Back from the Pyrenees

After I heard my friend Will Bayliss was going to walk from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, I decided I fancied 7 weeks off work to do the same, so I did and we ended up walking 800km across the Pyrenees. Described as one of Europe’s most beautiful and challenging walks, we took the highest practical line through the Pyrenees on both French and Spanish sides of the main ridge, the route consisted of 40km of ascent and decent. We completed the route within 41 days of walking and we also had 5 rest days along the way to keep up going. The first section, I found the hardest because I was not used to the dry heat ( I live in Scotland) and also my leg weren't used to the weight of my full rucksack. As it was so hot, for the 1st week walking from Hendaye to Lescun, we set off walking at 5am to arrive at our destination around midday so we were out of the heat. As we got into the second section (Lescun to Garvanie), the temperatures dropped and so did the early starts. In Garvanie we had our first thunder/hail storm which gave all the surrounding mountains a nice white coating. Next section was Garvanie to Saladu which consisted of lots of long days in high mountain terrain and plenty of wild camping. The next section was from Saladu to l'Hospitalet-Près-l'Andorre which briefly took us through Andorra, and had some of the most amazing mountains of the whole walk. The final section was from HPA to Banyuls-sur-mer on the Mediterranean.

The reason I chose to go on the expedition was so I could explore the whole Pyrenees (I had never been here before), gain international trekking experience for my IML award, gain expedition skills for the future and suss out areas that I would like to go back and climb. e.g. Pic du Midi, Vignemale, Pico de Aneto. Also it has improved my hill fitness for the coming winter so hopefully I wont get too tired on the long walk-ins to routes!

The weather was amazing, out of the 41 days of walking we had only 4 days of rain, 1 day of snowfall and blizzard conditions, the rest was nice and sunny, sometimes cloudy and breezy. Cant really complain! I have been back in Scotland for about 6 days now and it hasn't stopped raining yet! Love it!!

On Holiday!!

Im currently in the Pyrenees for 7 weeks. I will be returning around mid October.

SCNL via The Zig Zags

Today Patrick and Denise and I went for a hill waking day in Glencoe. After a look at the forecast in the morning, the guys fancied something a little bit more 'hands on' so we headed for the Zig Zags on Gearr Aonach. After the interesting steps up, we were making good progress for the summit via the NE ridge and the weather was improving throughout. The cloud cover was around 1000m and rising, we eventually got a view of the summit of the Ben as well. We arrived to the top of SCNL with the wind quite strong and chilly, had some lunch then headed down the North shoulder back to the Corie floor. From here we took the footpath back down to the car park. Another good Red Letter Day.

Sunburn!

Today Chuck and I led a group of 25 up to the summit of Ben Nevis. Most of the group had little or no hill walking experience but they all had heaps of motivation which got all but 2 up to the summit. It ended being a very long day, just under 11 hours up and down but as the weather was nice we didn't really need to rush. As we got to the cars, patches of rain did come in but nothing fell as we were walking.

Ropework Training-13/08/2008

Today Big Al, Chuck and I went for a little staff training day in Glencoe. As I have my MIA Training booked in November, we thought it would be a good idea to start brushing up on my rope work skills. Today we decided to explore a new crag (Far East Buttress on Aonach Dubh) and Big Al ran me through some of the rope work considerations for teaching and guiding 2 clients at a time. Big Al led Chuck and I up Farewell Arete (V Diff, 3 pitches) in series, Chuck led Nirvana Wall (Severe, 3 pitches - the last excellent) in series and I led them both up Rough Slab (also Severe, 1 good long pitch with a grand finish) in parallel.

Climbing in Glen Nevis - 04/08/2008

Today I went down the Glen with a group of 5 from Fort William Primary school. They had all been down the Ice Factor and climbed there, so they had plenty of skills to put into practice. We only had a couple of hours so I tried to cram in as much climbing as possible. Everyone had a go at bottom roping, then practiced top roping, I set up an abseil which everyone went off quite competently. I then showed the guys how to place protection and they practiced this whilst climbing on a bottom rope. Nice day with a slight breeze, unfortunately not strong enough to keep the midgies away.

Social Circle on Ben Nevis - 26/08/08

Today was by far the busiest I have ever seen the summit of Ben Nevis. It was swarmed with happy walkers after the long slog up. I saw many 3 peak challengers, lots of youngsters with struggling parents and also a wedding ceremony was just about to be carried out (groom was waiting on the summit, we passed the bride coming up on our decent). I was leading, with help from Doug, a group of 19 from the Manchester area who have come together via a social connecting company, Social Circle. http://www.social-circle.co.uk We made a respectable ascent of 4 hours and we were down within 3 hours with a nice long lunch break on the summit. I spoke to a pair topping out from Tower Ridge who reported it to be very busy with climbers, unfortunately we couldn't even make out Tower Gap from the summit because of all the cloud. The weather has just been fantastic here in Lochaber, lets hope it stays for August.

Etive Slabs

Today Al and I went for a slightly easier day after the long day yesterday, and headed down to Etive slabs in the afternoon. We climbed Spartand Slab (VS) in blocks which allowed us to finish the route in a couple of hours. Al went up the first 3 pitches, then I finished the route off. We were hoping to do a different route, which either of us haven't done, however the previous wet weather left considerable seepage on most routes, so we opted for a speedy ascent of Spartan. Hot, sunny and breezy - good times!

Erraid - 23/07/2008

Today Al and I headed out early onto the Isle of Mull to this peaceful little place called Erraid. The new Gary Latter guidebook tempted Al and he tempted me and it turned out to be an ace place, nice (almost untouched) granite to climb, white sand beaches and excellent views out to sea. The routes ware all quite short, so we managed to get plenty of routes in - Bacteria Soup (S), Smelly Mussels (HVS), One Dead Puffin (HVS), Goupher Hole (VS), Misunderstanding (VS), Blood Orange (S), Oliver (VS), Elephants (VS) and Panther (S). I wasn't feeling to strong today (or for quite a while actually), but there is definitely potential for some new routing and lots of other harder climbs. I will definitely come back here on a camping trip and tick off lots of routes and try out the awesome looking deep water soloing.

Cragging at Duntelchaig

Today Alan, Chuck, Donald and I headed East in search of sunshine, and we found it. Lochaber was choked with rain clouds all day so we ended up climbing at Duntelchaig. We were greeted with blue skies and a nice breeze and good dry rock. Donald and I climbed on Dracula Buttress ticking off Dracula (E3 5c), Frankenstein (E2 5c), Balrog (HVS 5b) and made a start on Vampire (E3 6a), but Donald backed off as the route was dirty and clearly un-climbed for quite a while. We also climbed a route between Frankenstein and Balrog which wasn't in the guide book, I thought it was E1 5a. Alan and Chuck started climbing over on The Main Crag and then came over to Dracula Buttress and climbed Balrog. More wet and unsettled weather due for Scotland over the next few days, with the East coast looking a little more appealing. No photo's today.

Ben Nevis Ridges

Today I headed up into the North Face of Ben Nevis on my own with a plan to tick off some of the ridges I haven't done. Firstly I went up Observatory Ridge. This 420m VDiff is a great route with most of the difficulty at the bottom. Once I got to the top I headed over to the summit then went down Tower Ridge which is a 600m Diff. A great way to descend off the summit. Once at the bottom, I traversed over beyond Carn Dearg Buttress to Castle Ridge which is a 275m Mod (easiest out of the 4 Ben ridges). Once I got to the top, I headed up to find the top of Ledge route which is 450m Easy and descended it. Not a very pleasant decent in summer!! It was my first time on Observatory and Castle and they both look like really good winter lines. Cant wait to get out and play on them. The rock was looking quite dry today until 3pm when the forested rain fell hard and saturated everything again. I passed a party on Tower Ridge and saw Donald (Abacus Mountaineering) with clients going up Observatory ridge.

Climbing in Glencoe

Today Chuck and I headed up to North Buttress East Face of Bauchaille Etive Mor and started off on Crows Nest Crack (VS 4c). I led up the first pitch and came across quite a few wet and slimy hold so I think it could have done with an extra dry day! The reason we went up to this area was that if the weather forecast was right, we could have had other easier options in the rain. It turned out the weather forecast was wrong. Anyway after rapping of the top of the first pitch, the ropes became jammed so we both soloed up Shackle route which is a great Severe climb. After retrieving the rope we went to look at some routes on Rannoch wall, but the wet got the better of them so we decided to solo Agag's (VD) and down climb Curved Ridge. Nice productive day. Can you work out what important item of equipment I left in the car?