UKC

We had steady light drizzle for much of the day today and not much of a view at all as we climbed Tower Ridge. Despite this it was clear to see that ice has been building in the topsy turvy weather we had over Christmas.

It was well above freezing at all levels on Christmas Day and one of the wettest days we've had for a long time. However it was back to freezing winter conditions on Boxing Day and with plenty of running water to freeze into ice. The Curtain and Nordwand on Castle Ridge North Face both have thick smears of ice and there are blobs of ice in lots of places. The snow was saturated and froze solid too so there is some very nice hard snow around. Al and Steve climbed Number Two Gully Buttress yesterday and had a fun time on hero snow!

Such rapid changes in temperature along with rain create ice on ledges and in the cracks, neither of which are very helpful sometimes. ​On Tower Ridge we put on the crampons to go up to Douglas Gap where we saw dribbles of ice coming out the first awkward chimney. So we kept the crampons on and in fact didn't take them off the whole way. Higher up there is not much snow on the ridge but there is ice on the ledges and icy rime on most of the faces making it slightly delicate climbing. Tower Ridge was a popular choice today because it is good and climbable in all conditions, even tricky conditions like today.

There is snow in the big gullies which is now quite solid. The great ridges have a little snow on them - some deeper patches and lots of rime and ice on the ledges higher up. However Castle Ridge is probably mostly clear of snow on the tricky sections. Above 1100m or so you might well find enough icy rime on the rocks to have a go at some mixed climbing and the turf is frozen and icy. Ice in the cracks might well make it tricky to protect some climbs though. There are a couple of mid-grade icy snow climbs that would be worth a look at too. However, it will be really quite warm up to Saturday, and very wet again, so take several sets of gloves. Sunday and Monday look much colder though and more promising for fun climbing.

Pictures here - http://www.abacusmountainguides.com/blog

Happy Climbing!

Mike Pescod
http://www.abacusmountainguides.com/

In reply to Mike Pescod:

Remarkably dry (but quite cold) here Mike - in London! No ice routes forming in Kings Cross as yet though, some ice on the lakes in the parks.

If you Scots care to sell your snow to the French, they will pay you in pure gold dust, being in utter despair in their upland desert. You are the only country currently getting even a hint of precipitation, or a plethora as you describe. I have taken to nagging my mate in Grenoble to get his neighbours to move their cars for the webcam, as I am getting very bored of seeing the same cars, in the same positions (this park should be only accessible by snowcat in a normal year). Seems that he has obliged today :

http://sappey-tourisme.com/images/site/webcam/PX-3744_00626E539B29/snap/cam...

No snow or any sign of it of course! Get yer snow shipped there - no need to bother with oil for revenue.

In reply to Simon4:

Hey, I know that car park (& adjacent restaurant). And if my partner wasn't to ill to travel would have been in a B&B near the bottom of the slope

(sorry for the thread drift)

In reply to Doug:

Very nice restaurant isn't it? They did move the cars so it wasn't so boring each morning.

Quite a LOT colder in London this morning than in the Chartreuse, ice still a bit too fragile to walk across the lakes in Regents Park though. Needs a good weeks' freeze for that. About as many ice routes as in La Grave at the moment, unfortunately.

In reply to Doug:
Good view of Les 2 Alpes "ski resort" as well :

http://www.passion2alpes.com/webcam/image.jpg

I wonder if Winter equipment is currently mandatory for the drive up to it.

In reply to Simon4:

depressing isn't it, at least I don't feel I'm missing much by being stuck in Paris (& may yet manage a day "dans la forêt")

In reply to Doug:

Doesn't look like Scotland is that much better either, pretty remnantal looking. MIGHT be worth a punt on some ice climbing in a week or so, to judge by ice-fall.com.

Ben Tibbetts seems to be remarkably good at finding stuff to do in a very lean time, ski touring at least.

In reply to Doug:

Just read your article on ski-touring (ski-rando, as you live in Paris and I am pretty familiar with France).

Nice work, a good straightforward explanation for the uninitiated. You seem to get the key points clear and well articulated. A few more of the French equivalents to the German terms might be helpful though.

I suppose most UK based people just don't get how standard ski-touring is in the Alpine regions these days, we are still lagging behind (inevitable really). When it comes to ski du fond, French people in Alpine regions tend to treat it like going for a run, just in Winter.

Struggling a bit now though aren't they?

In reply to Mike Pescod:

Thanks Mike, This is really helpful.

In reply to Simon4:

I came here to see what's up in Scotland (as there's nothing going on near Nottingham).
Saw the reference to ski-touring article:-


Please can you send me the link to that article. I'd be interested. Might find it useful. Haven't been ski touring since an abortive trip to Gran Paradiso a couple of years ago with a couple of punters who didn't understand transceivers.

In reply to Pay Attention:

Doug's article :

http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=172

In reply to Simon4:

suspect its a bit dated now

In reply to Doug:

Excellent, thank you.

In reply to Doug:


Well it is certainly dated with regard to ski-touring gear, but that is inevitable given the speed with which that gear has developed and changed in the last 5-10 years. The most obvious gap is how ski-touring gear now has a very substantial trade-off between tending back to Alpine ski heavy and powerful to dominate the descent and light to make going up easier. I also rather suspect that your own (admitted), bias toward Nordic slightly obscures the fact that for most people, Nordic is not a realistic option if the skiing becomes at all difficult/unforgiving of mistakes and they have a much better chance of control with touring kit clamped down, though when done well (which is rare), Nordic can be very impressive. Typically, however, touring is more fool proof, easier and much closer to what people learn on pisted slopes.

But you cover all the essentials to give a flavour of what the Americans call "back-country skiing" is about, and indicate the areas that people need to find more about, which is about all one can do in that sort of high-level article. As you say, it is impossible to "keep up to date" with new gear.

In reply to Doug:

"Current fashion is for wide, relatively short skis with 70mm width underfoot being close to the minimum" made me smile, but still a good article