Gwilym's Adventure Blog

Today Rob and I intended to Ski Tour on the Cairngorm plateau. The wind got the better of us and we bailed out and spent the day tearing up and down the pistes instead.

I had written today off and was happily doing some admin when I looked out of the window after lunch and saw blue sky. That was it, computer thrown down and I jumped in the van and head up the mountain. The bottom half of the Cairngorm Ski Centre was open and ticket price down to £15 I grabbed the chance and hit the slopes. I had a good 2 1/2 hours of sliding and it was great to finally be back on skis.

Somewhat windy Today Jake, Mandy and I headed back into Corie an T'Sneachda to see what routes were good to go. Unfortunately there were teams on all the routes we had in mind and even more teams turning up. As the weather was deteriorating I decided to call it a day and walk out having a nice wander around seeing what was going on. I got back to the van before the rain started and the wind picked up. Jake and Mandy decided to try for a route and got something done on the broken ground to the right of The Hurting before joining me back at the van looking very wet.

Today Jake, Mandy and I headed into Corie an T'Sneachda where we climbed Terms of Endearment III, Original Summer Route IV 5 and the the variation start to the above V 6. Aladdin's Butress was busy with teams on Patey's Route and Doctors Choice as well as a couple of other teams on Original Summer Route. It was good to get out on the hill again and good to be playing with ropes.

After having both Friday and Saturday off as I needed a rest and the weather was awful, today Jake, Mandy and I headed to Inverness Leisure Centre in the pouring rain for some climbing.  It was very busy in the wall (not like the picture above I borrowed from their website). Hope to get back out on the hill tomorow

Today with some tired legs and a poor forecast, Dan, Olly, Charlie, Mark and I headed into the Ciste Carpark snow patch to look at snow anchors. We dug bucket seats, buried axes, snow bollards and stompers. The lower hills around us have lost a lot of snow in the last 24 hours.

Today Dan, Olly, Charlie and I headed round to Lurchers Crag in the vague hope that there would be some usable ice. Although we managed to climb a 45m pitch and looked at ice screws, belays and abalakovs, it would be fair to say the ice was pretty poor.  Fortunately the stunning views on the way in made up for the poor ice once there.

Today Dan, Olly, Charlie and I wanted to look at some winter climbing and as the top ski carpark was full, we opted for the lower one and a quick walk into the Ciste Crag. We looked at Parrallel and Series climbing as well as all three doing a pitch of leading.

Not such good visibility on the Cairngorm Plateau today. Johns last day with me today and we were able to practice navigation in near whiteout conditions. We also found a snowhole in Corie Domhain which provided shelter for our lunch. A lap of the Northen Corries was our day with a high point of 1215m

Today I was with John and Charlie for some winter walking. This was Charlie's first winter mountain and what an amazing view we had. The day started with some skills in Corie na Ciste but this soon led into a climb to the summit of Cairngorm (1245m) before wandering back down to practise some more sliding.

Today I was joined by John who is up for a few days of winterising his summer hill walking. Today we headed to Meall a Bhuachaille and Creagan Gorm via cup of coffee in the Ryvoan Bothy. It was surprisingly busy on these two hills today. Picture above is John in the shelter of the wall we built for a brew.

Today Jamie , Mark and I had an early start and drove to Torridon with the intention of doing the Liathach Ridge Traverse. A combination of deep snow made slow going, a wane in enthusiasm and wet feet stopped the attempt but we still had a good number of hours enjoying the view and bimbling around