UKC

Go get 'em, early-seasoners!

http://www.visit-fortwilliam.co.uk/the-ben-nevis-webcam-fort-william-scotla...

Wish I could but am still on invalid watch...

In reply to Tim Chappell:


This looks hopeful too

http://www.snow-forecast.com/resorts/Cairngorm/webcams/latest

I'd bet my pet rabbit and all my gerbils that new routes get done today!

In reply to Tim Chappell: So is Kinder Downfall in?

What gear will I need for it?

In reply to Simon4:

snorkel and flippers?

In reply to Simon4:
1. Small flurries in the far north ? Then without a doubt.
2. However you are only aloud if you have the correct equipeme . Here a picture of Chris bonigton , celebrating after the first ascent . Possibly .
http://www.google.co.uk/images?q=lederhosen&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&c...

In reply to mike123: You are a seriously sick person!

In reply to Simon4: <thinks about what else I ve been browsing this am . Has vague moment of wrong link panic . Checks link . nope that's the badger >
Mind you have to remember bonners was only 19 at the time . He s 104 now you know .

In reply to mike123:


Doing Zero Gully in Lederhosen ups the grade to V,5**. V,6*** with an accordion.

In reply to Tim Chappell: I know two people who did Fingers Ridge yesterday in winter conditions.

In reply to nickinscottishmountains:


Nice one. Anyone know about *new* routes yet?

In reply to Tim Chappell: It wasn't me!

In reply to nickinscottishmountains:



We'll see what Simon R. is posting tomorrow on Scottishwinter.com... I'd lay not only my pet rabbit and gerbils, but all my white mice too, that at this very moment he and that Mr Nisbet are acting on some Cunning Plan involving an obscure bit of hoared-up rock in a deserted back-glen somewhere near Achnasheen...

In reply to Tim Chappell:

First in--Blair Fyffe's been checking out the snow-patch survivals

http://blairfyffe.blogspot.co.uk/

In reply to Tim Chappell: I even spotted snow on Fairfield from my bedroom this afternoon.

In reply to Tim Chappell:

And it even hailed during my afternoon fellrun on Bleaklow!

In reply to Tim Chappell: Wow - 2.5 metres of fresh snow in Tower Scoop area already. (Albeit localised)

Will be interesting to see if these small areas of "perma-snow" grow in size in the future

In reply to Tim Chappell:

http://www.winterhighland.info/pix/pixalbum.php?pix_id=923

looking great!

In reply to Tony the Blade:


Talking of snow-patches, does anyone know if the patches in Garbh Choire made it through to the new freeze? I was on Braigh Riabhach admiring them at the end of July. They were big, but it was warm and they looked like they were leaking a lot.

In reply to Tim Chappell:
Today's report from James:
http://glencoemountaineer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/winter-begins.html

In reply to Tim Chappell:

I believe they did yes - there's an in-depth thread on Winter Highland that details the changing of the snow patches throughout the summer, here it is.

http://www.winterhighland.info/forum/read.php?2,154638,page=28

Sounds like 6 patches in total survived through. Really interesting to see how extensive the Aonach Beag patch has been throughout this summer. I was exploring the East face of Aonach Beag in March and the amount of snow that had accumulated was quite amazing.

In reply to JamesRoddie:


To date it looks like you scoop the prize for the first route of the winter! Well done.

To date-- but I'm still betting that someone out there has already done a *new* route, they just haven't posted about it yet...

In reply to Tim Chappell:


It also looks like the lady called Helen on Winter Highland scoops the prize for the first ski of the winter!

Bah. I'm jealous of both of you.

In reply to Tim Chappell:

She hasn't stopped skiing Tim. I think this is her 40th something month.

In reply to Saor Alba:

What, all in Scotland??

In reply to Tim Chappell:
Its Helens 49th consecutive month of skiing in Scotland. She made it through the September low point by skiing the Aonach Beag patch which at the end of September was still over 50m in length and 2.5m depth. The extremely mild October caused it to shrink somewhat but it will have survived until this weekends big fall.
The first ski of this season was actually on the 10th October and also by Helen when with briefly enough new snow she skied from the top of Cairngorm down to the traverse just below the Ptarmigan restaurant.

Looking good at the moment with a lot of new snow in the past few days and a fair amount more to come

In reply to Al Todd: That is heroically eccentric!

In reply to Al Todd:

Hahahahaha. That is brilliant. Hats off to Helen. Does she blog about this anywhere??

In reply to Tim Chappell:

I'm considering a trip up North to home this week what with the forecast...everyone's saying it's gonna be dumping all week + even with a few thaws and freezes even! I can imagine a few avalanches. Check out Ben Wyvis yesterday, loaded!

(not my report)
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=37672

In reply to Tim Chappell: Facebook and keep watching Winterhighland for Helens updates along with all things snow patch Scotland

In reply to Tim Chappell: Fingers ridge has had 3 ascents that I know of, Andy Nisbit has been quick off the mark. Simon Yearsley has been up Savage Slit and Mark Chadwick has been up Hookers Corner.

Sounds like people are getting a good start on the early season mixed.

In reply to Cameron94: Did fingers ridge yesterday, really good a bearded man shouted the way to us so I can only who that was? The message on the way made me laugh "go away". Great day.

In reply to Tim Chappell:

I love this time of year.... the obsessive termperature watching has begun..... Last year I was working towards my WML so did virtually no climbing. This year I'm FREE!

In reply to Snoweider:

It was 3 degrees in the car just now, and minus 1 last night. Getting there

In reply to Tim Chappell:

I'm stuck on Arran at the moment, biding my time..... watching the weather.....making plans.....

In reply to samsimpson:

Awesome it's great that it's all kicked off.

At a guess that would be Andy.

In reply to MG:

A lovely wee film about Helen, if you haven't seen it: youtube.com/watch?v=d6DcJbI4AJk&

In reply to Cameron94:
>At a guess that would be Andy.

The one and only:

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.livefortheoutdoors.com/upl...

Hold on--he's all geared up *on the shores of Loch Morlich*. I smell a rat

In reply to Mark Bull:
thanks for that great wee clip. also liked this off the side bar. lord of the rings indeed....
youtube.com/watch?v=NIU0XejscpE&

In reply to Mark Bull:


Brilliant, thanks Mark. She's a legend

She clearly has "the right kind of feet". Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this, to me, is walking up the Coire an t-Sneachda path and the Goat Track in ski boots. If I tried that I would be unable to walk for three weeks afterwards.

In reply to Tim Chappell:


On the route watch front: I spoke to a mate this evening who's done Hooker's Corner already this winter.

But still no reports of new stuff coming in...

In reply to Tim Chappell: Hookers, Fingers Ridge, Message, Savage Slit and Original Summer Route all climbed in last couple of days. Turf today in Sneachda was reported as not frozen.

In reply to AlH:

Yep, Fingers by James Roddie and party, and Hooker's by a party including Philip Ebert. Possibly among other ascents of both routes.

Any new routes, though? Simon R is still stuck on Steam Train from last winter...

In reply to Tim Chappell:

Maybe folk are waiting til stuff is in nick, i.e. frozen!

In reply to Tim Chappell:

It wasn't me on Finger's Ridge, just went for a scramble up Fiacaill Ridge to check out the snow.

In reply to Tim Chappell:

New post up!

http://www.scottishwinter.com/?p=4013

Fingers Ridge was Andy Nisbet apparently.

In reply to Michael Gordon: i picked up on the mushy turf aspect too, apparently its being ignored in the frenzy. I saw Crest route was recomended as a route to do if turf is mush? honestly, thats really not a good thing to be saying. give the routes a chance

In reply to Michael Gordon:

We've had three frosty nights in a row at sea level. At 4000ft, things must be hardening up at the very least.

Anyway, I don't believe typical hard mixed routes involve any turf at all...

In reply to Tim Chappell: Aye cos its all been ripped out!

In reply to Tim Chappell:

There's quite a lot of snow insulating the turf. But I'm about to go up to Sneachda and find out on something easy.

In reply to Tim Chappell:
>
>

At this time of the season well insulated turf can stay unfrozen for many days (I've seen turf remain unfrozen in the lakes for over 2 weeks despite sub zero temps!)

In reply to Erik B: Hey Erik – I mentioned a few routes (inc Crest Route) in my quick piece for Simon R. The reason I did it is simple: folk will dash onto routes as soon as it’s white, so my point was a) to urge care about route choice in early season conditions (4th para of the Scottishwinter piece), and b) to suggest routes which have no turf and are often climbed as pure snowed up rock routes. Hopefully this points folk in a sensible direction. Trust this helps.

In reply to Tim Chappell:

Actually both these claims are wrong, Philip tells me...

In reply to Tim Chappell: Some “typical hard mixed routes” do involve turf... and some don’t. I’d suggest it’s all about doing one’s research, knowing one’s sport, and very careful route choice. If in doubt, stay off! Re things hardening up at 4000ft... there’s loads of snow up there which is insulating the turf ... it can take a very long time of freeze/thaw cycles to freeze insulated turf.

In reply to Tim Chappell:


Simon R puts the record straight, and Simon Y makes some wise points about not thrashing the life out of anything that *does* involve turf:

Yesterday (November 4), Duncan Hodgson and Mark Chadwick visited the Northern Corries and climbed the modern classic Hookers Corner (VI,6). Next door on No.4 Buttress, Helen Rennard and Simon Yearsley made an ascent of Savage Slit (V,6).

“Sensible route choices are always important, but none more so than with the first snows of the winter,” Simon told me. “It’s tempting to rush out to “grab the white stuff”, but it was pretty obvious that from following the forecasts that no turf would be frozen by Monday (as Helen found out the day before when she’d taken a walk into Coire na Ciste on the Ben to check out conditions), so it was all about routes which can be climbed in a good coating of snow but don’t rely at all on turf. Routes like Fingers Ridge, Crest Route, Crypt Route, Hookers Corner Savage Slit and Mess Of Pottage are good objectives, and yesterday was no exception!

Helen and I walked into Coire an Lochain with deep snow in the boulders around the eponymous lochan and the cliffs plastered with rime and heavy snow. Savage Slit was beautifully white, with lots of effort needed to uncover the cracks for gear, and coupled with the wind it was a full-on reintroduction to Scottish winter! Mark Chadwick and Duncan Hodgson found similar conditions on Hookers Corner, and later in the day we also bumped into Lou and her partner after they’d done a route on Mess of Pottage, and also heard later that Andy Nisbet and Dave McGimpsey enjoyed a fun (and possibly slightly more sheltered) day out on Fingers Ridge. I must admit I did feel pretty tired after the Ice Factor Festival of Ice Comp on Saturday, but walking back down to the car park, we both agreed that it felt wonderful to be back in the swing of things… here’s to more white stuff!”

In reply to Simon Yearsley: cool mate, wasnt having a dig at you. Im not a fan of listing specific routes as targets on the internet. recipe for disaster! But i see the logic why. The problem is folk should know better than to launch up a hard route in the coe when it isnt frozen, this is very dangerous quite frankly, more so for their belayer!

as an aside, some quite stunningly clueless posts in this thread, dear me! ha ha! anyhoo, back to work

In reply to Erik B: Nice ...

In reply to Erik B:

Hi Erik,

Folk should know better, but they don't mate....

Hope you're well, ANdy

In reply to Andrew Mallinson:allright sir. Keen to get out this winter. Bring jumars for me

In reply to Tim Chappell:


James doesn't do parties.

In reply to Jamie B:


I was wrong about that--correction above

In reply to Erik B:

Would be good to meet up mate....since when did you ever need jumars? I'm nowhere near your class....
Take care,
ANdy