Back to Beinn Udlaidh 18/12/10

This morning I headed up with Scott, Neil and Sean to the West Coast again. With lots of snow reported we wanted to do something low and north facing, we were slightly worried about how much the thaw would have stripped Beinn Udlaidh but with reports of things being climbed on UKC and a fantastic weather forecast we headed up. There was far less snow than I was expecting, there was a big temperature inversion and it snowed...not exactly what was forecast but it was a great day nonetheless.


Scott and I jumped on Peter Pan Direct which was fantastic, the ice was a perfect toffee consistency and gave first time placements, even for a good old hacker like me! There was a fair bit of water running down the surface of the ice which meant we both got soaked, but both pitches were fully complete and gave some great climbing so we couldn't complain. Neil and Sean headed up South Gully of the Black Wall and did a slightly harder left-hand variation half way up. After walking back to the bags Scott and I jumped on South Gully which also had some fantastic ice.


The season has gotten off to a great start and it looks set to continue for a good while yet. There were lots of teams out enjoying the delights of Scottish ice in December!

Back to Beinn Udlaidh 08/12/10

It seems like yesterday I was up at Beinn Udlaidh but so much has gone on through the summer!

This morning I met up with Sean and Neil and we headed West, again without any real plans. By the time we got across and picked up Greg en-route it was slightly later than hoped and we decided that a long day plodding through deep snow up high wouldn't be much fun, so we opted to take a drive down Glen Orchy and have a look at Beinn Udlaidh. Of course with such low temperatures there was some ice formed, but with the unusually low and sustained temperatures some lines aren't formed at all whilst others are forming in unusual places.

On the walk in Greg and Neil were spying up a hanging ice fringe right of The Grin; which Greg put up last year. Sean and I decided to follow them up to the base of the route and try and get some photos before heading off for a short route round the corner.

The guys made an impressive ascent, check Greg's blog for full details (http://gregboswell.blogspot.com/) whilst Sean and I poked our head round the corner to have a look at Organ Pipe Wall but it wasn't fully formed so we headed up West Gully which had a nice ice pitch which Sean led up and then we simu-climbed to the top.

Another stunning day and I can't wait to get back out in the hills! (photos credit of Sean Bell [http://www.seanbellphotography.com/])

Blue Riband 07/12/10

Scotland; better than anywhere else in the world on the right day.

Whilst I haven't been psyched for winter much recently, after speaking to Greg (http://gregboswell.blogspot.com/) and hearing about his mad antics and very impressive new routes my psyche started to build, then I flicked through the winter blogs and I was itching to get back out on the tools! It's crazy how fast psyche can switch from one thing to another!

With a stunning forecast I jumped at the opportunity to climb with Neil and we headed across to Glencoe to climb something. We initially loosely planned to do a mixed route but with heavier than forecasted snowfall and -19 Celsius at valley level we changed plans and decided to do a bit of searching for some obscure ice routes that don't normally form. Unfortunately both the routes we were thinking of weren't in condition but our back up plan was one of the best possible! We knew Blue Riband had been climbed this week and whilst Neil had done it last year he was keen to do it again and it's been one of the iconic routes that I've always wanted to climb.

The route fully lived up to expectations and it turned out to be a fantastic day, one of the best I've ever had. The view was incredible, climbing continually interesting, it's a totally classic route...perfect really. Pictures say a thousand words, so hopefully the video describes how amazing the day was! (photos credit of Neil Carnegie)

Early season shredding 03/12/10

I can't believe it's December already and I can't believe how much snow there is! With this in mind Sam and I tried to get up to Aviemore but were beaten by the Forth Road Bridge being closed. We had a mini descent down Arthur's Seat to keep the dream alive and fortunately made it up the following day. Thursday was fantastic with plenty of snow, unfortunately none of it was as fluffy as last year as the snowpack was quite wind scoured but the beautiful skies made up for this. Friday was a bit more Scottish with 60mph winds and understandably very little soft snow, they closed the mountain around lunchtime but we still had a fun half day being blown about! Considering it is only early December this is a great start to the season, hopefully it will be another great winter!

New things in November 30/11/10

A beast of a bike has joined my growing collection. The Sunday joined the team at the beginning of the month and has been out getting muddy a few times at Innerleithen, Bonaly and Falkland already; all great fun!

Uni has picked up so I have been a bit busy with that but hopefully that will die off soon!

The snow arrived on Friday and I had a sweet weekend down in Keswick with Neil, Mhairi, Sophie and the duracell Daisy performing some squirmy snowbiking at Whinlatter! I've not got much psyche for winter climbing at the moment but I'm still mega keen for the biking so as long as I'm outside having fun then it's all good!

Outings in October 30/10/10

I'd had the idea of putting together a full video of the descent of Glentress a while ago and after last month's efforts I was psyched to make it a project and get some footage so I headed down to film Sean on the next section, Super G;



I think it came together well and I've got some ideas I want to try and put in practice for the rest of the trail and I think it could be quite a cool little film once it's all finished.

I managed to borrow Scott's Orange 224 for another session at Innerleithen and I'm still on the search for a downhill rig. In the meantime I've been trying to get out as much as possible, in between uni and some work, on the xc bike which has been fun; especially a photo session at Sean's local trails. (photos credit Sean Bell www.seanbellphotography.com)






I also had a great afternoon sampling some more of Northumbria's best crags with Neil, Mhairi and Daisy at Dovehole. I've had a slightly sore finger for a wee while from biking so I wasn't on full form but it was a great day nonetheless with glorius sunshine and tops-off weather. (photos credit of Neil Carnegie)





After the great two days enduro riding with Ady Smith earlier in the year I was pleased to hear he like the video I made of Rich, even more so when he asked me to do a promotional video for him. We only had a few hours before the daylight failed and the sound quality isn't great but I'm quite pleased with the result.

Stuff in September 27/09/10

After Rich got the motocross bike last month we were out playing in East Lothian and I fancied shooting some video so we spent a day making this short video;



The following week Rich returned the favour and filmed me biking down Spooky Woods at Glentress;



I'd forgotten how much I enjoy video editing and will definitely be doing some more in the future! We also got some new editing software which reads the GoPro files so I will be able to do some proper editing without any of the funny subtitles that appeared on my edits from last winter. I've been loving the GoPro camera and how easy and versatile it is, I would thoroughly recommend it; I've been using it a lot recently for both motocross and mountain biking.



I did some more local road and mountain biking and spent a long weekend with the family up in Aviemore which was great fun. We spent a day through in Fort William watching a round of the Scottish Downhill Association racing which was incredible, those guys go seriously fast through some mental terrain!



After my psyche increased dramatically Sean let me borrow his Speciaized Demo for a day of downhill at Innerleithen which turned out to be everything I expected! I am on the hunt for a downhill bike now as it was a lot of fun!



It's been another great month, I've not been out climbing much and psyche levels are low due to ongoing wetness, I'm really getting into the biking though and trying to make the most of my free time before I start back at uni at the beginning of next month. Hopefully my timetable is as minimal as last year and I am able to continue getting out and about!