The Curtain Falls
Now in the eighth calendar month of lift-served skiing, this weekend has seen the curtain finally fall on winter 2009/10.
Sensing the end, and with last Wednesday’s forecast looking promising for the days ahead, I made the spontaneous decision to hike in to Coire an t-Sneachda the following evening. I’d been on the blower to Hugo in Edinburgh about the weekend ski prospects, and he didn’t need much persuasion when it came to asking whether or not he’d be interested in the pre-weekend 2 day pilgrimage.
Leaving the Cas carpark late in the day on Thursday, we reached the inner-coire floor at 7pm where set up ‘Base Camp’ at the uppermost end of the Valley of Turds and Teabags. Anybody that has seen the array of melting snowholes dotted along the side of the protalus rampart in late spring or early summer will understand the name, for it describes the annual legacy of the coire’s winter inhabitants.
Now at the edge of the snow and looking up at the impressive amphitheater of Coire an t-Sneachda (coire of the snow), the snow-clad gully lines more than justify the coire’s name. Now in summertime, they still provide some 200m vertical descent from the coire rim down to the coire floor.
Above us stood the narrow chimney of Jacob’s Ladder. The Book of Genesis describes Jacob’s Ladder as a ladder to heaven, and so this grade 1 gully is appropriate as a climbing term. Years ago when I first looked down the gully line from a skiing perspective I baulked at the size of the cornice and almost pat my shants. A drop of several vertical metres is considered normal, ensuring that in a normal year no skiers other than the freeskiing.co.uk crowd would dare to venture in. Last year I made my first descent of this line, lowered over the edge by some friendly ice climbers who had just finished their cramponed ascent. This year, the unusual build-up of snow has resulted in the entry being as ‘easy’ as it is ever likely to be – a steep ramp as opposed to its usual beefy cornice. Little can compare to the feeling of skiing through the lowermost narrow confines of the gully at speed into the wide open bowl beneath, and so for the skier I would suggest that the ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ metaphor is more fitting if the ladder is turned upside down. Metaphorically speaking, of course.
The hike from Base Camp to Windy Col always looks like it will take longer than it actually does, and the 170m vertical difference took us all of 25 minutes.
On the coire rim, the setting sun was beginning to cast long shadows across the Strath far below. In Coire an t-Sneachda, Point-Five Gully and Aladdin’s Couloir had long since been abandoned to shade
Hugo at the top of Jacob’s Ladder, looking down towards the coire floor and ‘Base Camp’:
The North-West facing Jacob’s Ladder was now fully lit up by the setting sun, and the Cairngorm granite now glowed a warm red – providing more than enough justification for this mountain range’s traditional name: Am Monadh Ruadh (the red hills).
I should mention at this point that I had opted to wear the kilt for this overnight trip, reasoning that it is one of the most practical pieces of mountain clothing out there. Warm, but not lacking in ventilation.
And so in:
The snow was perfect spring snow – fast, but grippy – with the steep gradient allowing any water to percolate away, preventing the snow from ever becoming too sticky.
Heading through the narrows, towards the open bowl beneath:
Hugo making fast turns back to camp:
Looking back after our first descent of Jacob’s Ladder inspired us enough to make another descent before dinner:
On the menu tonight was numerous packs of Super Noodles supplemented by pre-cooked Cumberland Sausages from the local butcher. Strangely tasty when washed down with cold beer/cider, freshly dug from our makeshift larder.
As the sun dipped lower and lower in the sky, it bled its last into the vast blue memory. The sunset was one of the most vibrant I can remember seeing in a long time. Empowered by a tripod and ’self-timer’ mode we succeeded in spoiling an otherwise nice sunset picture!
We might look like idiots, but we were two very happy idiots. The picture probably epitomises the entire trip – a haphazardly planned outing that went above and beyond expectations. Somehow my best days on the hill have always been the spontaneous ones, and in this case it was no different. A late walk into Coire an t-Sneachda followed by two descents of Jacob’s Ladder before bedtime? Magic.
Soon the last of the daylight had slipped away, and darkness fell over us.
We had opted against packing a tent, reasoning that neither of us particularly wanted to carry it in, and in any case the overnight forecast was a good one. If all went pear-shaped, the car was only a 40min walk away! In the event, the forecast held true, and the stars above Jacob’s Ladder were the last thing that I saw before I closed my eyes.
Dawn broke shortly before 4am, with the upper section of Aladdin’s Couloir catching the early morning sunshine. I lapsed back into unconsciousness, waking again around 9am – this time to an overcast sky.
A slow start saw us reach the top of Aladdin’s Couloir around lunchtime, just as the blue sky was starting to break through again.
There were several patches of ice on the top pitch of Aladdin’s Couloir as we headed towards the fork at Aladdin’s Seat, which required care.
Nevertheless, the snow in the couloir proper was good. Perfect spring snow again, though the snow was peppered with rocks from the crags above – released when winter lost its grip on this land. It was plain sailing down to the coire floor, with the snow around the icefall narrowing but not presenting any difficulty:
Sat at ‘Base Camp’ and looking back at Aladdin’s Couloir while having lunch, the skies showed signs of completely clearing:
Back off to Jacob’s Ladder:
The kilt putting in a turn high on Jacob’s Ladder:
The kilt’s descent of Jacob’s, this time with aid of ‘burst’ mode and a tripod:
Return to Base Camp and the coire floor:
By this time my knee was starting to play up on the ascents, and feeling content with our lot we decided to call it a day. Only one thing was left to do – dip in one of the lochains to cool down before the walk out. I thought that with the lochains being shallower than Loch Morlich, the water would probably be warmer up here. Error. The fact that snow was still present at the side should have been a warning, for the cold rush was debilitating, and it was an immense relief to return to dry land!
And so ended the overnight ski-jam, a definite season highlight and the perfect way to see out an epic winter.
The following day (Saturday 5th June) we headed back to CairnGorm, this time for some lift-served skiing in what was to prove their final weekend of operations for winter 2009/10.
It has been a season that has seen prolonged good conditions spanning 8 months, and I have racked up 60 ski days along the way. Hiking out of Coire an t-Sneachda on Friday I knew that this weekend would see the curtain fall on lift-served snowsports, but for once it doesn’t feel premature. Feeling quite content, I walked back towards civilisation, and towards summertime.
May (A Prelude to Summer?)
After some of the days we’ve been enjoying this month, you’d be forgiven for thinking that summer has finally arrived in Scotland.
But leaving all that aside for a moment, something that is perhaps easier to miss is the fact that the ski lifts are still spinning on CairnGorm at the weekends, with 450m vertical ski descent still on offer as of last weekend.
Cooler weather this week should preserve cover for the bank holiday next weekend. CairnGorm is now one of less than 30 ski resorts in the world to still be open for business, and did somebody mention lift-served skiing in June?! – a man on the hill suggested that it might just be the case…
Ski-heil!
14.04.10A Blessed Weekend
The plan was simple. The battle lines for Saturday were drawn in my head on Friday during a drive from Inverness to Edinburgh and then back again (roadworks making it 7.5 hours on the road), and essentially involved travelling in a straight line from the summit of CairnGorm to the summit of Ben Macdui taking in several gully descents along the way. OK so some of the gullies fell a little bit to either the side of the line, but I’ve never been able to draw straight lines anyway!
I was amazed when Geoff and Craig agreed to accompany me on this ludicrous mission, and even more amazed when we formulated a plan for Sunday that would make the weekend even more amazing… if we could pull it off.
Part 1: The Cairngorms Installment
We begin at the Coire Cas carpark at 7:30am, put the skins on our skis and head off in the vague direction of the 1141m cairn at the top of the Fiacaill a’ Choire Chais. Following the line of the ski tows, our peace was disturbed when we were the unfortunate observers of another early riser depositing the previous nights dinner in an exposed patch of heather at the bottom of a ski tow a total distance of 500m from the [open] carpark toilets. I am a great believer in and advocate of the whole process of defecating in the great outdoors, but this particular stool was not too far from where the lift operator would be positioning his own stool (of an entirely different variety) to sit on later on in the day.
But I digress.
At point 1141 we moved towards the top of Stag Rocks which tower above Loch Avon. A stunning viewpoint, it affords excellent views towards the Carn Etchachan, Shelterstone and Hells Lum Crags. Even if you aren’t planning on any climbing or skiing in this area, it would be well worth a detour on any Northern Corries traverse.
It was also at the top of Stag Rocks that we had a view towards two gullies that we would have a look at later in the day. Castlegates Gully splitting the Carn Etchachan and Shelterstone Crags (but hidden out of view by the Shelterstone Crag in this picture), and Pinnacle Gully, which is in full view with its pinnacle sitting in the centre of the gully near the top.
The Stag Rocks are home to ‘Diagonal Gully’ – a grade 1 climb that runs diagonally down towards the head of Loch Avon. Very prominent when seen from the other side of the loch, it has been in the back of my mind since I first became interested in skiing.
The first look down the gully confirmed that it would be a goer, and chucking a snowball down confirmed that the snow was good (we had worried it might be too crispy).
And so in:
Geoff heading for Loch Avon [still frozen, but wouldn't risk it!]:
It was at Loch Avon that we made a mistake. We skied to the shore, expecting to be able to plod along the stepping stones. We should have crossed the river far higher, where there was still a snow bridge, because snow melt has left the river swollen and the stepping stones were well underwater! Contemplating our options, we opted to just tighten the ski boots and run for the opposite bank.
This proved to be a good plan.. for Geoff. He was wearing downhill ski boots, whereas Craig and I had touring boots. It would turn out that touring boots are considerably less watertight than downhill boots. To make things worse, my final step before the bank left me knee deep!
Still, fortunately the liners didn’t let much – if any – water through, though my toes definitely felt a tad moist. Oh well, nevermind. We were now on the correct side of the river, and skinned up to the low col between Carn Etchachan and Stacan Dubha towards Loch Etchachan. The ascent afforded excellent views back to Diagonal Gully (the obvious line facing the camera):
..and let us look into Castlegates Gully (it can only be seen from this angle), which we wanted to have a look at. Carn Etchachan is on the left hand side:
This route up was chosen deliberately because we weren’t sure about the (easier) ascent route up the line of Garbh Uisge Beag between Shelterstone Crag and Hells Lum. There are some slabs in there, and we could see some tension cracks opening up. Recent news of a full depth avalanche on Glas Maol did not inspire us to take the shorter option.
It was at this point that we decided against heading on to Ben Macdui, and decided instead to use the extra time to ski both of the gullies on this side of Loch Avon, instead of just one.
From the top of Carn Etchachan we dropped down to the top of Castlegates Gully.
It was in considerably better condition than when I skied it last winter, helped by not having to downclimb over loose rock this time round! It is a stunning gully that splits the two crags, and descends steeply down to the head of Loch Avon. An inspiring line in an inspiring location. The snow was in very good condition – being slightly shaded helped as it wasn’t too soft:
Geoff watching Craig put in the last turns in Castlegates Gully proper.
At the foot of Castlegates Gully we traversed under the Shelterstone Crag to the foot of Pinnacle Gully, strapped our skis to our packs and took out the ice axes, and bootpacked our way up Pinnacle Gully:
The next photo demonstrates why Pinnacle Gully is called Pinnacle Gully, with a very prominent finger of rock stretching towards the sky:
And so we found ourselves back at the shore of Loch Avon for the third time that day, and we commenced our final ascent out of the basin, aiming for Coire Domhain.
It was on these slopes that we were buzzed by a helicopter, which spent quite a while checking us out. It hovered for some considerable time around several locations, and seemed to be looking for somebody or something. I hope it was just a training exercise, because it eventually disappeared empty handed.
At the top of Coire Domhain we headed for the rim of Coire an t-Sneachda and descended Aladdin’s Couloir to finish the day. Today it had evidently been descended many times as the entrance was scraped. We took a high and exposed traversing line over untouched snow to avoid the scraped patches:
Geoff at ‘Aladdin’s Seat’ (the finger of rock by the col). Aladdin’s Couloir drops off to the right, Aladdin’s Mirror off to the left. I don’t know what it is about Aladdin being into cool-wires and mirrors, is he not more of a carpet and lamp man?
Geoff heading down Aladdin’s Couloir – our fourth gully descent of the day, and a fantastic way to cap off another superb day in the Cairngorms.
Aladdin’s Couloir is in the centre of the photo:
The total trip took 9 hours, and around 1500m of vertical ascent. The snow conditions made it tough going, as where it was softer we were unable to skin and had to hike instead.
Nevertheless, after a quick drink in the Cas Bar at the Coire Cas carpark we went our seperate ways. Geoff heading off for a ‘hot date’ in Aberdeen, though he wasn’t sure if he would have time to shower or even if he would be able to stay awake and make conversation with the girl! I haven’t asked how it went..
I headed north to Inverness, while Craig headed for a B&B in Fort William – the location of Part 2.
Part 2: The West Highland Installment
Craig and I were joined by Mike, and we had thought about taking the 8am climbers gondola but realised that we would then have to skin up from the top gondola station. If we waited 1 hour, until 9am, we could take all the ski lifts to the summit. Time wise we would arrive at the top at the same time either way, so we favoured the option that would involve least effort – particularly after the big day on Saturday
From the summit we had our first view of the main bowl of Carn Mor Dearg. Our line today was from mid-way along the ridge, coming down between where Craig and I are standing.
Our descent off Aonach Mor followed the two steep gullies we used last year, and are visible in the background on the right hand side of the following picture:
Mike approaching the summit:
Myself scoping out lines mid-way along the main bowl:
Thankfully there wasn’t a cornice to deal with this year, so I headed in with minimal faff:
It is an amazing face – probably the best open face descent in Scotland. Truly world-class. The following is a shot to show my line:
Craig putting in a swift slash
Finding the quick route down the hill:
Heading for the lower bowl:
More smiles than a toothpaste advert:
More smiley faces, and a ribbon of snow along the river bank enabled us to ski some distance out into the valley:
The above location is where we stopped for lunch, but more importantly for the obligatory whisky stop. It also gave us time to reflect on the weekend. There was something amazingly calming and relaxing about hearing the cold clear water rushing past. We were the only people there, and we sat in sunshine in the heather trying to take it all in.
I should add that today’s river crossing was considerably more successful than yesterday’s!!
A short hike up a steep slope of rough ground, and we found ourselves at the ‘viewpoint’ – at the end of a path which leads back to the ski area. We enjoyed a final view towards CMD, though our descent was now out of sight:
We were amazed to find ourselves back in time for a last uplift on the ski lifts. A further plan then dawned on us, to really round off the day and the weekend as a whole. A short walk above the top of the Summit Button tow, sits another grade 1 gully – called ‘Easy Gully’ – which we have all been down several times before, and we couldn’t resist going along to have a look:
The first look over the cornice of Easy Gully is always a bit of a sphincter test:
Saddled up and a few minutes later:
Unfortunately I couldn’t take any photos of the other two coming in, as my camera battery was sitting in the charger at home!
We enjoyed a final ski down the open slopes of Coire an Lochain beneath Easy Gully, and wound our way round to the remotest lift in Scotland – the Braveheart Chairlift. The lift had closed 5 minutes prior, but the liftie was only too happy to let us on. Certainly saved us a considerable walk, anyway!
From the top of the Braveheart Chairlfit we made our way back to the top Gondola station and to the bar. The weekend had gone above and beyond our expectations, and we had the smiles and horrific odour to prove it.
We went our separate ways at the carpark, but on the way home I found my thoughts straying to the next adventure. With plenty of life left in this winter yet, who knows where we might find ourselves next?
I had a funny feeling that the thoughts of my companions would be along similar lines.
12.04.10‘Save the Ciste’ Campaign
The full ‘Save the Ciste‘ website is on-line, and I would encourage all of you to visit it and sign the E-Petition to lend your voice to the calls for chairlift reinstatement.
Several articles have appeared in the media, such as local newspaper The Strathspey and Badenoch Herald, which can be read here, here, and here, and in the Scotsman here. Mention of the campaign has also appeared on BBC Reporting Scotland (which can be seen here) and BBC Alba (which can be seen here).
Over 1000 people have signed the e-petition, and numbers continue to increase.
Sheep Drop Gully
Just another day in the Campsie’s…
What a hoot.
Note: no sheep were physically harmed during this descent!
22.02.10Just a standard weekend in Scotland
.. well, almost!
With deep fresh powder and perfect blue skies across the country, this weekend will be one that’ll live long in the memory. It really doesn’t get much better than this folks.
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First it was Nevis Range on the Saturday..
^ Ben finding the direct route into Spike’s Gully..
^ ..and making quick work of the rest!
^ Jamie dropping into Easy Gully
^ Ben forging a route through the narrows
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and then CairnGorm the day after..
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There’s more photos from Nevis Range up in the photo gallery. The rest of the CairnGorm shots will be up soon.
The good news is that the cold weather is set to continue, and the general consensus is the same across the country: epic.
Get out there!
18.02.10Blue gives way to Black [Spout]
On Saturday 13th Frebruary we managed a ski descent of a line I’ve been eyeing up for a while. Amazing line in an amazing location, just a pity that the clouds came across as we reached the summit. Oh well, whatever – nevermind! Just means I might have to go back?
—
Note that the carpark charge at the Spittal of Glenmuick has gone up to £3. And one of the machines might jam on you! Happened to us, but fortunately there was a carparking attendant on site (!!!!!) to help out.
“Hell for the company” (part 3)
Following heavy drifting CairnGorm have lost their all-over cover, but gained a huge depth in all the natural bowls and gullies that should set us up for the rest of the season. And for Coire na Ciste this is particularly good news, with the full length runs complete right out to the carpark (all that’s missing is the uplift).
The Ciste Gully is incredibly wide and is holding a huge depth of snow, but drifting regularly works against CML’s core lift policy. Following high winds, heather is re-appearing in the usual problem area on the traverse back to the West Wall Poma. This has resulted in people being forced to traverse higher and higher up the West Wall in order to reach the Poma – not only cutting their own runs short, but also cutting up the steepest pitch of the West Wall in the process and making it impossible to enjoy the East Wall (No.2 Gully) without having to cut off early mid-way down. There remains a large depth of snow to the Ciste boardwalk and Chairlifts, which highlights how badly placed the West Wall Poma is to serve the area. The two Chairlifts were placed where they are for good reason – reference my blog post on 21.01.10 (‘Of Snowfields and Bare Hillsides’) which demonstrates the problem in more detail.
A high traverse necessary to return to the Poma, while it is still skiable to the Ciste Chairlifts. 07/02/10
Finally, the meaning behind the title of this post? ‘Food for thought’ graffiti was spotted written inside the West Wall Poma lift shack on Saturday that read:
Heaven for the climate,
Hell for the company.
(2010)
Says it all?
Stay tuned for more..
