This year’s trip to Scotland was one of the best we’ve had. A record seventeen club members attended and bagged many of the classic routes. The season started with excellent winter conditions right up until the day before we got there. Although a good deal of the snow had disappeared by the time we arrived, a high pressure system ensured that we had perfect conditions all week. Some of the routes were done under winter conditions, and some under summer conditions. These included: Ledge Route (II), Aonach Eogach Ridge (II/III), Forcan Ridge (II), Carn Mor Dearg Arête (I), Raeburn’s Gulley (I), Cinderella (II), and lots more besides.

One highlight was Cinderella (II) at Creag Maegaidh. This is a shortish, avalanche prone gulley which starts half way up The Window. Gilly and I had to climb over avalanche debris to get to the start, but once on the route it was fairly straight forward. We pitched most of it, although it wasn’t easy to protect as the rock on either side was crumbly and sloped downwards. I led the last pitch on softening snow and ran out of rope just as I got to the cornice. Luckily the snow was well consolidated and I was able to sit on the crest of the cornice (on the wrong side of the fracture line!) and bring Gilly up.

By Adrian Woolaston (Below)

On day 5 Neil (Demmar) and I opted to take on a trad (rock) climb on Buchaille Etive Mor. The ‘Buckle’, as it is more fondly known, lies at the head of Glen Coe and is formidable in every respect. We chose a route called ‘Shackles’ (graded Severe) on the North Buttress of Stob Dearg (between Crowberry Ridge and Great Gully). This route starts at a height of about 650m which was roughly the same height as the snow line. The start of the climb was approached on a good path and the climb itself involves more than 4 pitches. The climb was getting on for 350-400ft in height, and led to easier scrambling on rock to the summit.

The exposure of being on a rock face so high instinctively tightens your grip and looking down (not always the best thing to do) reduces everything to miniature. You can see the whole of Rannoch Mor form this position, which is a vast area. The main A82 highway appears as little more than scratch on the landscape. After some wobbly moments on my part and a usual solid lead from Neil , we topped out of the climb. Time was not on our side to take on the summit, it was more important to find the way down if we were to avoid some awkward abseils.

Having consulted the guide, Neil sniffed out a down climb of Moderate grade, which was every bit as enjoyable as the climb up. Returning to our start point, we took a moment to compare the two separate gloves that we had found on the way up only to discover, as is so much the trend these days, that they weren’t a pair (It should be pointed out at this point that during the week Neil found an abnormally high number of gloves, including a brand new pair of Mountain Hardware mountain gloves!)

Picking our way down to the approach track carefully, a herd of wild (although not seemingly too bothered by the close proximity of civilisation) Stags were grazing along the banks of the River Coupal. By the time we got back to the car the temperature was plummeting and I knew there was a pint of Black Cullin from the Skye Brewery and a lovely warm fire in the Bar at the Clachaig waiting for us.

By John Trelease (below)

This was my 5th Scottish Winter and each and everyone were enjoyable events and included some great routes and experiences. Both the weather and experience had dictated routes over the previous 4 years and I had more or less decided that some of the classic routes would only be achieved during the Summer months. However, this year proved me wrong and each day went from strength to strength starting with the CMD Arete, followed by the Ledge Route up the “Ben”, Aonach Eagach on the 3rd day and finally finishing on the Forcan Ridge – 4 classic routes in what proved to be the best year so far. Here is a brief account of two of the routes.

Ledge Route, with Gilly, Jez, Loz, Tracy, JT

The group made their way up to the CIC Hut more or less together before splitting into two groups to tackle the Ledge Route which leads to the summit plateau of Carn Dearg (1221m). Due west of the CIC hut is a huge rock face comprised of steep overlapping slabs split by cracks and chimneys. This is the mighty Carn Dearg Buttress which stands to the right of a major gully called number 5 gully.

The Ledge Route reaches the crest of Carn Dearg Buttress from No. 5 gully and then continues up an excellent ridge to the plateau. The route is a grade 1 Summer scramble and is regarded as one of the best easy grade scrambles in the area. In Winter conditions this scramble would be considered to be slightly harder, possibly pushing more towards a grade 2.

Jez and Gilly worked together as a team of 2 with Loz, Tracy and myself working as a team of 3. From the mouth of no.5 gully the route involved some ramps and slabs to negotiate which had varying degrees of ice and snow on them which needed some lead climbing techniques. From the early tricky sections, the route eventually led on to a bouldery ridge where we were able to utilise the alpine technique of “moving together”. This is an excellent technique for placing protection by utilising a rope and placing it over various rocky outcrops as we all move along together. As a team of 3 this technique did appear to be laboriously slow but was good to practice before reaching the plateau of Cairn Dearg for what turned out to be an excellent day.

Forcan Ridge with Dale, Steve, Warren, Janet, Tracy, John T

Having already bagged CMD Arete, Ledge Route and Aonach Eagach we decided the 40 mile trip from Fort William to Glen Shiel was worth the travel time to try and add the Forcan Ridge to our week of achievements. The Forcan Ridge for many ranks alongside the Aonach Eagach as one of the classic scrambles of the Western Highlands.

From Glen Shiel the excellent stalkers path that leaves the roadside meanders up the east ridge of Meallan Odhar and cuts right to the bealach below Biod an Fhithich. From here the path goes left to the foot of the Forcan Ridge. At this point Dale )the mountain goat!) had pushed on past the start of the ridge with his buddy Warren in fast pursuit. We all shouted to Warren (Janet the loudest as always) to come back but he ignored us pretending not to hear! We pushed on up the ridge only to find Dale sat about a third of the way along the ridge, having a snack and grinning all over his face. We were wandering where Warren was but any concerns were short lived as we heard groans (and moans!) coming up a steep snow/grass gully from the South. All we could hear was “-------! Navigators, if they are going to do it they should do it properly”! He was still moaning when his head appeared over the lip to get on to the ridge much to everyone’s amusement. Still – couple of sausage rolls and he was back in sync with the rest of the group.

The arête leading up to the summit (The Saddle) is extremely sharp in places, providing some excellent scrambling with probably the exposure not as great as on the Aonach Eagach. At 3313m the Saddle is acknowledged to be the finest mountain in Glen Shiel.

From the summit, we were all in good spirits for the descent, taking time out to explore a snow hole that someone had dug out and to practice our ice axe self-arrest techniques on the steep snowy slopes. We were soon back on the main road in Glen Shiel after five and a half hours from starting. This was an excellent route which lived up to all our expectations with the walk in and walk out very forgiving on our legs in comparison to other routes.

What a week!!

John