East and West…
After a couple of days up in Observatory Gully I hooked up with a mate from North Wales, Liam, for a less travelled option up on the Diamond Buttress of the Bidean in Glencoe…it wasn’t to be for various climatic and hazard reasons, so we opted for an old route called Flake Route next door on Church Door Buttress….no push over at its modest grade..an a wild trip given the epic weather on the day. Thanks Liam for the laughs…
Liam heading towards the Raeburn’s Chimney….communal exit pitch for a lot of the old routes here…
Next day I was working in the Cairngorms on the British Mountain Guides test…as well as assessing the candidates for their climbing days I got to climb with a couple of observing guides from the French guide school ENSA in Chamonix…Neil and Jean Seb…total dudes!
Jean Seb cruising up a wee climb Droidless in the Northern Corries..
We all enjoyed some great climbing over the following few days and it was awesome and inspiring to see the trainee guides pull out the stops to gain their passes!
J Peg starting up some ice between Gemini and Waterfall Gully..
Tom G reveling in the Gemini ice smear…
A rainy day after the test rested the legs before joining the Mountain Medicine diploma back over on the West coast for a week of winter mountaineering and a little climbing. Always a fun week, nearly always bad weather, but a different week for me…
Keeping ahead of the pack on Dorsal Arete…
Robert Caspersen…a mountain guide from Norway joined us for the week too. He works with a similar course over there and was checking out what we do. He compared the weather we had to a Norwegian summer…take note. Thanks for the photos Robert…Hopefully we’ll meet up for some great ice climbing somewhere sometime…
Last Scottish winter work this season…
And so the end of an amazing winters working in the Scottish Highlands…thanks for a safe season and to everyone involved…looking forward to the next one….
