Abigail, the first snows, and Cock Farm

We've avoided the worst of Storm Abigail here on Arran, with the strongest winds passing to the north although as I type, a rolling thunderstorm is chuntering overhead. Wally and I headed out in to the weather this morning, but avoided the worst of it with a circular walk from Lochranza over to the east coast. It was pretty wild, but apart from some sideways snow on the Narachan (it is settling in the mountains... woop!), and ferocious hail around Fairy Glen, we stayed dry. It was a gloomy day though so I enjoyed tinkering with the mono settings on my camera. We avoided Laggan Cottage for a change, and cut down through the historic ruins of Cock Farm, ancestral home of Harold Macmillan, partially deserted during the clearances, and finally abandoned in the early 20th century.

 

Winter Holiday Part 1: The Yin and the Yang

Winter conditions followers will find this update too tardy to be of use, but I've just got back from a ten day break walking on the mainland so I'm going to post what I've been up to in nice tasty chunks.  This is from the first couple of days of our trip, and we saw the best and the worst of Scottish winter weather squeezed in to just 36 hours. I have to remind myself that we need the grim days so we can appreciate the blue sky ones!

Friday 3rd of Feb was a cracker, and I've seen photos all over the mountain blogs of blue skies and crisp snowy vistas from this day. We were in Glen Spean, and headed up two Munros to the south of the Glen, above the hamlet of Fersit. The first, Stob Coire Sgriodain, rises up steeply from the bog and overlooks Loch Treig. Its brother, the rounded hump of Chno Dearg, is less spectacular, but easy to take in as part of a pleasant round trip.

Just a little bit of cloud clinging to the crest of Stob Coire Sgriodain, which soon burned off. 

We found a continuous line of good neve in a groove to the left of the crest.  Steep but straightforward and over all too soon. 

Approaching the summit. 

Dazzling views of Loch Treig and the mountains to the west (Stob a Coire Mheadhoin and Stob Coire Easain)

Wally on the summit of Stob Coire Sgriodain.

The rounded hump of Meall Garbh that lies to the south of the two munros turned out to have a steep side with a curly cornice.

Wally on the summit of Chno Dearg which means "red nut" in Gaelic. 

On the second day, with tired legs from the day before and an unfavourable forecast, we decided to head in to the Northern Corries for some skills practice. In Coire an t-Sneachda we found gale force winds and vicious spindrift.  

 Even in full body armour basic tasks were difficult, and visibility was minimal. We stopped at the first deep patch of snow we came to, a pillow of easy angled windslab, and dug a pit to look at the quickly accumulating layers of snow. Then we had a tinker with some snow anchors. A couple of buckets and a snow bollard or two later we'd had enough and packed up. In the hour or so we were burrowing, about 15cm of snow had built up on and around our kit. Scary rates of deposition!

Calm Before the Storm.......

 Above: The comb and No3 Gully in Coire na Ciste on Ben Nevis

I had a meeting in Oban on Tuesday so Wally and I snuck off to the mainland on Sunday night and headed up to Fort William.  A favourable weather forecast meant that the lure of Ben Nevis was hard to resist.  I haven't climbed on there yet this winter and it always takes a bit of psyching up as the place is just so incredibly huge.

Above:both ends of Tower Ridge- not possible to put in to one shot!

We walked in planning to do No2 Gully Buttress but on the way up were diverted by a line up Central Gully on Trident Buttress, which has an optional finish on the ridge of the buttress.  We had recently read about this on UKC courtesy of Mike Pescod so thought we would give it a go. Another party had had the same idea and were on the first pitch when we arrived.

Below: Central Gully with Trident Buttress finish on the left skyline. 

We took up a stance at the bottom but the sun on the ice and rocks above plus the activity of this party (of 3) meant that we were subjected to a hail of blocks of ice, stones and spindrift.  After a coule of sizeable blows it became too much and we legged it further up in to Coire na Ciste- the huge coire between Tower Ridge and Number 5 Gully. Traversing under The Comb we soon arrived at the start of No 2 gully Buttress (III).  Took a belay at the bottom of the gully in a rock cave under an amazing ice sculpture.

Below: Amazing umbrella of ice at the bottom of No2 Gully with No2 Gully Buttress flanking the left hand side of the gully.

Unfortunately I took no photos on the route (I forgot- concentrating....) but it was great fun. I've not led III before so was happy to let Wally take the sharp end and even more happy when it emerged that there was no gear to be found.  The ice was very poor (full of pockets and air), and the rock was buried.  He got 8 runners on 5 pitches (and 4 of these were on one pitch). Nails.
We got to the top after a fantastic day that was everything that a day on the Ben should be: challenging, tough, fun and long!
Woke up the next day to blizzards and gales- we were lucky to get the day out that we did.  Ended up stuck on the mainland for an extra night as no ferries were running and the roads were pretty dodgy in all the snow.  Kipped at Hazels (thanks for great hospitality as always H) near Lochgilpead and finally made it home this afternoon. Phew. By the sounds of things we were lucky as others traveling in the wild weather have had some epic journeys.

Extreme Weather

The last few days have been truly wild here on Arran! Friday morning saw me out on the hill and tactical retreat by lunchtime, as damaging gusts were starting to blast across higher ground. I took the picture above on the way home at Imachar Point. This is normally a tranquil and sheltered part of the coast where the Kilbrannon Sound begins to narrow. This was a mere ripple however , when compared to the fierce gale that blew in on Saturday night. To the right and below are pictures taken at Blackwaterfoot and in Lamlash Bay that afternoon. Overnight we were battered by 70mph winds and the poor ferry has spent a big chunk of today tied up in Brodick. I have also inserted a chunk of video I took at the pier in Lamlash yesterday. The waves are not breaking on the beach- they are crashing on the concrete hardstanding behind the beach by the yacht club! Apologies for the wobbly camera work, it was kinda windy.... The weathermen are predicting a big dump of snow for tomorrow.....

Welcome and when will it stop raining?

It has been a damp and dismal few weeks across the whole of the uk, and Arran, sitting in the gulf stream as it is, has endured the worst of the wet weather. Luckily for us we have steep hills and rivers that run off into the sea, and so rarely suffer catastrophic flooding. This may not seem the case to the campers recently airlifted out of Glen Rosa! On a less disastrous level, the weather has hampered a lot of the work up at the Rangers Centre at Brodick Castle. I have been unable to get out and finish a fixed point photography project that I started weeks ago, as there has been so much mist and clag around. Last week's ptarmigan survey was limited due to apalling visibility on the hill which made it unsafe to spread out into a long beating line, instead keeping groups together, and impossible to see any birds with visibility down to a few metres. Some possible signs were discovered, including droppings and feathers, but nothing conclusive. I was up on Goatfell for this survey, with a team consisting of rangers from Glencoe and the Trust's ecologist. It was a great day out, with fantastic folk, but sadly no sign of the elusive ptarmigan.

As the summer season winds down it is a chance for everyone to take stock here, and try and work out whether it has been a good or bad summer overall. My guided walks are slowing down, but I'm still incredibly busy with work, particularly as we are now just days away from the Isle of Arran Outdoor and Walking Festival. This will be four days of guided walks and evening events. If you are interested in taking part, have a look at our website: http://www.arranoutdoorfestival.co.uk