UKC

We went to do Curved Ridge yesterday. Saturday we backed off the Douglas Boulder in torrential rain so sunshine and showers on Curved Ridge seemed like pure bliss to us (Juggs, Nobz and myself)

As a grade 2 scramble we were surprised when we came to a bit of a wall with not much protection, so we put on a rope. I had a look but didn't like it so my mate 'The Nobz' went up (Juggs had already solo'd it and had trotted off for the summit). It was going well until Npbz took a whipper on wet rock and I thought that I was watching him plummet to his death....luckily his "dodgy gear" held, but I was very shocked and we decided to retreat. Then, the heavens opened and after a nightmare of jammed rope we finally admitted defeat.

We hadn't realised but the hours had been passing rapidly and on checking the time we thought that Juggs may now be worrying a bit. Anyway, I (in the early stages of hypothermia) rang for mountain rescue and was told that they were already on their way as Juggs had phoned them an hour previously.

Two minutes later a helicopter came to get us and winched us aboard where we met a channel 5 crew who were filming a new series about about the RAF rescue team. In the 'copter' I had said to the winchman, "It was only a grade two scramble"!

Back at Jacksonville, the Glencoe MRT told us that we were in fact on D Gully Buttress and not Curved Ridge.

Just thought I'd share that with the UKC mob....quite an exciting day, and my head is still swimming.

In reply to Nicholas Livesey:
Blimey, sounds like quite an adventure--I'm glad everyone is okay.

I've heard that venturing onto D Gully Buttress instead of Curved Ridge is not an uncommon mistake to make.

In reply to Nicholas Livesey:
Youll be a bit more careful next time then...

In reply to Alex Roddie: Thanks Alex, everyone is fine but we are very contemplative at the moment. On updating my UKC logbook I learned that the most common thing about D Gully Buttress is that everyone seems to think they are on Curved Ridge!

By the way, my mate Juggs climbed Raeburns arete last weekend with a member of the UEA Fell Club who is his colleage at the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park....small world

In reply to Nicholas Livesey:

It wasn't Tom Sparkes, was it? I think he works at the National Park ... small world indeed! Sparkes is a top chap.

In reply to Alex Roddie: Tom Sparks, know him?

In reply to Alex Roddie: On our way to Glasgow Central this morning Juggs had to nip into the depot and we caught Tom there. Juggs took great pleasure in recounting our incompetance Small world indeed

In reply to Nicholas Livesey:
Haha excellent =)

Sparkes was the President of Fell in 2007, I think--widely remembered for his habit of climbing lamp-posts like a monkey at any opportunity, and generally making life as interesting as possible!

He is currently the object of everyone's envy for working in such an amazing place!

In reply to Nicholas Livesey:

Prepare to feel the collective scorn. Getting the MRT out for that aint good.

In reply to Burns: Burns I concur, but in the circumstances we found ourselves in we felt like we had no choice. We had spent hours trying to get ourselves off the hill but things were just getting worse by the minute.

In calling mountain rescue we crossed a line that we hoped never to be confronted with.

If folk want to slag us then that is their right, but, the RAF and Glencoe MRT didn't tell us off, if folk get upset on their behalf then so be it.

In reply to Alex Roddie:


I've not just heard it, I'm pretty sure I've seen it too.

In reply to Nicholas Livesey:

Oh dear - on first read I thought it was an excellant piss take on the Franco Point Five debacle, but now I think you may be serious.

Glad you all got out ok, but still pissn myself - a good read

In reply to Nicholas Livesey:

Glad you are OK.

In reply to Nicholas Livesey: I had the same experience about 4 winters ago. one of our party claimed to have been on curved ridge before and set off, ignorng the crowds of climbers heading rightwards. We also found ourselves at the rock wall but managed to ab off into D gulley and were able to descend safely.

In reply to graeme jackson: We considered at length abbing off into the gully but as we couldn't see the whole gully we decided not to as we didn't want anymore surprises....btw way, after Nobz's fall the rope was badly damaged and our faith in it had lessened considerably.

We were bumbly numpties, I accept that. But, it was quite an experience

In reply to Nicholas Livesey:
Outrageous! How dare you scramble the big yellow budgie!
Couldn't you all have been a bit more considerate and fallen to your deaths instead of phoning Mountain Rescue?
No wait....
Man, you were on a relatively straight-forward scramble and got a bit lost, absolutely no shame in that, heard about it many a time.
MR is a service and it's better to phone them than to take a 50/50 on not just your own, but other peoples lives. I'm sick of folk flaming people for it.

In reply to Nicholas Livesey: We were lucky. The gully was packed with good snow so was pretty straightforward once we got into it.

In reply to Gibson: Cheers Gibbo, calling the cab was not a call we made lightly.

When the show goes out on Channel Five I'll let everyone know and then the flaming can begin

Although we did call MRT and that may be frowned upon, I have to say that getting winched aboard a helicopter from the Buachaille is quite an experience, and oneI shall never forget.

In reply to Not Remotely Foz:

Seen it? Pah - I've done it! Albeit in benign conditions; we got up it OK, but avoided the crux wall.

In reply to graeme jackson:

Yep, I did that too. My only excuse was that my previous experience of Curved Ridge had been downclimbing after an ascent of North Face Route. Since in descent you just follow it down and then just carry on all the way to the road, I hadn't made any special note of how the start of Curved Ridge was reached from below. IIRC there was some very nice rock with tempting-looking holds at the start of D Gully Buttress and it somehow seemed obvious that they should be made use of...

In reply to Nicholas Livesey:

Glad you all got off okay - were you aware of the hypothermia before phoning or after?

Also, out of curiosity, does anyone have any idea if they'd normally send the whirly bird for this kind of thing, or were Channel Five paying and the RAF figure it'd be fun to do it on somebody else's expense account?

In reply to Nicholas Livesey: Apologies for going slightly off topic, but I am confused.

It is fairly obvious after reading the OP that it would not have been safe for the two climbers to descend from the ridge without taking some major risks (wet rock and a broken rope). So why all the scorn at calling the MRT?

Would you scorn someone in the same way if they called any of the other emergency services??

In reply to davis.pete:

There's not much scorn anywhere in the thread, actually. As you say, the circumstances were at that boundary between giving the MRT an easy job or risking giving them a harder one later on. Nicholas appears to know that as well as anyone.

In reply to psd: I wans't expecting a copter. Just before it arrived we noticed the MRT coming up the path and I was very surprised when thewirly bird appeared.

In reply to psd: To evacuate from there by ground would be very time consuming and difficult, particularly if it ran into a night rescue with deteriorating weather. If raf are available it is safer than risking mrt members lives in a protraacted rescue. I doubt tv would have any bearing whatsoever.

Similarly most mrt colleages I know would rather get a call in these circumstances at what was the right time, rather than having to start a protracted search at night and possibly a body recovery.

Never be afraid of calling mr, it is they who make the judgement call about whether to initiate a callout and they have plenty of experience in doing so.

Glad it ended sucessfully and lessons were learnt, we all make simple mistakes sometimes and often are only a second or a stumble away from an epic!

In reply to Nicholas Livesey:

I won't scorn as I ended up on North Buttress instead of Curved Ridge one winter, we wondered why it was so quiet when we started.

Wife was nearly 5 months pregnant, so had set off late for an easyish day and had only taken 1 axe each, a couple of nuts and what turned out to be a 9mm rope I had condemed a few months earlier, it was an interesting experience

Glad all worked out well in the end!

In reply to Nicholas Livesey:



Small world indeedio, I believe to have heard all about the climbing with the infamous "Juggs"

In reply to Nicholas Livesey:

Excellent misadventure, you are not the first to do that it seems.

However, you do owe the MRT a large thank you, some money sent them for funds, and a drink. Think they would appreciate that, so many people just say thanks and walk off.

(lucky bugger, not had a yellow taxi ride in my life)

In reply to Nicholas Livesey:

Seems to be one of the most regularly made mistakes in Glencoe:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=2739&v=1#x37628

P.s. That Graham bloke is me.

In reply to Nicholas Livesey:

been there done that in winter - took us forever but we made it to the top
thinking this is nothing like i remember down climbing n summer and somewhat
hard for Grade II and not much like a ridge!

Had a great day, scared myself a few times felt bold on rubbish snow,
topping out in the dark at 9pm with a phone FROM the local plod to check we were ok - which was nice slept well that night.

Glad youre ok

In reply to Nicholas Livesey: Am I right in thinking that the boys in the big yellow have to log x number of hours each month to keep flying? In which case, surely attending something real like this is far more beneficial than sightseeing tours?

In reply to sutty: Sutty, we are extremely grateful to everyone that helped to get us of the hill and we will certainly be showing our gratitude.

I will be writing to Glencoe MRT and hopefully I can persuade my mountaineering club to make a sizeable donation.

Oh, and I know it sounds flippant but yes, I do consider myself a lucky bugger to have had a lift in the budgie

In reply to swhitinguk:
Well it's better than ferrying about royalty I suppose. I'm surprised it was the RAF chopper that attended and not the RN one from Gannet. I often see them flying over (I live near the airport) heading north and wonder whether there's someone up north eagerly awaiting their arrival. The rescue helo's from whatever service (inc. Coastguard) do a fantastic job, although unfortunately seem to be coming under the bean-counters gaze who simply cannot see a "cost benefit" in PR.

In reply to Nicholas Livesey:

Glad you're OK. I'm pretty sure I've done the same on one occasion, going for Curved Ridge, but ending up on something quite a lot harder. Luckily it was a nice sunny and dry June day.

In reply to Wibble Wibble: My neighbour's car burst into flame the other day.- he'd been trickle charging the battery for days. His garage door caught fire. His uPVC windows started to melt.

Rather than sort it himself with a hosepipe he called the ***ing fire brigade out. What a numpty.

The fire brigade surely have better things to do than be hassled by incompetent homeowners :}

In reply to Nicholas Livesey: Very common mistake .I made it about 10 years ago ,soloing it and thinking it was well stiff for a G2 scramble. I'm with Sutty in that you owe MR bigtime. Glad your all OK .

In reply to all:

I'd just like to add my name to the list of muppets who have mistaken 'D' Gully Buttress for Curved Ridge.

This was on a roasting hot day in August 1997.

Still, an ascent of 'D' Gully Buttress, the top part of Curved Ridge, Crowberry Tower, then a walk along the ridge to the far end to tick the other Munro on the Buachaille, and then a swim in one of the pools in the Lairig Eilde on the walk out, not a bad way to spend a day.

In reply to Nicholas Livesey:
I have been a scorner in the past and here is my tuppenceworth.
I’m glad you’re all ok and it sounds like you acted reasonably in the circumstances. But some of the other comments here do raise those old worries again – MR is just a service, call them and let them make the decision, etc. Lots of us have ended up off-route on wet rock. The key skills are to be as aware as possible of when you are going off-route, and not to do anything irreversal/un-abbable if you think you might be off-route. It sounds like you need to work on these (as do most of us).
And persuading your club to donate to the MRT – I like that! Was it your club who ordered you up the wrong route? Only kidding really - brave of you to come clean on the inglorious epic anyway.

In reply to Nicholas Livesey: Character building. Glad your ok.

In reply to sutty:


My wife was navigating ;-P

In reply to sutty: We managed to miss rannoch wall once....ended up climbing on the crag just to the west of it!

In reply to Nicholas Livesey:

glad alls well. i think D Gully buttress has a severe section that the traditional diff route circumnavigates.

myself and a pal did curved ridge one easter - the lower section was a scramble, the upper had 2 feet of snow on it. we were joined from the left about 2/3rds of the way up by an english guy and two spaniards who told us they were doing curved ridge. "nuh, uuhh ! !" we cried.

they are quite close and similar in shape but if you've any visisbility you've simply to remember that CR gives you full-on stunning views of the rannoch wall. if you havent got them, you're somewhere else.

ahunter

In reply to Nicholas Livesey:

some thoughts:

- you should be given credit for coming here under your own name and explaining what happened
- a sizeable donation to MRT is in order, but by you, not your club
- what would you have done pre-mobile phones?

In reply to Morgan Woods:

Read hamish Macinnes's book 'Call out' for the answers to that one