 |
| Simon, Me and Scott |
A few weeks ago I went outside to do
some ice climbing for my second time. Simon Ward travelled up from Macclesfield and came to my house on
Thursday evening to pick me up, we then drove to Dave's. Dave has a rented
Chalet just outside of Fort William which he uses over the winter as a base to teach winter climbing skills
to his clients. We stayed there the whole weekend from Thursday night to Monday
morning. We got to Dave's pretty late so we only really sorted our things out
had showers and went to bed.
The next morning, we got up really
early. We doubled checked our bags, had breakfast then Scott Grosandoff came to
Dave's to meet us. We all sat and organised the route we were planning then with
one last check we headed out. On the Friday the weather was really good it
wasn’t too cold and it didn’t rain or even get that windy. The walk in felt
like forever but it was really fun and I enjoyed stretching my legs.
 |
| Following Scott |
The whole
of the first part was reasonably flat then just before the bottom of the route
we had to start putting our gear on using ropes because it got too steep and
for safety reasons.
 |
| Getting ready to lead my first pitch. |
There was three pitches and I seconded
the first two and lead the last one. None of them were that hard but I found it
really scary at first just because it’s so different to ice climbing inside.
Throughout the day I got more confident so when it came to leading the last
pitch I wasn’t scared at all, it was also the easiest pitch and kind of felt
like I was walking up it. I didn’t place any gear but it felt really cool not
being on top rope and I knew I was safe the whole time anyways. Once we were at
the top we only rested for five minutes because it was starting to get windy
and we still had to get back down. Getting down was my favourite part it took
about two hours but felt a lot quicker. We had to abseil down a big gully. We
just walked down some bits that weren’t so dangerous. Once we were back at the
car I felt absolutely knackered and it was only the first day! It was so
rewarding though and a great experience. We went back to the chalet and when we
got there Dave had already made dinner we had a carbonarra. It was really good
and lovely to sit and eat it in a nice warm kitchen. I was so tired that
straight after tidying up and hanging up our slightly wet stuff I went straight
to bed.
 |
| First Lead |
 |
| Topping out. |
Waking up the next morning was just
as hard as the day before. I had a great sleep but I was still super tired.
That morning we drove to our next climb but as soon as we got there it started
to rain so we stayed in the car for a little while to see if it would stop
however it never let up. We ended up going to Kinlochleven and we went to Ice
Factor. It's one of my favourite indoor walls so I was really excited. We done
a bit of dry tooling there in the cave, then we decided to go outside again
since it was still quite early and the weather was getting better. We drove
straight to the starting point and got out our stuff, sorted it out and then
headed on the walk in. it took about thirty minutes to get to the first short
part of the walk in. The first part was a killer it was quite steep up it
wasn’t cold at all which I liked. We then had the second part that was much
longer but not as steep. That took us about an hour and a half. The views the
whole walk in were absolutely amazing. When we got the CIC hut we had a quick
rest and got some food. After that we walked up a bit more again and then we
practiced ice axe arrest.
I loved doing the ice axe arrest it was just like
sledging down a big hill. We done that for about like forty-five minutes before
heading back down. I really liked the walk back down again. At the end I walked
on because it was getting cold and my feet were hurting. We then went home and
made some dinner. We used a wee drying room to hang up our wet clothes. I then
went to bed straight away since I was tired and just all over sore.
Simon woke me up on the Sunday at
about half six but we decided to go dry tooling because nobody was really
feeling that great. We went to Newtyle. It was my first time. There was a tiny
ten-minute walk in then we went to the cave part. We all tried "Fast and
Furious M10". I only had about four goes on it the whole day but they were
good attempts.
The route wasn’t too long and all the moves were really big but
the holds were really nice positive slots. My last attempt was my best I got
the five clips without any rests.
We headed home once we had all tried the
route a few times. Scott went home afterwards and me and Simon stayed at Dave's
for another night.
When I got woken up on the Monday I
wasn’t as tired because I had gone to bed super early and my body started to
get used to waking up early. We had planned to do a route before we went back
home so we had looked at one the night before and decided to go there. To get
there you had to drive down this little lane but we got stuck and it was
snowing and we were too scared to leave the car for any length of time in case
we got stuck so we finally managed to get out and we drove out. We went to
another place where we were going to try Salamander. The walk in wasn’t that
steep until the very end part but it felt like it took us a good while to get
there. On the way in we met Willis Morris and Euan Ryan from The Glasgow Climbing Centre, they were already
leaving they had got up really early and tried their route before me and Simon
even got to the bottom of ours. After the long walk in we finally got to the
bottom of the route and we started putting harnesses on and getting the ropes
out. I was about to put my crampons on before Simon stopped me and told me that
we weren’t able to climb the route because he had forgot his crampons (ha ha
rooky error). It was a bit disappointing because it would have been my first
day placing gear. We ended up walking back. It took us a good hour to get back.
Once we started driving back to mine we decided to go to snow factor for a
while so I text my dad and he met us there. We done quite a lot of the routes
and made up some on the wall which has dry tooling holds at the top. We stayed
there for a few hours then went to mine. We got some food had showers, Simon
then headed home and I went straight to my bed. Simon and I are planning on
getting back outdoors at the start of March, for our next challenge.
On Saturday 03rd March
2018, Simon and I set off early for Beinn Udlaidh. This was the weekend the
Beast from the East had struck however the drive up wasn’t too bad. The walk in
was really difficult due to heavy snow fall, it took us about an hour and a
half. The wind was blowing. Once we got to the bottom of the route, we sorted
our gear out. I was a little nervous but excited as I had never lead a grade 4
ice climb before "Doctors Dilemma". Simon lead the first pitch, then
I seconded taking gear out along the way.
Once I got to the first stance, Simon
and I sorted out our kit again. I then set off to lead the second pitch. At the
start I was climbing slowly but soon became more comfortable leading and
quickly progressed. We done the same again with Simon leading the 3rd
pitch and me taking over for the last pitch. I had to make a bucket seat at the
top of the route and I then belayed Simon up. At the top of the route the view
was amazing. There was a few other climbers climbing on various around us, it
was good to see them in the distance. Simon said I had done great for my first
time leading on the ice, that was a good boost as I had tried hard learning the
different belays and the skills I needed to be on the hills. Once we were both at the top, we
headed down the gully beside us. At the bottom of the gully we collected out
bags and sorted out our gear again. On the walk back down we marched along
quickly as the wind was picking up, I about sprinted down that hill. We then
headed to Dave’s and I rustled up a Thai green curry but don’t tell my mum as
she will want me to make her one! We had an early night. We got up the
following day about 0600 am. We were planning on doing point 5 gully however I
had quite a few blisters on my heels form all the walking so we decided to
climb a frozen waterfall named Steall Falls instead. This is a grade 3 route.
On the walk in it was great as it was nice and short however it was icy and I
did fall over a few times, although I’m not sure if Simon had noticed as he
walks fast. I had to cross over a metal wire bridge,
 |
| Crossing the wire rope bridge. |
I really enjoyed this.
When we arrived at the bottom of the route there was already 5 climbers on it.
We bumped into Scott Grosandoff, which was a nice surprise as we didn’t know he
was climbing in the area that day.
I led the first and final pitch,
with Simon doing the second pitch.
The view at the top was lovely, this was the
first time I had climbed a waterfall so It was a great experience.
I felt I
learnt a lot on the weekend. We abseiled down a bit and walked the rest of the
way to the bottom. This was the first time Steall Falls had been in condition
to climb in the last 7 years as far as I know, however I will stand corrected
if someone tells me any different. We were packing up our kit and as I was
standing next to Simon I heard him shout, he had fell through the ice and he
was almost up to waist level in the lake. I was trying not to laugh, then Simon
laughed so I started to laugh as well. It took him 3 attempts to get out. We
walked out and crossed the wire bridge again and headed home. It certainly was
a different way to spend your weekend and definitely beats playing on the Xbox
all night.
Big thanks to Tom, Scott, Dave and
especially Simon for making the effort to take me out on some fantastic
adventures. It is really nice that people help out with teaching the skills
that I am continually learning.
We climbed
Doctors Dilema (grade 4)
Steall Falls (grade 3)
Fast and Furious (M10)
#standoutfromthecrowd
#beboldbebraveandrememberstaysafe
#Rab
#ClimbScotland
#UrbanUprising
#SnowFactor
#TCA
#GC
