Scotland in early Feb 2019

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Amazing photos Katy!

Wow! Thanks so much for the tips. Great photos. I’m sure that @PaulSagar will be after a trip report for the newsletter. Who’s climbing? Looks like you hit the sweet spot there. Has anyone been to Ben Nevis or Craig Meagaidh?

Looks awesome guys! And yes, trip report please!

I hope conditions hold for another week and a half…

Looks like quite a bit of snow tonight and then very nasty on Friday, gales, rain, snow.

Yeah i was going to drive up Friday too :frowning:

Climbing has been awesome walk-ins through uneven wind-packed powder not so much. Crag with Ladislav and Jimmy and I with Mattias got up a grade three ice fall
on Lurcher’s. Yesterday Jimmy and myself did Fiacaill Ridge taking along Dannyc and Katy. Dave took Ladislav and Matti along to some crazy place they may need beers to describe, but did routes and survived.

Today was a bit of a rest day - Matti and Ladislav did their first grade II/III gully alone - the rest of us walked in / skied out to look at Creag Meagaidh - we met some locals who reported good ice and climbing conditions on some routes, snow at the top not too bad but might get worse depending on wind direction. The walk in is pretty easy with no deep snow until quite close to the bottom.

I will definitely stay around somewhere in Scotland for the weekend. I think @Kiwidave & @johnw1 as well.

Thanks really to @Kiwidave for arranging this trip

  • Good weather and pretty okay ice - heather a bit dubious though
  • Great food (most people got involved in cooking somehow - everybody chipped in together)
  • Amazing place to stay again.
  • Smooth arrangement of everything - finances - the lot (thanks again Dave)
  • Just the right climbing location for the conditions

Considering that most of the serious winter climbers in the club ran away to the alps or didn’t make it for various reasons we got lots done. We should go back here soon. Trips like this give everyone a really good setup to get stuff done and it sounds like the first timers will be joining club trad trips. Especially having someone like Dave around for advice and climbing knowledge

@katy_c, @DannyTompkins, @Mattia, @Ladislav. Im sure one of you (or team effort) could write up something for Paul.

Yes please! You could begin with “Despite the naysaying negativity of the Newsletter Editor, we went to Scotland and it was great”

:slight_smile:

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I believe it really really was :slightly_smiling_face:, you should have been come.

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Did some good routes in Wales, the hardest I’ve ever been on - and i (almost totally) didn’t fall off (managed to slip off seconding an easy bit!) - sad not to be going up this weekend! Looks like an ace trip :slight_smile: well done @Kiwidave!

Anyone still around this weekend in the storm? Khalid and I are arriving to Dalwhinnie tonight.

Cheers

George

@mikedlr possibly about still, not sure about @johnw1. The rest of us headed homeward in yesterday’s rain and gales

@george_margesson I’m down in Glasgow and heading South now. Really too warm for safe ice climbing and the mixed seemed to be stripped by the wind. I think I’ll be back in March though, assuming conditions improve.

Was reading a rather retro mountaineering book this morning (" … not to demean the acheivements of women, but Catherine Destiville would be an amazing climber even if she was a man … " and in the alpine section, along with bonatti, fowler, et al, there was one @Kiwidave Wills mentioned for some winter first ascent knarl … :slight_smile:

What a strange book, was it the Sun newspaper :grin:

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If you get in there i will disown you! :slight_smile:

Thanks @Kiwidave for organizing the trip and an amazing lodge!

For anyone not in the whatsapp group, here’s an album of my pictures from the trip: https://www.flickr.com/gp/128986666@N03/Je1WYa

It’s mostly from the hikes in, but there’s a couple from actual climbing as well.