UKC

With the leaves turning and the nights drawing in, not to mention the rain... climbers begin to think towards the coming winter season...

One of the first places to see snowy action is likely to be the heartland of snowed-up rock climbing... the Northern Corries in Scotland's Cairngorms.

Viv Scott tells you all you need to know for a trip...

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=2175

In reply to UKC Articles:
A good balanced article ... everyone complains about the Northern Corries, but really they are an excellent climbing area and I'm sure we've all had good days there.

In reply to UKC Articles:

There are a few bad inaccuracies in that article which should have been checked before it was published:

1) "Situated on Scotland's east side..." - No, in the central Highland acutually.

2) "....the wide Spey valley" - There is no such place. It's Strathspey.

3) It's Coire an Lochain, not "Coire an Lochan"

4) "Faicall ridge" no it's Fiacaill Ridge

Apart from that a good article but exposes a few gaps in the writer's knowledge.

In reply to Donald M: I was about the post some similar remarks to those made by Donald (Spey valley - ugh!) but got distracted.

In reply to Donald M:

Darn fact checkers. You are hired Donald. We'll make those changes. Thank you.

Corrected

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Thanks, I should say that through my work I will soon be providing courses for mountaineers interested in hill names and Gaelic etc. Will keep you posted.

In reply to UKC Articles:

Good article though I think you should mention the London to Inverness Sleeper train in the travel section as it is surprising how few southerners are actualy aware of it!
Might also be worth pointing out that there are two completely unrelated "Visit Aviemore" websites http://www.visitaviemore.com and http://www.visitaviemore.co.uk giving slightly different information!!

In reply to UKC Articles:

"Wild camping in the corries is possible but given the unsheltered aspect and proximity of the road-head, is not really worth the trouble. If you do plan to stay overnight in the mountains please remember to follow the wild-camping guidelines."

The n corries are ace to camp in, you can rise at a leisurely hour and still be on the routes before anyone else has arrived. And camping in a cairngorm storm can be an adventure.

In reply to fishy1:

...or it can result in death. Not that many tents are up to the challenge of a genuine winter storm in the Cairngorms (although it's likely you will be able to find somewhere reasonably sheltered in the coire). I certainly wouldn't dream of wild camping there with the tent I have during the winter, unless the forecast was good.

In reply to Ron Walker:

Thanks Ron.

Will get that up. Please keep the suggestions coming to make this destination article more useful.

In reply to Only a hill: So can climbing. It's a calculated risk.

My last tent I owed failed in the cairngorms last febuary, worst conditions I have ever camped in, wind maybe 80 mph. Pole snapped about midnight. Calmly exited the tent before the effect of losing one pole snapped all the others, removed the poles from the tent, got back in tent, had a reasonable night's sleep.

Learnt from it as well. Snow wall should be substantially higher than the tent. Guys should be tied rather than relying on the sliders, as when the guys freeze and ice up, they slip. Bring lots of plastic bags for anchors, rather than having to bury all the ice screws, as that way you can leave the tent up when you're away climbing.

It was also practice for a similar situation, should it occur, in places where rescue/retreat may be impossible.

Also had a memorable incident on the cairngorm plateau, in summertime, got windy in the night, the sound of the tent ripping wasn't exactly what you want to wake up to.

Both were pretty old tents, that I picked up for almost nothing.