Gwilym's Adventure Blog

Today I have been at The Life Centre running an Indoor Climbing Assistant award for 6th form students from Plymouth College Lot of stuff covered today including personal skills, coaching skills and "assisting" skills.

This week I have been at Quantock Lodge running a National Pool Lifeguard Qualification for Wet and High Adventures Ltd. A busy week with pool based and classroom based sessions covering everything from First Aid, Water Rescue, Legal Knowledge and Observation skills All 6 candidates (plus myself) who took the exam passed. Tomorrow morning I will assessing another group of candidates and then time for a day off on Sunday. Can't wait!

What a day. Yeah Scotland, I knew you could do it Salamander Gully III 4 on Beinn a Dothaidh with Charlie. Very good ice, blue skies and eventually low wind. I was so warm and for the first time ever, Charlie took a layer off on the belay. First 2 pitches for Charlie, the main 2 pitches for me including the short steep crux and the last pitch back to Charlie to finish in the sun (last picture) and a walk out.

Another stonking Scottish Day. North Buttress (West Route) on Buachaille Etive Mor delivered four pitches of great climbing with some glimpses of sunshine. Although a little bit of wading was required on the way in and up through the grade 1 ground to the start of the route, once on the upper buttress it was nice and (mainly) firm snow with even some ice. Sadly due to some wind we decided to not top out and abseiled back down the route to the bottom and enjoyed a leisurely walk out knowing that we would be back at the car in plenty of time before darkness fell.

Finally back out after a few days of admin hiding from Storm Ciara. 2 super friendly Snow Buntings on the way into the CIC hut stopped to say hello and then we joined a large number of others heading for The Douglas Boulder. It was a googles day with the cold wind and snow blowing around. On arrival we managed to nip around a couple of pairs about to start on the South West Ridge and got ahead of them and made our way to the top. A bit blowy at times but the route was in good condition with gear when needed. A couple of thought provoking moves interspersed with easy ground and then it was a quick abseil back into West Gully And then the wind really hit us as we down climbed and very quickly made our way back to the CIC hut and then back to car and down the track by 14:30. Always good to get in, do a route and get out with some daylight left.

A speculative trip to Torridon unfortunately didn't pay off. The climbing crags of Beinn Eighe and Liathach were wet and the temps were high. It will be a few days before winter returns to this location. Still, a 13km walk and a haggis and egg bap is not to be sniffed at.

An excellent day with Mark on Raeburn's Gully Buttress today even if the snow was unconsolidated and unhelpful to say the least. There was some neve towards the top of the route and amazing views on the walk in, during the climb and on the descent.

Today, Will, Cameron and I walked into Ben Nevis with an open mind to see what was in. We headed high to Coire Na Ciste and spotted that South Gully looked good. Will and I swung leads over 3 pitches with Cameron following until we got stopped by the monster cornice. A couple of (long) abseils back and we were walking out. A fair amount of snow fell during the day and this was sitting on the old pack meaning careful route choice as we walked back down the approach apron. Sadly from the CIC hut down it was rain and by the time we reached the car we were very wet.