Spring Climbing at Wintour’s Leap

Alastair BegleyRock Climbing Short Link

Another weekend with a forecast for sun and warm temperatures meant another weekend climbing. Last weekend I headed out sport climbing at Tirpentwys on the Saturday and trad climbing at Wyndcliffe on the Sunday. This weekend after a chilled out Saturday sorting stuff out at home I headed to Wintour’s Leap with Andrew today. We had a brilliant day out in the sun, even in the morning before we were in the sun it wasn’t cold. We started the day by climbing the classic route “The Angel’s Girdle”, due to having already lead the first pitch Andrew got pitches 1&3 and I was lucky enough to get the two main pitches. The route was great with some fantastic exposure, it was just a shame that we were climbing in the shade, however due to it being a traverse across a very popular section of wall it was necessary to start early. It was lucky that we did as there were about 6 other teams at the crag by the time we finished the route. The route was a bit runout in places inbetween pegs, but the climbing was never difficult, apart. Read the full article…

Central Gully on Lurcher’s Crag

Alastair BegleyScotland, Winter Climbing Short Link

Another good weather forecast meant we could get another day out winter climbing, however due to the avalanche risk it was necessary to chose a route carefully. We decided to head to Lurcher’s crag to climb Central Gully as it was west-south-west facing and we knew that it had been climbed recently. After my big day yesterday I was feeling very tired this morning when I woke up and wasn’t feeling too optimistic due to cloud cover and drizzle. However, as we drove over to the Caingorms it began to clear and we had a fantastic walk in with beautiful scenery. Snow conditions under foot were great due to having refrozen, however the route through the Chalamain Gap was awkward with iced up rock and lots of wind and spindrift being funnelled through the gap. The view down the Lairig Ghru as we traversed around to Lurcher’s crag was fantastic as it was lit up in the sunlight, however it was an awkward traverse with more icy rocks. We were expecting to be following others up due to the footprints in front of us but thankfully everyone else headed up. Read the full article…

Ledge Route & Carn Mor Dearg Arete

Alastair BegleyScotland, Winter Climbing Short Link

With a good weather forecast and still not much in condition for climbing due to loaded slopes I decided to have a big day out mountaineering on the Ben. My plan was to head up to the CIC hut and solo Ledge Route before heading up to the summit of Ben Nevis and then descend via the classic Carn Mor Dearg Arete. It became clear on the drive over that the weather wasn’t as nice it was was forecast to be, but I was up and driving so I carried on. On the walk up through the forest it started raining fairly heavily which soon turned to snow once I exited the forest, this made the walk up to the CIC hut a fairly damp affair. I made good time and was at the CIC hut in 1hr20mins despite headwinds and snow below the hut, there were a number of other parties out heading for objectives such as waterfall gully and one party was planning on heading to the Minus Face. I was grateful of the party heading to Waterfall gully as it meant that I could use their footprints. Read the full article…