UKC

Hi there

Me and my partner climbed central grooves in stob coire nan lochan today. We noticed quite a few people taking pictures of the crag and us as we were on the route before anyone even entered the Corrie!! Just wondering if anyone got any photos, would live to see them.

Cheers

Willis

In reply to boseow25:

Yesterday I stood beneath this, hoping to climb central Buttress. Due to thawing conditions and bare wet rock, we decided it wasn't in optimum, winter condition. Indeed later on when we left the coire, most of the steeper routes starting around SC Gully were running with water and loosing whatever hoar or ice that remained.

Was there a freeze last night, transforming these routes back into winter objectives? For my own curiosity, I would also like to see pics if available.

Stuart

In reply to boseow25:

We snow holed last night lower in quarry to wake up to perfect conditions in the majority of the routes with pretty solid snow all round on the approach slopes, probably due to the fact that It was a cold night! We started on the route early so avoided the thawing conditions later on by being high enough on the route by that time! Pretty awesome climbing all round, it does pay to be up early! Well get some photos posted later in the week, keep an eye open

In reply to Jamie B:

Poor show that.

In reply to boseow25:

I was right then!

Stuart

In reply to boseow25: Smart move deleting your photograph after initially bringing peoples attention to it (route condition)! haha

In reply to boseow25:
You've got a good excuse to go back and try again!

In reply to andyinglis:

Thought it better to do that than to get crucified by the faithful ukc users.
Pretty gutted to be honest.

In reply to euanryan:

Perhaps crucified is a bit harsh - but wet rock is wet rock; I don't think many people think a UK mixed route can be wet and be 'in' at the same time.

You guys are obviously really good climbers getting up a VII,7 but have you been winter climbing for that long? Sort of sounds a bit like your enthusiasm to climb got the better of judgement of whether it was in nick or not. Probably lots of us have done something similar, but I suppose if the rock was wet then the turf would be starting to thaw and pulling on soggy turf ain't cool.

In reply to TobyA:

Thanks Toby.
We're about as enthusiastic as it gets, which I guess as you said can get the better of us sometimes.
The turf (as far as we could see) didn't start till the 3rd pitch, and from there up the crag was well frozen! We're not super experienced, but I guess good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment.

In reply to boseow25:
http://s142.photobucket.com/user/euanryan/media/IMG_58453791591049_zpsuzo6k...

What's your opinion? That was the crag on the approach.

In reply to euanryan:

Looks fantastic for skiing! I guess that sun didn't help though in making things damp.

It seems from reading reports that this winter Scotland (and the Lakes and Wales too) have had periods with loads of snow up high but not necessarily coinciding with freezing conditions so the turf doesn't necessarily get good.

Probably if you had done a slightly easier angled route it would have been so swamped in snow that this question would have never come up - but then it might have been so swamped that getting up would have been difficult!

In reply to euanryan:

Looks plastered in general! One problem with those cliffs is the sun can strip the steeper sections quite quickly this time of year.

In reply to mike barnard:

That is true. To be fair to us, there're plenty photos online showing conditions not dissimilar to ours...
I'm just a bit gutted, I'd planned a film around the climb and put lots of work in to it and now I can't release it for fear of the backlash.

In reply to boseow25:

as euans already said, we started on the route early before the sun had hit it and with it still in condition. by the time the sun hit the route we were already on it and yes the pictures of the first pitch don't do us much justice, with them being taken after the sun has hit the route and after the leader had gone up. if the conditions has persisted I'm sure we wouldn't have continued but after running the first and second pitch together into one mammoth one we were higher enough to have past the freezing point and hit the great condition that you can see in the picture, the turf was bomber and the rock hoared up. I'm sure we've all climbed something that with hindsight, questioned whether we should have, i know that's not an excuse but when we got on the route we did believe it was in nick as there was ice all the way up the groove. as euan put well good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment. We know better for next time!

In reply to boseow25:

Were you the same pair who did N Wall Groove around about Hogmanay?

I think a good lesson has been learned and you'll both be the better for it. It took me several visits to get Central Grooves in good nick, first attempt it was chocked with ice/verglas, couldn't get gear for steep pull into the easier ground above, hence backed off. On that day the wintery conditions defeated us, in my opinion.

Second time we climbed it under dry, hoared, well frozen, clear day and what a difference!

The day before your attempt, we geared up beneath Central Buttress, whiter but still wet rock, a tell tale sign about the conditions. Tilt is a little higher, more recessed so we started up that instead. Unfortunately the freezing level ascended up the crag, quicker than we could climb, we bailed after pitch 1. Sure we could have continued above but our gloves and clothes were soaked, most importantly climbing wasn't fun!

Anyway, there you have it

Regards

Stuart

In reply to euanryan:


Editing my man, editing...if it was as good as you say higher up, just keep the footage to above the first pitch and you'll be fine!!

In reply to Stuart the postie:

we attempted northwall groove but had to bail due to the bad conditions! perfect example to show were usually happy to bail if the conditions rule so. central grooves might not have been in perfect conditions and we all would love to climb it in its prime but unfortunately it wasn't. we thought it was acceptable though as we were the ones there, we take responsibility for that. as said before, conditions not dissimilar to ours shown in many other photos.

In reply to boseow25:

Another vote for seeing the video. Sounds like it was ok higher up. You seem to have got away without too much of a bashing!

Andy

In reply to peebles boy:

Problem is the majority of my footage was of the first pitch. Don't have enough footage of the upper pitches to make it worthwhile anymore.