Vanishing Gully

Epic?

It's funny how the meaning of words gets changed by the way we use them. For example 'we had a absolute epic' ('we had a long day and now I'm tired'). An online dictionary defines an epic as 'an extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a legendary or traditional hero'. As I cannot compare my blog to the work of Milton in Paradise Lost and would not describe myself as a 'legendary hero', I can only conclude that I have never had an epic... But I have had some long days! Tower Ridge being one of them. Andy, Ben and I travelled up to Scotland in January to stay with friends and do some climbing. The weather was looking excellent and we knew the ridge would have good neve and not a lot of fresh snow, so gear would be easier to find and we could move quickly... I suggest leaving very early as I know the ridge can make for a really long day. But I'm told this is unneccessary and assured by Luke that it will take us 5 hours - a conservative estimate. Note to self: when aspirant guides suggest timings for routes, add a bit. This was possibly a bit of a big route to jump on considering that neither of us had climbed in winter for two years, but we knew it was within our ability. Luke had said the Douglas gap was the hardest bit...so when this proved to be a straightforward lead, I was thinking 'this is going to be easy'. However the most time consuming part of the day turned out to be route finding - despite being on a ridge! - and faf. About a third of the way up, we hit a bit of a wall, and I knew we were both having un-vocalised Mountain Rescue thoughts. We re-fuelled and assessed our options deciding to continue. We were relying on each other to lead and route find. We got benighted on the Eastern Traverse, which Andy led. As I followed him across, I reflected that it probably felt a lot less exposed than normal, as the only thing I could see was the snow and rock in front of me, illuminated by the small pool of light from my head torch. Not wishing to tackle Tower Gap in the dark, we knew we could continue traversing and avoid it - a decision which needed little discussion! So we quested on and eventually I popped out on the crest of the ridge. Andy continued up the final snow slope to the plateau and I cracked a smile for the first time in a few hours. Made it! All in all it took us nine hours on the ridge itself and we didn't get back to the house until 11pm. I concluded 'that was a long day and now I'm tired'...

Aonach Mor

Sunday was an easier day on Aonach Mor with Francis. The day started off overcast and dull but was quite warm. Having led and seconded some harder routes I was keen to scale things back slightly so I could get my leading head back on. We decided to look at Right Twin to start with. Francis was keen to get to know the abseil approaches to routes so we descended Morwind.When our exploratory abseil didn't quite go to plan we ended up climbing back up the route, which was actually quite good! it Unfortunately whilst we were at one of our belays I saw someone fall quite a long way from near the top of Tunnel Vision. The cornices were becoming very soft in the sun and the climber failed to get enough purchase. Initially he seemed ok but was helicoptered out with injured femur and pelvis etc. We had time left so headed for some easy routes in the shade to the left of Easy Gully, climbing Nausea (II) - Francis coming up the first pitch in the photo. The route was easy but pleasant and allowed me to get my head back in. Quick cup of tea then back down on the gondola.

Back on the Ben

My alarm goes off at 5am... ugh...what?... oh I'm going climbing.... snooze....nine minutes later..after the count of three, I will leap out of the warm cocoon of my bed into my ice box room and dress as quickly as humanly possible, drink my tea whilst mentally running through a gear check. 6am, my house mate Sam and I are out the door heading for Ben Nevis. During out hour drive across to the west, the rain gets heavier and the cloud gets lower. Not very inspiring. In fact getting out of the car once we arrive in the North Face car park is only marginally easier than getting out of bed. Waterproofs straight on and a slog up in the mankyness to try Zero Gully. Unfortunately, after an eternity, we arrived near foot of Zero which is basically a waterfall; and not the nicely frozen kind. We headed further round and up to have a look at Good Friday climb, optimistically thinking that 100m or so height gain might be all that was needed for there to be some ice. Wrong again, everything is melting! In the end we went for Tower Scoop which was still in good condition. Two pitches of fun ice. Just as we finished the route and beat a hasty retreat the sun came out giving stunning views of the crags and Lochaber. So all in all not a bad day, no pain no gain!

Gogarth

This weekend I had three days off so decided to hook up with my friend Kin in Llanberis. Kin and I had never climbed together so we decided to head to Gogarth Main Cliff (what? ...it made sense at the time). This was the first time I had climbed on the main cliff, pretty impressive! and a bit scary. Actually the most scary/dangerous part of the day was the traverse across the cliffs to get to the base of the routes... I tried to concentrate on not slipping and not think of my body tumbling down the cliff and being dashed on the rocks below, morbid :) ha ha. It was a perfect day weather wise and I enjoyed some great belays bathed in afternoon sun, the sea washing over the rocks below. We climbed Imitator - VS4c and Bezel - VS5a. Both felt hard and unrelenting - I think that's the character of the main cliff. I led the first pitch of Bezel but was happy to hand the reigns back to Kin for the last pitch. We started quite late in the day and only climbed two routes, but by the time we topped out at around 10pm, I felt totally wiped out. A good hard day, must get stronger!

Volcan Baru

The team just arrivd back in San Jose, dry, clean (warm shower!). We just spent a few days in Panama doing some trekking. The most arduous trek was up Volcan Baru, the highest volcano in Central America at 3475m. It took us a day up and a day down. The first morning was a 5am start ugh... then lots of climbing and lots more climbing. The views were amazing, lots of cloud forest and volcanic rock. Sadly there was a lot of litter both along the route and at the summit. We finished the day in torrential rain and arrivd to find not grass, but an enclosed area of gravel next to a load of huge pylons and aerials and dishes. Fortunately one of our guides was friends with one of the rangers who let us sleep in one of the control rooms next to all the elctrical machines. It was prettty grim, and cold, but better than camping! We met the other World Challenge team at the top. Unfortunately the only water supply up here was from the ranger´s hut so all 29 of us had to get our water for cooking and drinking from here. There was no toilet either... I hate to think what impact all the visitors are having on the environment up there. If all the graffitti and litter is anything to go by then I think they´ll have to put something in place soon to cope with the volume of people climbing this hill. On alighter note, in the morning we were treated to spectacular views of the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, the Caribean, Costa Rica and the city of David. Really cool. We also saw a Koati searching for our leftover food.

Baldi Hot Springs

One thing I forgot to mention, hot springs. Thue huge bonus of being near an active volcano! We payed to go to the hot springs but aparently there are lots of free pools locally. The place we went to was way more plush than I had expected - it doesn't feel much like we are in the developing world, a fa cry from my experiences of travelling in Tanzania and Russia. Hatred of tourism aside (!) it was amazing. Super hot pools of water, so relaxing. And the scariest water slide ever, not so relaxing. Because it was night the inside was almost completely dark. It was very fast, in places near vertical - I was definitely free falling for a few seconds. I involuntarily screamed for most of the way down :-0