Martin..... "2010 was an excellent year particularly for winter and ice climbing. I made several new routes in Scotland, including Pale Rider (VIII,9) and Feast of the East (VIII,9) on Beinn Eighe, The Wailing Wall (IX,9) on An Teallach plus some notable repeats The God Delusion (IX,9) (2nd ascent) on Beinn Bhan Sundance (VIII,8) (2nd ascent) on Beinn Eighe and The Secret (VIII,8)(5th ascent) on Ben Nevis.
In Norway the cold winter produced stunning ice climbing conditions and with Martin Welch I made the 1st British ascent (and 13th or 14th overall) of the 275m Vettisfossen (Norwegian VI, WI6), one of the world’s most impressive and famous waterfalls.
In our 18 hour Vettisfossen day I wore the same pair of ME Randonnee gloves throughout – testimony to their superb warmth water resistance and technical performance. We also discovered and climbed a new 300m line up an astounding pair of ice pencils above Ardal – ‘Double Whammy’ (Norwegian V, WI6).
Spring and Summer were mainly spent guiding. We had a total of 200 clients in the year and notable highlights were weeks in the Lyngen Alps and Lofoten Islands of Northern Norway, where I guided the magnificent 11-pitch Presten West Pillar (E2) – one of the best rock climbs I’ve done. In the Alps I made guiding ascents of the Kuffner Route on Mont Maudit, Vaucher Route on the Aiguille du Peigne and a traverse of the Schreckhorn .
Our post-monsoon expedition to peak Satopanth (7075m) was beset by bad weather. A single blizzard put down 4 feet of snow at base camp. Having already reached and dumped kit at camp 2 (6000m) we were unable to retrieve the kit and were lucky to extricate ourselves safely under threat of avalanches."
more information available at Martin's website here
