Back to the freezer

On a Wednesday afternoon in the middle of January we ventured back up to the Ice Factor - the indoor ice wall at Kinlochleven that looks very like the inside of a freezer. Thankfully it's bigger! This was in preparation for our Norway trip in the February half term and some of the pupils had been to these ice walls almost a year before. Some of them hadn't held an ice axe since.

What was especially pleasing was to see the development of our gang's skills and knowldege of the sport of climbing. The improvement at ice climbing, having only done it once before for an hour or so a year before, was remarkable. It just goes to show what a few hours of climbing once a week can do and that climbing is climbing regardless of whether it's on indoor holds, on rock or on snow and ice: the skills transfer. That's nothing new and is certainly well researched: Outdoor Education is excellent for cognitive and kinesthetic development but that doesn't make it any less of a pleasure to witness.

 Hand warming or face warming?

 

Seemingly Smug Sunday

Sunday was another matter: fearsome winds, tonnes of fresh snow and a shorter day so that we could get back down to Glasgow at a reasonable hour. The team were raring to go. The mountaineering team headed in to Sneachda (the appropriately named 'coire of the snows') for dig dig digging at Dino's particular request.

The climbing team aimed for a shorter route than Saturday in the same coire, perhaps two or three pitches long. What with all the previous day's activity the shorter buttress, the Mess of Pottage, seemed to be a magnet for every climbing team that day. Rather than keeping our blinkers on we changed tack and headed for the buttress that bounds the western rim of the coire, the Fiacaill Buttress. Rather than tackling the worringly loaded apron slopes of the crag we zipped up the slopes to ridge itself and then lowered the lads in to The Seam, another benchmark grade IV route. It's a short one, but the climbing is condensed in to one long, sustained and lovely pitch. The goggles atest to the fine, Scottish conditions and we felt all the more deserving of the great climbing conditions given the other climbers that we'd met, turning back for calmer things, probably Aviemore's Mountain Cafe.

Fiacaill Buttress. Our route is clear from here, if you happen to know where it is.

Gaining the ridge.

That's James down there. Poor lad.

Ah, there he is.

Relieved to be out? Nope: happy to have climbed such a good pitch.

Tim clambering out of the murk.

Loving the Noddies.

Goggles recalibrated as muzzle.

Team happy and now addicted to winter climbing. It is that fun!

The short run home!

 

day one of winter fun

At the very beginning of February, signalling the end of an intense round of prelims, we jumped in the minibus and drove north for the Cairngorms. Things were as they should be: our wooden chalet was covered and surrounded by snow. It was necessary for most of the group to test the snow quite thoroghly the very evening we arrived.

Since Tim and James had missed out on a planned winter climbing trip earlier that week (due to slightly too wintery winter conditions), we split in to two groups: the climbers team with Miss Goolden and a winter journeying and skills group with Mark Davidson and Chris Thorne.

I currently only have images of the climbing team. The mountaineering team did an impressively long trip around the western shoulder of Coire an Lochan, over the top of Sneachda and there the team split again: Chris taking a team over the summit of Cairngorm while the others headed down the ridge of Coire Cas. It was bitterly cold.

The mountaineers get the layering right for their big journey ahead.

For their first Scottish winter route the lads tackled Fingers Ridge, a classic grade IV,4 mixed route in Coire an t Sneachda. James looking utterly at ease. I regret not taking a photo at the start of our route, which looked more like a Subeay queue than the great outdoors.

An indication of just how busy our route was: two teams of two ahead and the cliffside crochery that followed!

 Timmy negotiates the Fingers.

 Slipping through the fingers of the coire?

The feathers in the top left of this picture are a great indication of the wind direction that has been happening - the crystals and moisture in the air stick to those already on the rock, and so they grow.

The pitch before the Fingers - a lovely, delicate outing up a narrow crest of stacked rocks.

Careful James: almost, almost a full smile; certainly a detectable one!


 

Games is good + winter light

Dear diary. It's been rather a long time. Months and months in fact. There's no better time to start with than last week's Games' session at 'Dumby' at it's affectionately known. Dumbarton Rock is our local and it hosts some of the UK's most famous climbs. It's rough around the edges but what's not to love: beautiful rock, incredible routes and just about guaranteed climber company. And every time I go it seems to be drenched in light. Well, there's something about the light at this time of the year and after what feels like months of inside activity nothing was going to stop us escaping the inside. As ever, pictures will probably say it best...

 Not a bad school 'gym facility' and entry is free!

Douglas waltzing up the Sea Boulder.

Melissa follows suit.

Moods of Norway is my very, very favourite new thermal top. It's got TRACTORS on. And champagne glasses. Is there any more delightful a combination?

Tim cruising up the prow of Eagle Boulder.

 Aliens or big brained climbing girls?

 O the fun.

Team Outdoor Education.