the parking
in Cwm Eigiau where a friend was waiting to collect me and take me
back to Ogwen to retrieve my vehicle. He had made the ascent of Pen
Llithrig y Wrach while he was waiting for me and reported that it was
very boggy and unpleasant in the initial section.
All in, 8.5 miles with about 1000 metres of ascent, an
excellent and very enjoyable short winters day. I will soon be 50 and
it is gratifying that the legs still seem to be functioning well, I
get occasional knee pain, especially after skiing or mountain biking,
but I find that elasticated knee supports are a great help.
Oleg Fomenko and Pat - Wasdale, Lake District
Nearly 5 years ago when I was moving to the UK from Austria
one British mate of mine have told me: "If you accept that I do not
move here for the weather or saving money then you would really enjoy
it!" ... OK ...; Well, that is until the weekend of Jan 15-16th.
There, in Lake District, on the top of Scafell Pike did I understand
that I have seen nothing yet. I'm used to cold ... and wind
...and rain ...;and ice ...and bad visibility ... but for
rock' sake not all at the same time.
Gale force wind and streams of rain were forming amazing ice
patterns on lee sides of every stone above 650m making gullies rather
tricky to navigate. Combine this with 20ft visibility and in places
solid ice and you have recipe for a "fun" day out.
Needless to say that in these conditions photos are not high on
the list and not because of the cold, but ... how many different
angles of fog can you have in your album? Let's just say that without
the help of GPS we would not have made it to the car by dusk. No
camping for us after a day like this ... and of course after a
good night sleep in a warm B& and B we have gone for Helvellyn via
Striding Edge the day after.
Total: 10 hours driving, the only people on the Wasdale Head
Campsite, 20 miles of walking with 7000 feet of total gain and all in
all of 2 min of blue skies. But what a great opportunity to look down
and catch some beauty that one would never notice otherwise.
There are more of Oleg's photos from the weekend on his web
site.
Ryan Fulford, Shell Jappy and Mark Pettit - Moel Siabod,
Snowdonia
We climbed Moel Siabod on Sunday. Lovely day but cold,
especially coming down.
Scott Blair - Beinn Achaladair, north of Bridge of Orchy
Plenty of sun, very little wind. Snow mainly firm
underfoot with icy patches. A 9am start from the busy car park at
Achaladder farm, around five hours walking and fun trying to work the
new camera I got for Christmas.
First picture is from the lower slopes of Achaladair, looking back
towards Beinn an Dothaidh.
Second one shows the pretty steep section before you get to the
South top of the hill.
Third shot is from the summit, looking down to Loch Tulla.
Final picture taken on the way back down, passing the south top
and I wish I could name the hills.
Met about a dozen other folk all told, plus a friendly Border
collie with a smart reflective jacket.
Marcus Crompton - The Arans, North Wales
One of those rare cold, clear days was forecast for North Wales on
Sunday so Geoff and I set off for Bala at 6.30. A couple of hours
later, we were disappearing into thick hill fog on the Aran ridge,
and stayed in it all the way to Aran Fawddwy.
There was an inch of virgin snow on the ground, but could only
guess at the view, and look enviously at the occasional patch of blue
sky that opened up not far above us.
An hour's lunch stop on Aran Fawddwy did the trick; the
wind got up, and tore the clouds off the hill, leaving us with a
crystal-clear panorama from Snowdonia to the Rhinogs, Plynlimon to
the Shropshire Hills, the Berwyn to the Clwydians. We spent the
afternoon dawdling back along the ridge, enjoying the sunshine and
the views, spoiled only when a lapse in concentration meant that I
tripped over myself and lost the second round of our annual
falling-over competition 0-1.
The End
There are loads more pics in the OUTDOORSmagic
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