Carn Liath

I had a drive west in search of some soft snow. The Cairngorms look good from a distance but they are very icy right now. Probably good for climbing but terrible for ski touring.

Creag Meagaidh was plastered but I kept driving to Fersit. Surprisingly there seemed to be less snow on the hill around Loch Treig so I procrastinated for a bit before driving back to Aberarder. If I'd had an earlier start the Creag Meagaidh circuit would have been possible. As it was already 11am and the weather was changing I settled for Carn Liath; the shallow south east coire just east of the summit looked like it might have some good snow. I followed the main Coire Ardair path for a couple of K's before cutting steeply up right and onto the ridge west of the summit. There was some very nice fresh snow on the descent and I managed to heather hop down to about 450M. A quad track gets you back to Aberarder farm.

Hyslops

It was 'Themselves' 65th wedding anniversary yesterday (18th December). We went down to the Bluebird Cafe for lunch; Mum, Dad, Jen and me.

The weather was typically wild for the time of year with wind and rain lashing up the lake from the south. It was a better day in Ambleside 65 years ago.

Rememberance Day

My Dad on his way to the Remembrance Day service in Conistion.

Waistcoat bought at Binns, Carlisle 1962. Irish tweed Jacket bought at Andrew Houston Ltd., Bank St,  Carlisle 1965. WW2 campaign medals.

He served on the v-class destroyer HMS Venus, in the Mediterranean, and spent time in Cyprus and Haifa, Palestine.  He was involved with British Government's attempt in trying to stop the Jewish 'Exodos' from Europe after the war which was later countermanded by the US Government.

At the age of 19 he got the opportunity to bring HMS Venus into Malta Harbour because the Royalty Petty Officer was too drunk to do it himself! This was no mean feat as the harbour was full of sunken ships after the epic Siege of Malta.

William Mansell Hyslop

HMS Venus

Bombing damage in Valletta, Malta

Broken Back

I had a brilliant trip to Spazzacaldeira with John Topping. We were both moving well on the long granite routes which all involved multiple abs to get off. Any kind of error on the descent would have been fatal. A few days later, back in Aviemore, I did something stupid while abseiling to retrieve some gear and fell 3M onto my back. Don’t ask me what I did wrong, I’m sick of telling the story. Suffice to say it was one of the most common errors.

Moving well. John Topping at Spazzacaldeira

I knew immediately that I’d properly hurt myself. It's all still a bit raw to talk about but I managed to write a log once I'd been stabalised in hospital. Here are the first few days:

Tuesday 23rd

Hit the ground hard. Immediate pain in lower back. Tried to stand and get harness off but only managed to undo main buckle. Eddie goes to road to get a phone signal while I'm hyperventilating with the pain and swearing a lot. Try to drink but can't get water to my mouth between breaths. Worrying spell where my arms went completely numb but eventually regained some feeling. Calmed down a bit and seemed to be controlling the pain with stomach breathing.

The ambulance guys arrive with gas and air which doesn't help much.  They get a line in and inject morphine which also has a fairly disappointing effect. They check my spine and can't find any breaks or direct pain by pressing on vertebrae. Eventually get me in neck brace and back board. More morphine and a carry out directly down through the woods to the road. Much swearing from me. More morphine in the ambulance before we set off which is starting to have  discernible effect. Trying to work out how close we are to Inverness by looking at passing tree tops.

Get into casualty and they try to work out the problem. They do the same check on vertebrae and get an X-ray. Can't see any breaks so try to get me walking.  Pat arrives.

Trying to stand or move is agony. A few comments like 'come on you can do it'. They think I'm not trying hard enough. More drugs and muscle relaxants. Try again and eventually managed to stand and sit down on a chair. Hot sweat and nauseous.  They check blood pressure which is in the red at 77 over something. Obviously a bit worried I might have bleeding. Sent for MRI scan "just as a belt and braces check".  Short wait before being told I have broken back.

 Got to a ward around 10.30pm after being in causality for several hours. Lots of IV morphine and IV paracetamol. 

Don't be such a whimp. Get up and walk!

Wednesday 24th

Spent most of the day in Inverness while they worked out what to do with me. Consultants sounded fairly pessimistic at first but eventually contacted Aberdeen who said they could fix it. Procrastination about how I was going to get there. Weather too bad for air ambulance so eventually went by road cocooned in a full body inflatable support. Fully doped up with morphine and slept most of way (3 hours).

Thursday 25th

Assessed by consultants in morning who said they would operate that day. By lunch time they decided to scan again to see if there was enough ligament to support the fracture without an operation. By evening they decided not to operate (yet) and try for natural healing and a brace.

Friday 26th

Bad night in ward not knowing where I was and slightly delirious. Had a wash and shave in morning and started to feel better. Consultant visited and asked physios to try and get me walking. Managed to end of ward and back. Got moved into single room. Had all IV lines out and catheter. Quite a lot of positive stuff happened that day after the uncertainty of the last couple of days. 

First Steps

Saturday 27th

Slept much better in a single room and on my right side which was a relief from being permanently on my back. Felt annoyed and pissed off in the middle of the day then a bit weepy later on. The big ticks for the day were one, having a shower and two, having shit; the first since the accident. Watched Gladiator on TV.

Sunday 28th

Must have been moving around too much in the night  cos felt soar in the morning. Hard work getting a shower again. Managed to move 1M from bed to a sink but when I tried it again later ended up in agony. All the pain seems to be on the left side and shoots down front of left leg. No big ticks today, probably a step back in reality because I now know how painful it will be if I get it wrong, especially with no bed to fall back on.


They kicked me out of Aberdeen after ten days with a brace and a bladder infection. I had to have the catheter back in after my bladder had expanded to an unfeasible size but once the antibiotics started to work things improved fairly rapidly.

I could walk down to the pub, but something very strange had happened to my taste for trad beer. In the words of the Aviemore locals I denounced it as ‘Mingin’. Only lager seems to do the trick these days; I wonder what was in those Aberdeen IV lines?

Craigellachie, a BIG tick!

Sitting at a desk is painful but I’m managing to walk a bit further every day. Walking up Craigellachie today was a bit of a mile stone.

I don’t know when I’ll be climbing again but I’m in no hurry. Most people seem horrified by my enforced lay-off but actually I’m feeling remarkably positive about life in general. Obviously the accident could have been much worse and it looks like I’ll make a full recovery; quite a few of my friends have not been so lucky.

This is the first time in 40 years of climbing that haven’t felt compelled to head out into the hills at every available opportunity and its strangely calming to not have the rat continually gnawing for a change.

Ski Touring Round Up

I have been holding off writing this post until the end of winter but with snow on the ground in Aviemore this morning it looks like there might be at least another week of skiing to come.

The best conditions came after the big storm in March which effected most of the UK. High winds stripped a lot of snow from the plateaus and formed amazing (and occasionally lethal), snow structures down to 500M.


Cárn Dearg Mor 20/03

An afternoon trip with Rob Edmond out the back of Aviemore. We cycled from High Burnside up to the commercial forest gate then walked up through the Caledonian Pines to break out on the Mor at about 550M. Lack of time prevented us from reaching the summit but we had a great run down through the trees on snow covered heather.

Rob Edmond, Aviemore behind

Sgor Gaoith 25/03

This was the first skiable day after the storm. The ascent was icy and scoured back to grit in some places but the up side was that the burn lines were packed with snow. This enabled a long descent down the Alt Ruadh to a point where it become too steep and narrow to ski. A short hike back up through the trees regained the path.

An arctic Braeriach from Sgor Gaoith

Bynack Moor 28/03

I wasn’t sure what to expect heading down Ciste Mhearad to The Saddle, but conditions were fantastic with a light covering of powder on a firm base, and even better, there were no tracks. Allt a’ Choire Dhubh wasn’t in as good a condition but still skiable for most of its length down to Strath Nethy.

Loch Avon and fresh tracks

Coire Gorm 30/03

Another trip with Rob Endmond to the shallow burn line in the NW slope of Sròn na Lairge. Rob had permission to drive up to Rothiemurchus Lodge from where we were able to ski right from the car park. Huge amounts of snow had been dumped in The Ghru, transforming it into a 50M wide piste. Conditions in the Coire were slightly disappointing with lots of sastrugi and variable cover.

The Lairig Ghru transformed into a 50M wide piste

Ben Avon 31/03

I finally worked out a stable method of attaching skis to a bike. The key was to attach the boots to the bindings and mount the whole lot as far back on the frame as possible to stop your legs catching on the bindings. Fortunately the estate road from Tomintoul to Inchrory had been cleared allowing an easy 10k cycle to within a short walk of the hill. I returned via Caol Ghleann.

The SkiBike at Inchrory

Beinn Mheadhoin 05/04

I had been wanting to do this tour for a couple of years. The descent from Cairngorm and down Coire Raibert was awkward but not difficult. Loch Avon was frozen and there were tracks straight across the middle. I whimped out on the direct route and cut across the ice closer to the head of the loch.

The plateau of Beinn Mheadhoin was scoured bare but the descent down the NW slope was in good condition with a final high speed schuss across the frozen loch towards The Saddle.

Loch Avon

Coire Gorm Revisted 19/04

A very early start (3am) with aspirations for a long tour over to Deeside. Unfortunately I was a bit too early for the weather and bailed out between Sròn na Lairge and Braeriach in strong winds and a white out. The descent back down Coire Gorm was in much better condition than in March.

Coire Gorm at 7am

March Burn (not)

I had a speculative trip across the plateau to see if I could get down the March Burn with my relatively lightweight gear. A gentle approach led to an icy funnel. I couldn't see over the edge so I removed skis and tried to kick steps to where I could get an idea of what I would be committing myself to. Not having an ice axe or crampons I gave up that idea fairly quickly.

Having admitted defeat I headed back towards Lurchers and also hoped to get a better view of the March Burn from further along the rim. I definitely made the right decision! The strong winds of previous weeks looked to have built a steep icy headwall with no easy entry to the lower slopes.

The top of the March Burn, Cairn Toul behind

The Escalator 03/05

The weather was not quite as advertised in the morning but I cycled up Glen Einich anyway. It took an hour to reach the point on the track opposite The Escalator. From there it was a short walk to reach the snow. Too steep for skinning, I booted it up to around the 1000M contour before the weather got to ferocious to continue.

A brilliant descent! The snow was soft and smooth, quite steep in a couple of places, probably a similar angle to The West Wall on Cairngorm or an average alpine back run. I was back in Aviemore for 12.30pm

The Escalator from Glen Einich

Ciste Gully 04/05

Possibly the last run of the season. An evening trip with Ole from Norway; astounded that he was skiing in Scotland, in May!

Mud and rain on the walk out from the Ciste at 8pm

Coire Laogh Mor

A good start to the season on Cairngorm. Nice snow in Coire Loagh Mor yesterday and great to be able to ski right down to the bottom car park (almost). This is the Coire east of Coire na Ciste at Cairngorm accessed by a long traverse from the top of there Ptarmigan Tow.



 

Longs Peak

Alec Sharp is one of the climbers who inspired me as a youth. He left the UK in 1982 and settled in Boulder CO. Jonathan Lagoe made contact with him during his stay in Boulder and through Jonathan I was lucky enough to get to know him as well.

The three of us climbed Longs Peak via the Loft Route and back down by the Keyhole Route. 7 Hours round trip. The weather was with us, it's raining this morning and snow is forecast for Longs Peak; winter has arrived in the mountains.

The Diamond

Alec Sharp on the Loft Route

On the Loft Route

Ice on the Loft Route

Freeway

A stupendous, funkadelic (yes, I've been here too long), 800 feet of high quality easy climbing on perfect rock in a beautiful, quasi wilderness/urban setting......alright if you like that sort of thing.

Low on Freeway, Boulder behind

 

A bit higher up

 

Near the top

 

A canny arch (Biffa)

 

Fourteener Ticking

Crusher said:

Hi Andy, I just injured my shoulder a few days ago. Nothing too serious, inflamed bicep tendon area; not the first time but a bit worse than last time. I expect to be not climbing for a couple weeks or so, maybe until end of September before anything very difficult.

Ed said:

Hey, Andy, I took a 50 foot fall yesterday. Rappelling down a canyon. The anchor knot unravelled and I made it to the bottom in record time. However, due to my haste, I broke a few ribs and had some nice internal bleeding. I also saw my right elbow bones and tendons. It's not broken, just cut wide open. I'm in the Grand Junction hospital, St. Mary's. So I regret that I will be unable to make it to go climbing with you this week.

Bring on some 14er bagging.

The Grays, Torreys combo offers two peaks linked by a high saddle. I would have liked to have climbed Torreys by the Kelso Ridge (class 3) but strong winds and fresh snow put me off.

Climbing Grays Peak

Looking down the Kelso Ridge

 

The Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross combo is a neat four peak horseshoe centred around Kite Lake. Climbing Bross is discouraged because it is private land!

Looking south from Democrat

Aspens near the Hoosier Pass

Mount Bross

On the way to Lincoln

 

Super Worthy at the Voo

After a life time of waiting we finally made it to Wyoming's legendary crack climbing destination, Vedauwoo.

Our crack technique may have been lacking but not so much as our essential Voo lexicon. As luck would have it, local crack meister Lenore Sparks was on hand to put us right.

Essential phrases added to our crack climbing vocabulary now include 'clip that shit', 'stick that shit', 'it's so sick', ' man pants' and of course 'super worthy'. No more embarrassment at the crag for us dudes!

The day finished with an extremely rare sighting of Black Moose. It must be a sign!

Big thanks to Lenore Sparks and Paul Hock for fantastic afternoon at the crag.

 

Ten Sleep

It's ten sleeps from a couple of big Indian camps in either direction (or was), before we killed them all. The town is small, a bit run down, has a couple of motels, a good cafe for breakfast and a bar with excellent beer and food. Bring any other food you might need; the gas station/store has limited choice. I really liked the place, the locals chat at the bar, and the cafe has a 'home cookin' feel about it despite the breakfast options being either 'Breakfast 1'or 'Breakfast 2'.

Limestone, a bit of a rarity in the US. Loads of it, and surprisingly good quality. The routes range from vertical to radically overhanging. Not much sub 5.10. We had three fantastic days hauling our aged bodies up routes until completely trashed and in need of a day off.

The guide book is bit crap. Lots of wasted space devoted to introverted Ted Nugent style weirdness. You get the picture with sectors such as Vietnam and Sex and Drugs. Route names; 'Bikini Girls With Machine Guns', 'B1 Bomber Dude', 'Insane Hound Possie'.....

Go there, it's cool (as they say).

 

Crack Shock

Hot and slippy. Flaring cracks, not much for the feet. 10a feels like E2. Yes, we're having a hard time on Boulder Canyon cracks (not to mention Estes Park). Did I really climb that large piece of rock a thousand miles to the west, in-a-day? Feels like another life time now. Feels like a long way from Neist!

What I do remember about crack climbing (US style), is that you have to bang your head against it for a few days to reach some level of efficiency. Feet are key, trust them, and trust those slippy jams and perfect cams; easier said than done.

More of the same tomorrow.

 

Boulder

To the east, completely flat for 1630 miles, then sea. To the west mountains. Looking forward to a month of cragging in this climbing Mecca that I've only just got around to visiting; perviously written off as a few insignificant loose cliffs in the mid west. I was spending a lot of time in California at the time, none-the-less, a typically sweeping and overly generalised opinion.

I contacted a couple of old friends living in the Bay Area before leaving the UK to see if they had any climbing contacts in Boulder; shockingly neither of them knew anyone at all. How could that be? Main stream climbers from California not knowing anyone out of thousands of climbers resident in the Boulder area? Those Valley boys need to get away a bit more.

First on the list was a shopping trip down town on the push bike. After waving and nodding to a couple of hundred cyclist the task overwhelmed me; there's just too many of the buggers. I was feeling like Crocodile Dundee on his first day in New York.

A visit to the Patagonia Store, REI and the Apple Store. Those shop assistants are just so friendly! I was more than happy to hand over substantial amounts of cash in exchange for premium priced clothing and IT equipment and, even feeling up-beat, positive and communicative myself; laughing joking and generally enjoying the experience. A nauseous hangover awaits no doubt.

Wheel Sucking Bastards

I learnt a new phrase on Scottish Ski Area Challenge, just in conversation you understand as we were (of course), riding as a team. It seemed a little over the top to me; why would you be SO bothered about someone else latching on to your back wheel?

I didn’t have to wait long to find out. Both Mike and I suffered extreme examples of ‘Wheel Sucking’ during the Corrieyairack Challenge. For those who don’t know it, the Corrieyairack is a pass between Fort Augustus and Laggan. There are various options for racing the event including, run/bike, walk/bike and mtb. We choose the a latter. The first part of the race consists of a big climb over the pass on a good track to a fast descent (some mild technical difficulties) , followed by a long road section back to the finish in Kincraig.

With Coach Mike Devlin

So, if you’re interested in ‘wheel sucking’ this how to do it: Close in to less than a metre off the back wheel of someone riding at an appropriate pace (make some patronising comments about how well the person in front is doing), coast in the slip steam until it’s possible to jump the gap to the next person in front using all the spare energy you have managed to conserve. Coast and, if the original guy (me), catches you up again (and is making progress) jump on his wheel until you can leap frog to the next person in front. Work like this until a couple of miles from home then blast off leaving everyone else in your wake.

Now I understand ‘Wheel Sucking Bastards’.

Up front somewhere Mike was having a similar experience. From the Mikes Bikes Blog:

“Mike set out again with the red mist fully down, and got back up to fifth place only to be past at Kingussie by the biggest, most flagrant, open “wheel sucker” known to human kind, attached to another’s back wheel. A chap Mike had already thrown off his wheel some 10 miles before.”

The team did ok. Hamish Irvine 4th, Mike Devlin 7th (with puncture) and me 14th.

Scottish Ski Area Bike Challenge

I’d heard a few people talk about the idea of cycling between all the Scottish ski areas; Glencoe Mountain, Nevis Range, Cairngorm Mountain, The Lecht and Glenshee. It’s not easy to find a workable route given the distance and the busy roads. A circular route would inevitably have to use the narrow and dangerous A82 between Crianlarich and Fort William and at 230 miles would be bit long for a single day.

Misery at 6am

Brian Fishpool came up with the idea of an end to end ride starting at Glencoe and finishing at Glenshee. A 170 miles sounded at bit more reasonable.

The weather wasn’t great on the day but we left Aviemore in the G2 van at 3.45am and started cycling from Glencoe Mountain at 6.06am in the pouring rain. The weather improved by Onich and we had dry conditions with a following wind through to Cairngorm, arriving at 1pm after some mechanical issues. We hit heavy rain again after Nethy which continued all the way to The Lecht.

Bacon butties at Spean Bridge

The bunch was getting a bit jaded on the two big climbs over to Deeside and by the time we had descended to the A93 we were cycling into a strong head wind. A quick stop at Braemar before the final 9 mile climb to Glenshee finishing around 9.30pm.

Glenshee at last

I have to admit that my motivation for the challenge wasn't soley fueled by my charitable nature but it's nice to be raising some money for local and national causes all the same. If you feel inspired to donate please visit our Just Giving Page

Cyclists: Brian Fishpool, Rob Edmunds, Paul Wainwright, Hamish Irvine, Andy Hyslop.

You can find full details of the ride on Paul Wainwrights Strava Page including distance, elevation and riding time.


View Scottish Ski Area Challenge in a larger map

Kintra

I had a first look at the coast east of Kintra a few weeks ago with Pete Whillance. We had an hour before driving to Craignuire and the ferry so didn’t have much time to explore but what we did see was very interesting. Cog told us that Danny Brooks had climbed several routes in the area but didn’t record them.

I returned two weeks later with John Topping. We found some more interesting crags and one very impressive overhanging buttress. I thought I could probably get up a line at the left side of the overhanging buttress but there was clearly scope for hard routes beyond our ability. Yan and Tess were in the area so we arranged to meet at the crag and point them at a few lines.

Yan attempts the right-hand line

Tess onsighted a good looking corner line at HVS/E1 and Yan tried a line at the right side of the overhanging buttress but backed off due to loose blocks. In the mean time I cleaned the left-hand line; it was very steep and I had to nut down on the ab rope to stay in. The start looked like a tough boulder problem while the rest was continuously overhanging climbing in an impressive position.

Yan and Tess left John and I trying to boulder out the start. John eventually managed to reach the good holds but I was too tired after the cleaning and multiple jumar ascents to make much impression.

Yan led a new E3 in an inlet back towards Kintra. They had gone home the time we got back to the car but had left us a note. At least we had a route name now!

I’m not that interested in new routing as a rule especially when there’s lots of cleaning involved, and definitely when the climbing is too hard for me to onsight. However I was inspired by this line. The new crag was almost 30M. Overhanging granite with holds is a rarity, even more so with good gear. I could feel a mega classic coming on.

First attempt with John Topping

 Many thanks to Ian (Yan) Taylor and Ullapool Rock  for this image

I arranged to meet bouldering ace, Greg Chapman at Craignuire on the 18th May. Greg had driven up from Lancaster with a car full of mats and I was hoping to utilise his superior technical know how, plus mats, to get me up the start of the route. We spent Saturday in the first inlet looking at some bouldering prospects. Greg climbed some fingery looking V10s while I cleaned another line to the right of Yan’s route. I ran out of energy on the first attempt but left the gear in place and came back the next day to climb the route clean, all be it with half the gear in place. Cynthia seconded and characteristically found a V Diff version to the 6a crux by climbing a hollow flake. I levered the flake off with Cogs ice axe to stop anyone else ruining my beautiful creation.

A new E4 6a near Kintra

 In the afternoon we all headed over to the big crag. Greg instantaneously dispatched the boulder problem start but had to modify his instructions to accommodate a lanky, weak, 53 year old. With the mats at the base I reached the good holds after a few tries and eventually managed to place a crucial blue Alien (Friend 0) that would protect the next section. Yet again I didn’t have the strength to continue and spent the rest of the afternoon on more cleaning and removing a huge flake from the niche with Cog’s ice axe.

I decided to rest on Monday and took Greg to some of the possible bouldering areas near Knock Vologan. Greg caught the bus back up to Craignuire that night but Cynthia stayed on to hopefully bag the route on Tuesday morning before heading home ourselves.

Greg Chapman on Roughcut Reality 7c+

Following Greg’s advice, I warmed up well. I made the good hold on the second try and continued up for a couple of metres to where I could get a hand off and drop a loop so as to pull up the rest of rack. The climbing up to the niche wasn’t too hard  (F6a+) but I was seriously pumped after the boulder problem start (F6c+). After a good rest in the niche I pulled out right into the hanging chimney for a final ‘traditional’ struggle up to a spacious glacis belay (25M). A short VS pitch up the rib to finish making the whole route around 30M.

At last “Yo Sloppy” was in the bag, E4 6a, and even though I say so myself, its gotta be a three star mega classic ;-)

Yo Sloppy E4 6a

View Kintra - Some Bouldering Locations in a larger map

Coronation Wall

Still plenty of snow up the hill.

Cairngorm 4000 Ski Tour

Tailler Burn from near Cairn Toul

Having just got back from Eigg (see previous post), it was a bit of a rush to get everything together for an early start on Cairngorm 4000 tops.

I got up at 6.00 am and left the car park at 7.30 am fully prepared to skin up to the summit. Luckily I bumped into my anonymous mate at the bottom of the M1 tow who generously offered to give me a lift to the top. Purity and ethics out the window and enjoy the ride!

Macdui by 9.30 am and on to the top of the Taillear Burn. I was concerned that the headwall had obviously avalanched in a big way at some point in the last couple of days. There was a huge amount of debris but the snow pack seemed to have stablised since the weekend. Never the less I was anxious to get out of the danger zone as quickly as possible, particularly as I was alone.

On the way back through the Chalamain Gap

The snow did not extend down to the Ghru necessitating a wade across the Dee and flog up Corie Odhar. I was lucky enough to bump into Graham Stein and Andy Lole on the plateau. We worked as a team on the second half of the tour which was useful in the heavy afternoon conditions.

The descent down Corie Gorm was still in excellent condition despite the heat. The snow ran out a short way above Lochan Odhar. Back at the car park for 6.30 pm.

Another incredible day in the Scottish hills.