Back in Scotland

Well after a steady drive north up the M74 and A82 we're back in Glencoe, another week of winter skills training beckoning. The good news is that there is plenty of snow, despite a light thaw now setting in at very low levels.

This year we are running a week of courses specifically for retail staff from Cotswold Outdoor. We've got 48 retail staff turning up over the next week from all across the country, eager to join courses catering for complete beginners through to those with a little bit of winter and climbing experience.

We are running the course in conjunction with Plas Y Brenin, the National Mountain Centre and GORE-TEX.

We'll be posting daily reports on what we've been up to as well as the latest on scottish winter conditions.

Deep Freeze Highlights: Volume 2

More Highlights. Full articles can be found here.

Cautley Spout

Following another cold night in Cumbria (-15c in Shap) and sub-zero daytime temperatures, we decided to head over to the Howgills to scope out Cautley Spout.

Approaching Cautley Spout

For those who've not visited before, Cautley Spout forms a delighful grade 3 ice route, not often in condition, and only a short walk from the main A-road running north from Sedbergh...

Smears of ice visible

We finally set off, dodging the spray that was raining down on us, the ice was sticky, in places complete and utter rubbish, slushy, unstable and certainly not protectable..

The best line if futher right....honest!

The second short pitch was not much better, brittle ice and streams of water, again which could be outflanked on the left. From here things improved slightly, at the least the ice seemed solid, even take the off half decent screw on the final pitch.

Better ice on the upper pitches

Traverse of the Helvellyn range on ski

On Saturday we completed a rare North-South traverse of the Helvellyn massif on ski.

The alarm sounded at 5:30am. It was dark, very dark and cold. This seemed like such a good idea last night, now it just felt very early for a saturday morning.

It was 6:30am by the time we left the house, there was still no sign of daylight in the eastern skies, and what little moon there was, shone clearly as we made our way through the central fells en-route to Threlkeld, the small village to the east of Keswick that would be our starting point.

As we arrived in Threlkeld the first signs of daylight were rapidly filling the eastern skyline, it was another 40 minutes before sun-rise. Ski's out, skins on and we were off....

The first rays of sun were already gracing the summits of Blencathra as we headed upwards, the snow underski dry and powdry....

After a brief stop for lunch (the four of us huddled into our lightweight mountain shelter) we headed towards Helvellyn Lower Man. Dropping down to the col that skirts the western edge of Brown Cove and for the first and only time, it was time to ditch the ski's and climb the broad rocky ridge that would lead to the 925m summit of Helvellyn Lower Man.

With ski's strapped to our packs and the wind accelerating across the ridge, it was an unsteady battle upwards, the ski's acting like sails to pull you side-ways. It was a battle to keep hands warm in the biting wind, finger tips were becoming numb and climbing in ski mountaineering boots with the lack of ankle flex made everything feel a little unsteady.

But the ridge was shortlived, as were the twisting and ferocious winds. As we pulled onto the summit and the main Helvellyn plateau, it felt like a serene region of the arctic.

From there it was short walk upto the summit of Helvellyn itself. From here it would be largely downhill, a gradual descent across the scoured plateau towards Nethermost Pike.

An unforgettable day.

Stephen Venables - Lectures

Mountain Equipment Pro Partner Stephen Venables give us an update on his lecture plans for 2010.

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"Having just returned from lecture tours in New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong and the United States, this year I am staying mainly at home. However, I will be talking at a conference in Santiago, Chile, in November.

Here, I have a busy programme, starting with a talk on the Nepal Himalaya in Mellor, near Manchester, on February 8th. Then I head to Scotland to tour my new "Shipton Country" lecture, which was a sellout when I tried it out in Bristol before Christmas. I will also be visiting most areas of England and Wales with various talks, including a new touring theatre show "In the Steps of Shackleton", using gorgeous photos and film footage from all my three South Georgia expeditions over the last twenty years. "

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Details of Stephens lectures are now up on http://www.stephenvenables.com

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For further information on "In the Foot Steps of Shackleton" lecture tour supported by Mountain Equipment also see http://www.speakersfromtheedge.com

Deep Freeze Highlights: Volume I

I am so optimistic that this winters going to be a good one that i am going to separate these highlights into volumes! These are a few of the highlights from the past few weeks, the full articles can be found here.

In the week before Christmas we arrived in Vallouise, in the heart of the Ecrins Massif in the French Alps. An 11 hour drive from the UK - 17 if you live that little bit further north!

The first dump of snow in Vallouise

Ailefroide - Clapouse a Gauche - WI3

The first objective of our trip, a short WI3 icefall an hour or so further up the valley from Ailefroide named Clapouse a Gauche.

Snow conditions meant we could walk

Snowchains - this winters must have accessory

Les Orres - Dancing Fall - WI5+

The following day we headed southwards towards the small French Ski resort of Les Orres.

Recent avalanche debris - this lot had poured over several popular ice routes

Rich on the first pitch of Dancing Fall

Chris Jakeman on Pitch Two of Dancing Fall

The final pitch looked like the real prize. A large cigar of vertical ice plunging down the short rock band near the top.

Rich on the final Cigar Pitch of Dancing Fall

For 15 or 20 feet I battled upwards, getting steadily wetter....another 5 feet or so and I would be past the worst of the cascading water. But I was rapidly becoming drenched....I had to admit defeat and retreat.

Avalanches and more avalanches

The following day we decided to head on our second sortie up into Ailefroide, this time on ski, and this time to look at Clapouse a Droite, the WI4 line we had not had time to do on our first foray into this high valley.

It was ominously warm as we left the car and started skinning up the road towards Ailefroide.......it would not have been an exaggeration to say that we witnessed avalanches and serious sluffs of snow all around us every 4-5 minutes.......The snow was heavy and sticking to our skins as we made our way further up the valley, the avalanches continuing around us. Decision time. Would I walk up that slope I thought. Not in a million years, so climbing underneath it seemed equally fool hardy. We ate our lunch and skied back.

Dry Tooling - L'Argentiere & La Vachette

From there the weather went down hill, pouring rain dampening everything including the spirits a little but we were determined to keep climbing. Dry tooling was the only answer.

Someone not new to Dry Tooling is Tooled Up Mixed Master Andy Turner. Andy dispatched everything with clinical perfection but even he looked as though inspiration was lacking a little as the rain poured off the front of his visor

A day later, tools slightly blunter and arms slightly stretched we headed past Briancon towards La Vachette and to a relatively new Dry Tooling venue high above the Nevache road.

Up to date information on icefall conditions in and around the Ecrins massif can be found on www.icefall.com

Pointless activities

Well, after a day of such snow, how could I not go boarding?

The low cloud and snow ment the night was yellow with reflected sodium lights, so I left the house at 8.30pm and walked up Werneth Low, the hill behind the house to scout for some steep fields.
I did a few runs on a hill overlooking Manchester and then headed up to the top of the hill to board down the road.

The photo is me standing below the sign at the top to the hill before my first run. 13% it says, not the steepest, but usefully twisty with a couple of steeper sections. It had been driven on a bit, but with only a couple of spots to avoid.
In the end I hiked up the hill 3 times to tune my descent getting the feel of it so I could really nail it into the corners. The flat light made it tricky to read the ruts and gullies at the side of the road, but it was brilliant.

Through a window in a house at the bottom of the hill I could see a guy watching TV who didn't move during my 3 runs. Remote hand out towards the TV as if always on the cusp of changing channel.

Anyway, back home at 11pm and straight to bed. It was really good, though I am a tad tired today.

Get out more!

If you haven't guessed, this is my only new years resolution.

I had a chance on Sunday afternoon to go outside and I thought I'd go to the Roaches, again. Seem to be going there more than anywhere else at the moment. Well, it is a brilliant place and I thought the Spring Boulders would perhaps be the only climbable rock in the Peak.

Without a 4x4 the road was impassable so I parked at Upper Hulme and walked up the snowbound road for 20 mins or so. There were quite a few folks heading back down the road, but it was pretty quiet.
Lo and behold the Spring Boulders had 3 dry problems on it. 1 of them is in theory doable (for me) so I spent a happy hour trying that problem.

Basically I spent 1 hour trying to get my hips in the right position to enable the move from the first rubbish smear for the left foot to step the right foot to a good hold. Much rubber was lost from my left toe as I worked out the minute border between pressure and friction. I almost got it, but not quite.
It was very good. I left at about 3.30 as the sun dropped below the horizon and the temperature plummeted. I was wearing a prototype of a super beefy synthetic insulation jacket -the Citadel due in the shops winter 2010 - and I was WARM. Also I am happy to report my Astron softshell performed admirably as a crashpad/beermat.

Hopefully I'll get chance to hike for some turns on my board next weekend....

The Roaches from the walk up...

Looking back at Hen Cloud

The noble spring boulders: snow free, just

After the sun had set the sky really was this colour.

Back to Work!

I'm sure you're all suffering as I am today - coming back to the day to day routine while having to look out of your office window at the glorious winter conditions... sob. But to try and brighten up your day and remind you of happier times check out all the stories from the Christmas and New Year break at our pro partners blogs (listed to the right)

below is a small video taken from Dave MacLeods blog of the guys larking about between climbs in the Highlands last week

Chin up 4 more days to weekend!