UKC

We headed over to climb Golden Oldy on the west face of Aonach Mor today.

The walk in was very hard work but the ridge was in fantastic condition for climbing, however there wasn't much/any gear on the top half of the ridge.

http://www.masterplan-mountaineering.co.uk/2014/02/golden-oldy/

Al

In reply to alastairbegley:

Thanks for breaking trail for us on the walk-in, we went on and did Western Rib, which was similar to your description of Golden Oldy. We're in the Grog and Gruel, if you want that pint we promised you.

In reply to neilfish:

haha, thanks for the offer, is a bit far to go for a free pint though!

How was western rib?

In reply to alastairbegley:

Ended up on daim buttress today after a bit of guidebook misreading. Good value for the grade!

In reply to Mike_Watson_99:

There's a picture of (possibly) you on my blog: http://www.applemountaineering.co.uk/2014/03/01/solitare-west-face-aonach-m...

In reply to alastairbegley:
Western Rib was good we moved together for it, nice bits of exposure on some points but never hugely technically hard. Topped out into a traditional white-out, at which point my snow goggles blew across the plateau never to be seen again. Managed to get down without any problems though.

In reply to alastairbegley:

Good to hear you had a good day.

I was in the last party to climb Golden Oldy that day.

It was getting rather late by the time we reached the narrow snowy crest where the gear runs out.

Conditions had worstened by then: the snow on the narrow crest had really deepened and seemed unstable (no sign remained of your passing), and the winds had steadily increased.

We decided to back off, abseiling down into the gully on the right.
Walked down via MTB track, having missed last gondola by a fair bit.

In reply to neilfish:

We were the second team on Western Rib, simul-climbed the whole thing and had a cracking day out! =o)

In reply to alastairbegley:

Climbed Western Rib this morning. Brilliant short day out! Climbed solo in exactly one hour. Sunshine on the summit. Conditions on the route were good. Bomber turf low down. A bit buried higher up but not too bad, good snow/ice under a couple of inches of powder. 3 or 4 nice committing sections.
Andy

In reply to highaltitudebarista:

From what I could hear over the wind, it sounded as though one pair (out of sight to me but possibly on Western Rib) was running into difficulty.

I heard a female climber sounding in pain, possibly shouting to her partner about having hurt something.

I could have misheard this however.. did you hear/see anything or do you know anything about that?

I'm hoping she'd just reached a tricky point which was overcome, but it did concern me at the time.

In reply to Simon Preuss:

Yes I heard that, it was the M/F team on Daim Buttress. They topped out the same time as us so nothing too serious happened I guess! =o)

In reply to highaltitudebarista:
Assuming it was Saturday it may have been Mrs W complaining about either -
Her hot-aches
My direct route over the slab
Both of the above

In reply to highaltitudebarista:
The blood curdling screams and associated swear words were me in response to the worst hot aches I've ever had which helpfully occurred whilst hauling myself over Mr W's direct line up the slab. I was told he couldn't hear what I was shouting but clearly everyone else did! Apologies for any offence or distress caused.

In reply to Fiona Reid:

Hah! Good work! =oD I've got a vague memory of you snapping a photo of me as I was ambling towards Western Rib? Would be cool to see it if came out ok? Think I got a photo of you guys near the top of the buttress.

In reply to Mike_Watson_99:

It was on Friday that I was climbing, and heard the shouts.

Good to hear they topped out fine. Better than we managed..!!

In reply to highaltitudebarista:

It think there's a couple of photos of you guys here: http://flickr.com/gp/97502741@N02/de7dQB/

If you have any of us that would be great.

In reply to Fiona Reid:

Update from yesterday http://mattsmithclimbs.blogspot.co.uk/