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!

Properly Wild on Goatfell

After the snowstorms of last week the weather for Sunday looked like it would be calm and sunny so Wally and I planned a stomp up Goatfell to have a look at Stacach Gully (I/II) a little winter route close to the summit of the mountain that often holds an ice pitch. A mate soloed it last week so we were confident that we would find it in condition. The red arrow indicates the top of the gully. We climbed this last year (on a TR *blushes*) and the report is here:http://tinyurl.com/yfvajje

Things didn't turn out as planned (of course) as the promised settled weather quickly deteriorated in to strong winds and a blizzard of graupel (hail stone like rimed up snowflakes- ow!). Getting up on to the shoulder of the mountain we cold see that the ice pitch was well banked out with deep snow and the fresh windslab prompted nervous thoughts about the snow stability. The mainland has been suffering atrocious avalanche conditions this weekend due to a deeply buried layer of surface hoar. I don't think we have this problem on Arran as it has not been as cold, but the depth and angle of the windslab made us think twice about traversing on to the slope.
Heading up to the summit the wind became too strong to stand up and we stopped short of the top and retraced out route. Yet again the climbing gear got taken for a nice walk on Arran! Will we climb anything here this winter at all?

Snow and nutella sandwiches

We have just got back from a week on the mainland visiting family in England and spent Friday night in the back of the van on the quayside in Ardrossan. We had to blow away the cobwebs and it was a beautiful snowy day so got straight out on the hill as soon as we docked.
There are a few things that I get really excited about, and these include snow, and nutella, and with a couple of well laden butties the day was looking very promising.... (sorry about the stupid photo, but you get the idea...)

We went over the ridge between North Goatfell and Goatfell called Stacach. It is an easy scramble in summer conditions and in winter a major mountaineering expedition needing axe and crampons. When we got to the ridge, the wind was very strong, so we decided to pick out a cunning traverse that avoids the narrowest part of the ridge. Again, in summer, this is a narrow but simple path to the East, but in winter crosses avalanche prone snowfields above big drops. Avalanches are not regularly recorded on Arran but that doesn't mean they don't happen. Care required! The overhanging cliffs were smeared with icicles. At the top the rocky crest was encrusted with rime ice that had grown weird formations in the damp but icy winter blast of wind that was hammering across the top.
This all added to the fun and we stopped along the way to do Stacach Gully- a grade I/II mountaineering route, with a short ice pitch half way up. Unfortunately we forgot the drive-ins for protecting turf so we top roped it. Wally set up a belay on a sheltered ledge and we took turns to lower each other into the snow filled gully. The gully was fairly open on the right, but the left wall was flanked by blank rock and ice smears, and the ice pitch up the middle was fragile, but bits were banked out enough with snow that it was straightforward on a top rope. I went second, which was a good thing, as I kicked out the bottom a bit and left very little for anyone else. Again, sorry, but it was the kind of sugary ice full of bubbles that didn't like being kicked. Fortunately we are due for a good freeze thaw this week and it should reform. Hopefully a bit better.
After all this fun, we headed for the summit of Goatfell, and enjoyed a chat with a fellow walker on the way. (Hi Tim). The half light of the sun shining through the clouds and on to the icy rocks was absolutely stunning and although it was very windy and cold, we hung around for a bit to enjoy the atmosphere (there was plenty of that!).

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.....