UKC

Scottish V is the winter grade, the big landmark that gives access to a host of classic routes and opens your progress to harder things still, says Ali Rose. If you've operated for years below this level, it can seem a daunting step. Boost your kit, partners, preparation and planning, and this may be the season to break the grade V barrier.

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In reply to UKC Articles:

If you are worried about how you look in the photos, you aren't trying hard enough.

In reply to UKC Articles:

Enjoyed that! Yep, will add another to the pile that Grade III can be terrifying. One of my earlier winter routes at Grade III was at Arrochar and established at the beginning of the 20th C. It would have no doubt been buried when first done. Very lean and all rocky/icy mixed, I swear it was technically harder and quite a lot scarier than most Vs I've done since.

It was going to be inevitable that when I started climbing Vs they didn't feel any harder than what I'd been doing already - usually quite a lot more gear. Wish I'd known that sooner!

In reply to UKC Articles:

Good article. The section on different tactics for carrying clothes/food on a route was interesting. I don't tend to find carrying a bag annoying for ice routes, but definitely do for techy mixed. I found the no bags and one belay jacket in a team option termed 'ultimate minimalist'(!) amusing - this is often my preferred way of tackling shorter tricky routes.  

In reply to Michael Gordon:

Totally agree. Can be a good tactic if you plan to abseil off or know of a quick descent. I feel that there’s a funny line where on grade I-III/IV in general you take everything up the route with you but as it gets harder it’s worth thinking through tactics a bit more. 

In reply to arose:

  just a heads up on East face route Stob coire nan lochain, it is very much an icy mixed climb, requiring a good  freeze thaw cycle. When i did the second ascent with Terry Ralphs, the first pitch was turfy mixed, the second very thin snow ice, the crux third pitch to access the right hand chimney had a very thin smear of ice oozing from a snowy ledge down the wall right of the belay, hope this helps, when it is in nick it is one of the best mixed routes in the Coe.

In reply to Andy Clarke1965:

Hi Andy, that's interesting. Quite a few years since I did the route, but I didn't see any way across the right wall; good to know it needs ice for that to be doable. Took the direct way instead - very steep past the big roof but still VI,7 and agreed, an excellent route, one of the best I've done at SCNL  

In reply to Andy Clarke1965:

Thanks.  Not quite on the topic from the article but hey, this is UKC after all!  We only really headed up East face route as it was the whitest of the harder routes and we had already bailed off Tried and Tested due to icey cracks and it not being very white.  I was expecting a normal SCnL hooky VI,7 so it was a bit perplexing to find no way of getting across the 3rd pitch!  The pitch of East Face Direct wasnt complete so we headed down.  Still a fun adventure

In reply to arose:

Yeah a bit lazy of me posting here, saw your post on insta  just thought i would clear up the confusion, a few teams have assumed it goes as a hooking exercise,  including Garth!

In reply to mike barnard:

We went straight up at maybe VI,5 in very icy conditions.

In reply to arose:

Regardless of the guidebook description, and unlike the original line it seems, that way does go without ice. Pretty sure we just had whiteness and frozen turf. 

In reply to DaveHK:

Ah, so the upgrade for the new guide was for more typical mixed conditions. Makes sense I guess.

In reply to UKC Articles:

Also with the new winter cycles, it would probably be best for anyone wanted to up their game above V to ditch your 9-5 not flexible job, divorce your spouse and abandon any child responsibilities… they get in the way of  the all too fleeting good conditions!

In reply to UKC Articles:

Great article - thanks for that.

To the bag carrying... Many times on multi-pitch climbs, winter and summer, the leader had the pack on a long piece of accessory cord: they'd just pull up the pack after settling on the belay. So neither the leader nor the second had to actually climb with the pack on. We've never got the bag stuck; genius technique or have we just been very stupid and very lucky all these years ?

In reply to MisterPiggy:

I try to keep weight and bulk to a minimum so carrying 60m of accessory cord, even if it's very thin doesn't really appeal. And it would need to be that long as I quite often do 50m+ pitches.

In reply to French Erick:

And move to Kingussie...

In reply to MisterPiggy: I don’t see why that wouldn’t work though seems an unnecessary weight and faff.  I do occasionally carry a tag line and take a single rope on longer routes  I can’t think of ever seeing someone haul packs as a norm in Scottish winter  

In reply to French Erick:  I find living in Fort William, owning a campervan, not having kids and only working 12 days a month helps a lot 😉😅

In reply to mike barnard:

The overhang on that section was one sheet of black ice with no visible cracks. Looks like it would be great fun with drier cracks or thin ice. 

In reply to French Erick:

I've just managed to tick off all of these but probably too late in life to boost my grade....

(For child, read dog.....)

Currently dossing in zero snow Aviemore.

In reply to timparkin:

Nobody should have to live in Kingussie

In reply to arose:

HAHA!! :-D

Personally, I'm happy with Ballachulish! 

In reply to MisterPiggy:

I'm amazed you never had problems doing this. Aside from the bag getting stuck under bits of rock, the main issue I can think of is the cord getting tangled with the half ropes, and/or not being able to pull the bag up because it hasn't been possible to keep the cord away from one of the ropes and it's then caught at a piece of gear. 

In reply to Michael Gordon:

Sounds like we were/are just lucky. Though we've only ever used a single rope. Less efficient for many routes, but we wanted to keep things as simple as possible.

Maybe it's time to teach some old dogs some new tricks.

In reply to MisterPiggy:

Climbing on a single and using a tag line to haul a bag is pretty common in Europe and America. Certainly on summer routes, not sure so much about winter. Normally the bag is hauled on steeper sections and worn on easier/slabbier/more snaggy sections.

In reply to UKC Articles:

Training dry tooling was a game changer for me venturing into harder grades. 

In reply to Rich W Parker: yeah. Agreed.  Getting confidence on your tools and front points is huge .  Even more so once venturing above grade V

In reply to Fellover:

Okay, interesting. Do you know where in Europe? I live there (and even speak European ) but I haven't seen this. Half or twin ropes are more or less universal on multi-pitch rock climbs amongst the other climbers I see. However, maybe I am not doing the sort of routes on which it could be useful.