Cornice Country - Western Highlands, March 2014

Jim Symon, Andy Stratford, Stevie Graham, Stuart Hurworth joined in Crainlarich by Ding Oi Koy, Mike Magee, Colin Maddison, Carolyn Mills and Jamie Ledingham.

Had we imagined it? Was that a trick of the light? It was 2 and half miles away…..As we stood on the summit of Sgorr nam Fiannaidh at the Western end of the Aonach Eagach and looked across at the snowy Col between the true summit of Bidean nam Bian and it’s west top, we could see the most monstrous cornice – an umbrella no less. Stretching two hundred metres wide and it must have been 30 metres tall……

We heard on the grapevine that climbers and skiers – active on the west coast for sixty years, had never seen as much snow in Scotland, and especially not this late in March.

Rewind to Sunday 23^rd March.

The four of us were away at 07.30am from Waters Cottage at Kinlochleven, and left the Ben Nevis North Face car park at 08.30am. The previous night had seen a little minor re-packing by Andy, Steve and Jim. Stuart emptied three rucsacs, a picnic hamper, cool bag and assorted miscellaneous bin liners and bags of random gear on his bed. He had a lot to do! We had a swift march along the engineered track alongside the Allt a Mhuillinn, carrying our 25kg packs with five days of food and far too much gear. Outside was bright, sunny with some wind – but not too bad for the Ben. I cursed leaving my sunglasses in the car. We unpacked had a bite and a brew and headed out at noon to check conditions. Two feet of fresh snow had fallen Thursday/Friday and was being liberally blown about. We could see fresh and older avalanche debris everywhere. Plumes of spindrift spiralled from the plateau. Over almost every part of the North Face hung the Cornices – piled like monstrous deformed marshmallow pillows – they were impossibly huge. We walked right up into Coire Leis to check out the slopes down from the CMD arête as a possible descent from tomorrow’s intended route – Tower Ridge. Today it looked do-able and later that evening we heard a couple of parties had come down that way safely. We were back at the hut around 3pm. My eyes were strained from the sunlight so I packed a load of the CIC rubbish in my empty Sac and headed back down the 5km walk to the NF car park to retrieve them. Back at the hut that evening we had excellent company with various SMC members and other parties.

(Andy) ‘’Jim, when did you last do Tower Ridge’’.

(Jim) ‘’Not sure. But I first did it thirty years ago’’.

(Andy) ‘’ 1984 then’’

(Jim) ‘’1983 actually’’

(Stuart, laughing) ‘’Three years before I was born!’’

Monday 24^th

We reached the Douglas Gap at 8am an hour after leaving the CIC and breaking trail through the overnight snowdrifts. I led away with Jim belaying just as a guided party arrived. Jim soon joined me in the sun on the windy belay. Plumes of spindrift trailed in the bright sky from the plateau edge. The wind was stronger than yesterday and forecast to increase as the day wore on. We moved together over the next easy section and by the time we were pitching again the guided party had retreated – the wind being too much for one of the clients. There was occasional neve where you really needed it but mostly it was vast quantities of deep powder and no gear. Everything was buried. The Deadman saw much use. As the morning passed the wind increased and what I can only describe a spindrift sandstorm started relentlessly battering us – it was coming from all directions all at once. Up, down, left, right and sideways. Nowhere was sheltered. We crossed exposed corniced snow crests – thigh deep powder – no gear. I reached Jim on a particulary windy belay before the Great Tower.

‘’You. OK’’.

I asked because Jim had his eyes closed. His face screwed up. His chin was purple and red from the abrasion.

‘’No I’m not! I can’t see. Me eyeballs have been sandblasted!’’.

I was wearing my wraparound shades so I ferreted in my sac, pulled out my goggles and handed them to Jim.

‘’I can see!’’. Jim’s mood improved. We pressed on.

I led the exposed Eastern Traverse to the Chockstone, and Jim led the final pitch onto the Great Tower. Three young lads had virtually run past us at one point but other than that we had stayed ahead of the other parties. There was no sign of Steve and Stuart.

The Great Tower top was nowhere to stop today with this wind but Jim steeled himself as I moved down along the narrowing crest to Tower Gap. It was, tall, narrow and exposed on both sides and I was being pulled and pushed in both directions by the wind. Jim was 25 metres away. No gear. I rode the ridge A Cheval, thankful when I arrived at the rock pillar and sling. I clipped in and descended quickly. Tower gap was almost untenable in the wind. Without even thinking I just climbed out the other side placing one bit of good gear and using a fist jam in the crack. Now the rope wouldn’t run so good…..I belayed in the Icy Groove. As I pulled the rope the gear pulled out….the rope resembled a washing line. Jim was un-phased as ever and led through to one more deadman belay. I virtually ran up the final slopes on the first good Neve of the day…..as I pulled over the Plateau rim, it was surprisingly peaceful. Beautiful. I stood up and walked ten paces before a gust knocked me flat and I disappeared in a cloud of spindrift. It was Savage! Jim arrived. We hugged as we got sandblasted and blown around. It was 3pm. 7 hours in those conditions was OK. We took coils and headed down towards the half way lochan via the tourist track/red burn.

‘’We should stay out of the Red Burn though Jim’’ I warned ‘’Its’ probe to avalanche after this much powder and wind.’’

We reached large rocks left of the Red Burn within sight of the path down to the half way lochan. Thinking they provided shelter we stopped. Rope and  crampons off. Took our sacs off and out with the flasks and food. Seconds later Jim was knocked off his feet. Both our sacs were picked up off the ground and started rolling down the mountain. Jim’s glove disappeared and my flask and food bag went the same way. Chastened we retrieved our sacs from the boulder 20 metres away and hurried down to cross the Red Burn. I started descending the steep 75 ft slope facing in, after 25 ft it felt all wrong and in that split second my feet went from under me. I had triggered an avalanche.

My poor brain tried to process it all. I remembered that rocks directly below me in the stream bed were uncovered. As the slope above me collapsed on top of me I instinctively started to swim. As I bottomed out in the stream bed I expected to get badly hurt but luckily the lower slope collapse had filled the stream in and I was carried down 40 ft to a gentle stop, more or less on top. I quickly stood up and shouted ‘’I’m OK. Nothing broken.’’ Jim followed me down.

‘’Thanks for clearing that Andy. It’s much safer now!’’.

We arrived back at the CIC at just before 7pm tired but happy, half expecting to see Steve and Stuart – surely they had backed off? They weren’t there. It was nearly dark. We calculated how far behind they must have been, concluding that the earliest they would top out could be 6pm. It has taken us four hours to get round safety in the light in the conditions so the earliest we could expect them would be 10pm. At 9.30pm my phone picked up a text message from Steve sent at 8.05pm ‘’Just topped out. All OK.’’ We went to bed.

Tuesday 25^th.

We lingered in bed then over pots of tea. Stuart slept. They had arrived back at midnight.

‘’We were so knackered we couldn’t even put the kettle on’’ said Steve. ‘’In fact Stuart didn’t move or take his boots off for twenty minutes’’

‘’I’ve never been so completely exhausted in my entire life.’’ Was all he could manage when he finally did!

When he did emerge at 9am he promptly chomped his way through several large bowls of muesli – half a kg in one sitting....Impressive – he eats more than Jim!

My friend Helen Rennard arrived with a climbing partner. They reported temperatures of 10 degrees in the car park. They decided on an easy day and headed up for Stringfellow – a grade VI….Helen is a local, one of Scotland’s most talented and prolific female climbers regulary climbing VII’s and VIII’s They were out just 45 minutes in the conditions before they bailed. That was enough for us; we packed our stuff and headed down. Steve opted for a drive home and back to work – saving 3 precious days’ holiday. Jim, Stuart and I decided the forecast looked promising enough for good walking and mountaineering. We went back to the luxury of Waters Cottage with designs on the Aonach Eagach for the following day.

Wednesday 26th

As we rounded the corner into Glencoe there wasn’t a cloud anywhere to be seen. Outside the car it was cool but windless. We had struck lucky. Jim set a cracking pace and we topped out on Am Bodach in an hour twenty. We donned harnesses and crampons and abseiled down the bad step but then put the rope away. Conditions were very benign and we savoured the sections of snow followed by rock climbing in crampons, all solo, with joy of unencumbered movement writ large on our faces. We only saw a few others. We stopped for plenty of photos and lounged in the sun on Sgorr nam Fiannaidh, marvelling at the size of the distant cornice over on Bidean, two and a half miles distant. I drew the short straw at the road and stuck my thumb out, eventually cadging a lift after 45 minutes to the car. When I arrived at the Clachaig, Jim and Stuart had just finished their third (or maybe fourth) pint.....grizzled, wise (and tipsy) Jim recounted tales of previous ascents of the Aonach Eagach.

‘’Well at least I was born when you did that first time’’ said Stuart.

Thursday 27^th

The Grey Mares Tail waterfall was a great sight as we walked up the pre-spring glen - we wondered what sort of a winter it would take for it to turn into a water ice climb.  We climbed steadily to the Mamore’s estate Land Rover track leading up to and beyond Loch Eilde Mor turning off to ascend Sgor Eilde Beag (956m), still not entirely sure which Monroes we were going to do.....we were blasted by strong cold winds and sleet. The tops were in clag. We opted to climb the zig zag path up the SE ridge. We sat in silence on the top huddled behind rocks - cowed a little after yesterdays’ bounteous weather experience. In a matter of 30 seconds the wind abated, the clag lifted and we could see for miles..... Unbelievably it stayed like that the rest of the day! Good job. We made for the unnamed top Pt 1062 and looked across at Binnein Mor (1,130m) – the opposite direction to the hut and 1 km along a ridge that looked like something out of Greenland. The ridge crests were towering tottering monsters. To SW 1Km away lay the South top of Na Gruagaichean (the Damsels) – the crests and cornices on this section looked pretty intimidating but do-able. Thank god the clag had lifted and we wern’t in a white out! After a fairly adventurous hour we descended from the superb viewpoint of the (second) northernmost Damsel into Coire a Chairn for an easy march back to Waters Cottage with yet another great day out in the bag. We packed and headed to the next hut – the Ochils Mountaineering club hut just down the road in Crianlarich. Ding had already arrived on the coach and met us there.

Friday 28th

An old friend of mine Mike Magee had arranged to stay for the weekend and walk, arriving this morning. The weather was kind again and Ding, Jim, Stuart Mike and I set off in sunshine for Cruach Ardrain. It was much colder and windier on the 1046m summit but we decided to head on to Beinn Tulaichean 946m – a separate Monroe but really the south peak of Cruach Ardrain. We decided to traverse some easy looking slopes and headed for a bealach SE of Stob Garbh. As we traversed onto steeper and steeper ground a few hundred metres from the Col it was clear the snow conditions were poor. Avalanche debris was evident and whilst there was no windslab the wet snow slopes didn’t feel stable. We traversed silently, 30m apart on the same contour, one rock island at a time, Jim leading and doing a first class job a picking the best and safest line. After a nervous 20 minutes we reached the safety of the bealach and the wide shallow and safe corrie beyond. Back at the hut that evening I cooked bean, chorizo and red wine stew – Mike was going to do dinner but had inadvertently picked up a jar of jam instead of his lovingly made home-made pesto, and unsurprisingly none of us fancied pasta a la strawberry jam. Stuart had thirds. Colin arrived by 9.30pm after his train was delayed and we laid plans for the morning....

Saturday 28^th

After much weather debate and advice from local Monroe baggers we eventually decided to make a KMC group attempt (yesterdays five plus Colin) on all or part of the Ben Cruachan Horseshoe 30 minutes drive further west where, alledgedly, there would be less wind and less clag. We parked at sea level – Loch Awe – the clag was down to about 650 metres. Maybe it would rise.....A very steep ascent and we gained the ridge E-W ridge heading for the subsidiary top of Sron an Isean 966m. The wind was significant now and clag brought visibility down to 30 yards. We ascended steeper slopes with axes out – very steep snow laden slopes to our South and left. The summit was seriously windy, visibility had reduced and we were all having trouble seeing where a snow slope started and a cornice finished....Colin and Jim  traversed on poor snow....I followed with Ding close behind.....then a retreat was called. We decided the weather had the better of us so we missed the Monroe of Stob Diamh and returned via the outward route. Glad when we dropped out of the vicious wind and clag. Later that evening Jamie and Carolyn arrived from Glasgow and we debated the options. Stuart decided to rest, Colin opted for an earlier train and Ding decided to do  lower level walk.

Sunday 29^th

Jim, Mike I set off walking from the car at 9.30am – aiming to be back at the hut for 2pm to leave by 3pm. We made a swift ascent of Sron Garbh then onto Twistin’ Hill heading for the summit of Am Caisteal - The Castle at 995m. It was mothers’ day and the hill was busy with parties whom we motored passed – a week of walking and near 8000m of ascent had sharpened us up. We walked into clag and reached what we thought was the summit until Mikes GPS confirmed we had another 300m distance and 50m height to gain. We pushed on and decided we’d give the second Monroe a miss to get back in good time. 1.30pm and we were back at the car. Ding, Stuart and Colin had done a great job on the hut and Stuart appeared to have fitted in a considerable amount of eating and drinking of beer on the porch. 

Another great and magical week of mixed experiences in Scotland – thanks to everyone who came.

Andy Stratford, April 2014.

** UPDATE 10th February**

Five out of eight places now booked. This is the only Scottish meet with any places left. The Ben is well covered with snow now and with a bit of luck should have developed some great ice by the end of March........ 

8 places available for four nights sunday night to wednesday night at £12.50 pp pn. Preference given to members and associate members.

The Ben can be a very challenging winter prospect with relatively little in the way of walking - best suited to those climbing comfortably at II and above.

Now most likely to leave on Saturday 22nd with an overnight stop in Glencoe area before getting up to the CIC very early on Sunday 23rd to dump kit at the CIC. We'd then have five full days climbing Sunday to Thursday on the Ben walking down late thursday to drive to Crainlarich Inverdaran Cottage for Thursday night. We'd then have Friday, Saturday, Sunday in the Crainlarich/Glen Coe area before driving back home late on Sunday 30th March.

Contact Andy direct for more info.