The Swiss Route, Les Courtes

An Alpine retrospective.

There are times when you realise that some things just aren't for you. So it was with big Himalayan trips. In 1986 eight of us went to Gasherbrum IV to attempt the second ascent (Walter Bonatti and Carlo Mauri made the first ascent in 1958). The west face "The Shining Wall" had been climbed in one a fantastic ascent by Robert Schauer and Woyteck Kurtyka though they were so far out on a limb that they didn't traverse the 200m or so of the summit ridge to the true summit, preferring instead to turn left and head to safety. This is probably the pre-eminent super-alpine climb of the 1980s.

The Himalaya are a big step up from the Alps, even the big stuff like the Eiger or the Jorasses, and the amount of climbing done ended up being very little in comparison to the time spent doing everything else. Of course the fact that we didn't summit meant that we were downhearted - Greg Child and Tim McArtney-Snape made the second ascent of GIV that season by the ridge that Kurtyka and Schauer used as descent - but even so, it didn't feel like an aspect of the sport I wished to continue.

I'm sitting on the Mer de Glace crying and screaming with pain. I've been skiing down from the Vallee Blanche after climbing one of the couloirs on Mt Blanc du Tacul and just hit a pressure ridge in the glacier, done a backwards somersault and landed on my thumb. For the second time. Over the next few days my hand swells ominously but isn't too painful.

I'm looking for an objective to solo, it needs to be big but not too big. My first thoughts are to the Nant Blanc face of Le Verte but Phil Thornhill reckons that the face is almost never in good condition for its entire length - there'll always be one section that is very tenuous - and suggests the Swiss Route on the north face of Les Courtes as an alternative. Sounds good to me.

A couple of days later I'm at the Grands Montets telepherique ready for the first cabin of the day. There's a good forecast for the next three days. My plan is to take an easy day getting over to the Argentiere hut, spend the night there; climb the route the following day and down to the Couvercle hut then down to the valley the following morning. So food for a couple of days and a minimal set of kit to abseil with - 60 metres of 6mm cord and a few old wires. If you are obviously a climber then the telepherique staff take no notice of you but skiers tend to get shepherded around "for their own safety" so no-one says anything as I head out of the top station and drop down in to the back country.

The snow on the glacier is firm and I'm making good time so I change plans and head directly to the route. There are a couple of teams considering setting off on the route so rather than get stuck behind them I head to the rimaye (bergschrund) and get going. Getting established on the face proves to be trickier than expected and requires plunging my axes and arms deep in to the soft overhanging snow of the far side of the gap, quite exciting with a large dark bergschrund gaping beneath you.

Whether I'd destroyed the placements on getting on to the face or the other teams decided on something else, I don't know, but I didn't see anyone again whilst I was on the face. The route was in excellent condition with near perfect neve ice for much of the route. The crux was a narrowing of the ice and slightly steeper but not too hard and soon I was on the upper ice field. The ice on this began to change: getting harder and more brittle. By the time I reached the final 100m arete leading to the summit ridge it was bullet hard winter ice taking several swings of the axe to get a placement. I get to the summit after just 5 hours.

I've never been here before and the summit ridge is a bit confusing so rather than drop down to the south face I decide to descend the NE slope. This is slightly risky in that it's known to be avalanche prone but it's also been skied! The deciding factors are the encroaching darkness and the turning weather. The slope is quite deep snow so I keep to the side rocks in case it all begins to slide. As I get lower I get braver and take bigger and bigger strides, by the foot of the face I'm almost running and simply leap over the bergschrund to land in soft snow. It's now dark; I'm near the head of a snow covered, crevassed glacier and I'm on my own. Oops!

I've no real option but to begin to head back down so after a brew and something to eat I set off. The next three hours are highly worrying but eventually I come across the upper edge of the Grand Montets ski runs that drop down this side and I can relax. Another hour of plodding down the slopes and I re-enter the apartment just 13 hours after leaving that morning. The following day a storm hits the range.

When I get home an X-ray shows that I've broken the thumb on my left hand, the consultant reckons my tendons were stronger than the bone and pulled it apart! "You're lucky" he says "You don't want to tear soft tissue. This will be right in a month not six".

Big Bad Ben

Obviously not as fit as I thought (or hoped)! Nor had the walking around in plastic boots done much to get my legs used to stumbing around in the dark and half-light on rocky paths. All this is a way of saying that two days' climbing on the Ben and I was knackered!

The plan was for a four day weekend but we ended up using Thursday to drive up to the hut at Roy Bridge rather than rushing it either Wednesday night or early Thursday morning so as to get some climbing done on the Thursday, the plan would have been to do something around Bridge of Orchy. Steve had never winter climbed on the Ben before but was keen as ever, hopefully conditions would allow the sports plan to unfold as intended. A piece of luck in that we were offered the use of the forestry key for the day which would save time both on the walk in and out.

A 5AM wake-up on Friday morning led to us leaving the car around 0615 for the long trudge up to the CIC hut. The path has been "upgraded" in recent years so no more trudging through the infamous Allt a Mhuilin bogs. It was just daylight when we got to the hut, a group of three young lads arriving just ahead. Chatting to them it turned out that one of them was the son of the person I'd last climbed on the Ben with - 25 years previously! They were heading for Tower Face of the Comb.  Our original intention was for Point Five but since the last grade V I'd led was the occasion of my last trip up here I was having doubts. We settled on Comb Gully.

After another hour's slog we were behind a team also heading for the same route - b***er! We waited a bit then Steve headed off up the easy part of the gully. 60m later and he's at a belay and my turn. More easy slopes lead to a steepening, this is good neve, good for step cutting, good for axe placements, not good for ice-screws. So it was a case of getting on with it and up to the belay.

I'd caught up with the team in front so we had to wait about half and hour before there was enough room to bring Steve up. The next pitch looked similar to that below but more sustained. Steve set off and made short work of it. The second piece of gear was interesting - a thumb sized loop of wire sticking out of the ice! Steve said he was glad it was there and he didn't care what it was attached to! By the time we were on the top it was a white-out so we headed down the zig-zags as I'd never been down that way then headed back to the Allt a Mhuilin and the car for a ten hour round trip. Some photos of the route here

Saturday: day two and we didn't have the forestry key so it was a walk in from the North Face car-park, another 350m of ascent though plus it was drizzling. We'd been recommended Thompson's Route, again high in Coire na Ciste, so the CIC was only going to be halfway. It was definitely light by the time we got to the hut but it was very murky. Enough so  that we spent the best part of an hour finding the route.

Steve set off up the first, short, pitch but after some tooing and froing at the start of the steep ice declared "I've lost my mojo!" and down climbed.  After swapping ends of the ropes I head up, a quick look over the gear and onward and upward. The direct line was verglas and looked hard, the previous team had taken a line to the right then moved back in to the main line so that's the way I went as well. An easy ramp lead to a steep shallow corner, in with a warthog then up on some dinner plating ice to an excellent belay.

I offered Steve the next pitch but he decided that it would be quicker if I led it. Again we moved the ropes around and I moved in to the chimney. The climbing was excellent and varied with a definite crux bulge that felt a little exciting but nothing over taxing. It was over all too soon and I was at the large flake belay at the top of the chimney. By the time Steve had joined me the clouds had cleared out and we had good views of the teams at work on the wall opposite.

Kev Avery on the crux of Darth Vader

The next pitch was easy so Steve said he'd lead it. Eventually the ropes came tight but no shout to begin climbing. After a minute or two I set off anyway and the ropes  began to pull in. Steve's stance was on the prow of the buttress and was shared with a team on No 3 Gully Buttress. After some time we got going again but rather than follow them across to the right I headed straight up some snowy grooves which were quite interesting even if easy. Eventually I reach over the small cornice and pull on to the plateau and sunshine.

When Steve arrives we decide to head up to the summit as Steve has never been on the mountain at all and it's a chance to get another Munro.

Steve nearing the summit of Ben Nevis

We decide not to head over Carn Mor Dearg Arete as planned since we missed the turn and ended up on the top of North East Buttress. Ooops! This time rather than head down the zig-zags we dropped down No 4 gully. Fortunately the snow was soft so descending was much easier and we were soon back at the CIC hut. It was dark by the time we were back at the top car park it was dark and by the time we were at the car we had been out twelve hours. A long day.

The following morning we consider heading up to Aonach Mor but a quick enquiry at the gondola ticket office reveals that there are 35-40mph winds at the top of the slopes. Probably just as well as we are both knackered.

Out on a Limb

I thought that Cautley Spout would be the last route of 2010 since Cath and I were heading up to Scotland for a week's mountain biking over Christmas and there wasn't much likelihood of getting in to the remoter crags in the area that we were going to (Dumfries and Galloway). However a look through  John Biggar's site showed some ice close to the road and just as importantly it was close to one of the 7Stanes - Kirroughtree, so we could get the route done and do some mountain biking as well!

The one big doubt was that the route was low lying and close to the sea so it may not have formed but the extended cold spell should have done it's magic. In fact we went for a short bike ride on Christmas day and it was freezing!!! One of my xmas pressies was a new pair of crampons so I wanted to try them out.

Cath did need a bit of persuading - I think that other than the route on Barden Moor last season she hadn't done any winter climbing for ten years, however with the route just a minute from the road there wasn't much commitment in finding out if it was in and with the biking nearby then it wouldn't be a wasted day. The drive over was "interesting" as even though it was a main road, it hadn't been gritted or ploughed. Perhaps more of a surprise was that Clatteringshaws reservoir was frozen over - this large expanse of water is only at 180m A.S.L. A couple of miles downstream and we were at our route - The Grey Mare's Tail. An interesting name given that there is a more famous fall of the same name near Moffat, cue a bit of mischief of which more later.

First looks at the fall and it looked wet, very wet. Cath declared that it wasn't in condition but I wanted to check so scrambled over the icy rocks at the base to the main fall and whacked in an axe - perfect plastic ice! The top of the steep section looked a bit thin unless you were prepared to climb close to the running water but other than that it looked OK.

Back to the car and back with the kit and it's time to head off. Easy climbing up and left to a step where I put in an ice-screw then up and left again to the edge of the running water. Things were steeper now and it took  some gentle footwork to make upward progress on the thinner ice. Soon the angle eased and I sauntered back  to get a belay round a large boulder - then promptly fell through the ice and got a wet foot! Overall about II 3 which is what it was given originally. After a bit of relayed communication with a watching tourist (and his dog) Cath set off. Other than ensuring the rope was snug she didn't have too much trouble on it.

Scrambling out of the gill we were approached by a single bloke who wanted to know what the condition was like. After a quick chat he reckoned he'd solo it but would like us to stick around just to make sure he was OK. We had a look at the upper fall which would be much more impressive if it froze fully, however even after three weeks of very cold temperatures it just looked too brittle and not well enough formed.

Soloing the Grey Mare's Tail

On the steep bit at the top of the main fall.

Back at the car, the soloist reckoned that ours was only the second ascent and his the third of the route since it had only been done earlier this year.

As for the mischief: well a text to Mike and Steve stating - "Grey mare's tail - tick" did the trick. Might tell them the real story tomorrow :-)

More White Stuff!

While the country moans about having a proper winter for a change, those of us who enjoy the winter conditions were scouring the forums for clues as to what was in and worth heading out for.

Saturday was a funny day, it was meant to be dull but was actually pretty miserable with the freezing level around 200m and a front passing over meant that any precipitation was damp rather than snow and whether you got rain or snow was almost a matter of chance. Steve didn't fancy heading to the Lakes for two days in a row - we had a team ready for Sunday and wasn't fancying nipping down to Cliviger, so out for a walk to get some fitness. Unfortunately there wasn't much to view as the clag was down and it was constantly raining or sleeting. Not a nice day.

For Sunday we had a choice of venue, neither of which I'd been to before so I left the eventual selection to the others. With winter climbing being so popular these days it was time for an early start - which meant getting up at 5am! By six we were away and having to take it slowly as there was thick fog all the way out to the M6. Initially it had been decided to go to Brown Cove Crags but as we headed over, it was felt that it would be better to head in to Haweswater to try something above Blea Water. The only possible fly in the ointment would be the road alongside the reservoir as there had been significant snowfall overnight.

As it turned out the snow had been flattened and Steve had winter tyres on his car. There were only three cars at the car park so once we had sorted out the gear it was time to head off to the crag. An hour later and we get to the foot of the main gill - imaginatively named Blea Water Gill. Despite being early there were two teams ahead of us, one of which - a team of three was just setting off. Time to chill - not literally though. It was decided that I would climb with Pete and Steve would climb with Ross, Steve and I to do the leading.

The initial chimney of Blea Water Gill

By the time it was our turn, the first team had belayed halfway up the pitch proper so forcing the following teams to belay there as well. The climbing was easy but a little thin in places where you could see the water still running underneath the ice. Above there was easy snow leading to a series of short steep steps before the final main icefalls.

There was plenty of variation possible on this section with the teams ahead each taking a different line, there was also another team who had snuck in from the side to avoid the queues below. The first step was steep for a move or two then eased to a large ledge. The next step was a choice between a large pillar with water flowing down its centre or a thinner pillar to the right. I wasn't sure of the larger option so put an ice screw in as high as I could reach and started up the smaller pillar. It was steep but the curved axes I had bought last season made things surprisingly easy - Steve with his traditional axes said he was beginning to get pumped on this bit. If it had been any longer I would have given this grade IV. As it was, getting on to the easy ground above was the hardest bit as the ice thinned out (it often does with ice routes) and needed hooking behind frozen boulders. Above, there were two obvious lines: the right hand one had the two teams we had been following on it while the left hand had only the new interlopers, the left it was. 

The right hand line of the upper fall.

The ice to the left was a bit sugary on the surface and took more care than it first seemed, in fact Pete fell off seconding when all points of contact slipped through! Above a further easy pitch of a few short steps amongst snow lead to a bowl. From there it was easy to the top so we simu-climbed in to the sun.

Pete on the easy upper section.

By the time Steve and Ross arrived it was mid afternoon so no time to get another route in. Pack the gear away and head down to Nan Bield Pass then down to the car. Some deep drifts with few footprints to ease the way so the going was a bit harder than you'd like at the end of a day.

By the time we were back at the motorway it was dark and the temperature was again dropping. In fact we stopped at Tebay services in the mist and it was the coldest it had been all day.

Due to having masses of days holiday left I'd got the Monday off and the weather was perfect! One idea was to do some ski-mountaineering - I'd got the gear but never had chance to use it. However the one piece of kit missing was a pair of ski boots (just looked and they are £350 - £500!!!) and skiing in mountaineering boots is really just for very good skiers and that doesn't apply to me! Backing this up was an incident skiing down the Vallee Blanche above Chamonix when descending from a route when I hit a pressure ridge in the glacier, did a somersault and landed on my left thumb. To say it hurt is an understatement! It hurt even more when I did it again about ten minutes later. I didn't get it looked at until I got home (after soloing the Swiss Route on Les Courtes) when it was declared to be broken.

So time for a walk. I'd never been up Great Whernside before, summer or winter, so that would be a good thing to do and if I'd got time continue on to Buckden Pike. The first thing was getting out of Kettlewell - always tricky dealing with buildings and streets. Once away from the village centre, the lanes were hard packed snow which was a bit dicey to walk on. The initial slopes were obviously popular with sledgers as there were masses of tracks in the fields. As I got higher the tracks became fewer and more importantly concentrated in to one path, too often I've come across every walker determined to create their own steps in the snow which just makes it hard work for everyone.

Higher up there were some serious drifts  but by the summit rock the wind had removed most of the depth. As is typical, the sun had gone in by now and it was quite cold. There were a couple of ski tracks heading off towards Park Rash so I followed these until they split at a wall. Decision time. Left. A 100m later and the ground drops away in a steep slope of deep snow, the wind direction indicated that it wasn't a lee slope so probably safe, plunge stepping down this was a bit unnerving at first but nothing moved. The ground at the base was covered in deep and unconsolidated snow which made the next few hundred metres very hard.

Eventually I got to the road of Park Rash. Time was pressing now so down the road rather than continue on to Buckden Pike. I got back to the car after about two and a quarter hours, not exactly fast travelling for little more than three miles. Still I'm feeling a bit hill fitter and getting used to moving in plastic boots again.

Early Snows

With the TV news getting all excited and blethering on about the "extreme weather", it was time for a change of style this week.

From various blog reports (The Front Point) and posts on UKC it looked like things on the East side of the Helvellyn range were coming in to condition. Steve was keen to head over so we arranged for a 6am start from Skipton. Come Friday evening and Steve was still at work and would likely only get home by 9pm so we decided to be lazy and head over at midday and avoid the crowds that way. It's a problem these days, you either have to be very early or be prepared to climb in the dark to avoid queuing on many winter routes. Since we both have Hope headtorches, climbing at night is not an issue, in fact, Steve has done most of his winter climbing at night!

As it happens we had a dump of snow overnight so we had to spend an hour or so cleaning and gritting the lane so that we could get the car out.

After a stop in Kendal so that Steve could use his Pete Bland voucher (he came 5th in the Tour of Pendle) to get some new fell running shoes, Kirkstone Pass was passable but looked like it would ice up quite easily.  Parking is permitted at Glenridding mine through the winter months so it was worth a chance getting up there as it would save 2Km walk-in, and out! As we approached a cattle grid a skier (heading down from the tow at Raise) was walking across it and wouldn't get out of the way so I lost all momentum and ground to a halt about 50m further on. After reversing back down and turning round in someone's drive we parked just above the pub, just 400m from the main road.

Our destination was the Red Tarn area of Helvellyn, I'd never climbed here before - in the days when I lived in the Lakes there were just a handful of grade I gullies - these days there is a bit more to go at. From memory I think I've only ever been down to Red Tarn just once when walking in my teens so definitely a new area. Since it was 2:30pm when we left the car it wasn't surprising that we were the only ones heading uphill.

What you always forget about winter climbing is just how much hard work it is - from the enervating cold to the clumsiness of the equipment needed to counteract it. By the time we were at the outflow of the tarn we had a healthy sweat. A quick change of clothing - not pleasant in a stiff breeze and spindrift but better than climbing and belaying in damp thermals. Then it was off up the approach slopes hoping that we'd correctly identified our climb - V-Corner - before the light faded.

Walking in to Red Tarn at dusk

Off to our right there was a lot of shouting and swearing going on which eventually faded by the time we started actually climbing.  As was the light. I'd got first lead so I headed off mainly following steps in the snow to the first ice. The lower parts were nice and thick but above it was mainly a thin covering over rocks which neccesitated keeping to mixed ground leading up grooves to a bay at the top of the ice. From here a steeper corner seemed to be the key to further progress but my last piece of gear was 20 metres below! There was a reasonably substantial icicle but I had no slings with which to thread it - a couple of quickdraws clipped together just went round, it would have to do. A move higher and a perfect peg crack appeared. A few taps later and I'm much happier and step down to retrieve the quickdraws. Once out of the corner I was soon at a stance and took a belay. I'd run out nearly 60m of rope, so much for the guidebook's 20m!

By the time Steve arrived it was nearly dark so on with the torches. As he was leading the next pitch I was sure that I could hear a helicopter flying around and a couple of minutes later so it proved as a set of lights and a lot of noise appeared over Swirral Edge. After circling the combe a couple of times it flew off. The party who had previously been doing a lot of shouting were still in the same place so it looked like something was amiss.

With repeated fly pasts and hovering above the party communication opportunities with Steve were limited but before too long he was at the belay just as he ran out of rope, at least this time it was closer to the stated 30m! I had got cold on the belay so it was good to get moving. The helicopter was still to-ing and fro-ing so it was just a case of getting on with the climbing. The last pitch was described as just a snow slope but early season you never can tell, but the guide didn't lie. Well apart from the pitch length! The rope ran out when I was about ten metres from the mini cornice.

It was now that the helicopter came back and took the casualty off to hospital so I had to wait a bit before Steve dismantled the belay and we simu-climbed until I got on to the plateau. No belay so I just walked back towards the cross walled shelter as Steve climbed. Eventually we get out of the wind and pack our gear away. Then it's stumble down Swirral Edge in crampons and up on to Catsyecam.

I kept my crampons on for most of the walk out as the path had hidden patches of water ice and taking a flyer on a path wouldn't have looked cool. It did make walking awkward though. Just before we got to the car a Land Rover pulled up and a couple of MRT lads had a chat. It seemed that the accident was a woman who had slipped and fallen around 100ft hopefully her injuries aren't too severe. By the time we were back at the car it was 7:45pm. We headed home via Penrith hoping that the road would be clear rather than risk Kirkstone Pass, the car thermometer showed -8C at one point.

Sunday and my legs were knackered from the twisting and knocking on the path due to wearing crampons, my muscles hadn't had such awkward movements for a long while. Thus the planned bike ride didn't happen. Given that the cold weather is meant to last for at least another week it may be that next weekend's Sportive may not take place. Certainly Cath said that she had been frozen on her bike ride on Saturday.

With the cold snap set to continue until at least the weekend things should be good for next weekend as well.

Itchy Fingers

Some time since my last posting - seasonal holidays and all that. Shortly after my last post I began to get itchy finger about going climbing again. Unfortunately on that weekend no-one was available to head out so I went for a couple of long runs instead. The arm still isn't straight (there's about 20 degrees to go before full extension) but I was definitely keen to get out.

As far as running goes, well the last two months of last year saw me do a lot of miles, perhaps because I've not been doing any other sports like climbing or cycling. In fact I felt confident enough to offer to help Mark Smith (Swiss Toni on the FRA forums) in his attempt to complete a mid-winter Bob Graham Round on the weekend before Christmas. His help on leg three had pulled out so he had turned to the forums for help. In the event five of us turned up at Dunmail Raise at 4am on Saturday morning. With temperatures of -6C it was a case of wrapping up warm rather than going light. A few slight mistakes in the navigation during the dark hours but once sunrise came spirits lifted and we had a great session from Bowfell to Scafell Pike. Ultimately Mark got round in just outside the 24hr limit but being out for that length of time in such temperatures it can hardly be described as a failure.

With the holiday season over and the cold weather continuing, yesterday we headed over to the Lakes for a bit of winter climbing. The original plan was to go to Brown Cove Crags on the west side of Helvellyn but Steve didn't fancy driving over Dunmail Raise in case it snowed so we changed plans to Jogebar Gully and headed in from Grasmere! After three hours of post holing through the unconsolidated snow we changed plans again and did one of the easy gullies on Tarn Crag on Dollywagon Pike. The wind had picked up and the spindrift meant that often we couldn't see anything. At the top of the route I was nearly being blown off my feet by the stronger gusts!

On the way back it was more post-holing as our tracks had filled in with drifting snow. I managed to break through a snow bridge and ended up to my waist in bog water! Fortunately since I was wearing Paramo salopettes my legs soon dried out though my feet remained wet inside my plastic boots until we got back to the car.

An accident on the A65 and long queues of slow traffic meant a long drive home. I'm definitely not as fit as I used to be :-( a sedentary job doesn't keep you fit like scaffolding does. Mind you I'm also nearly thrity years older!

My arm felt OK, though obviously it was quite weak since I haven't really been using it in anger, a bit of real life stresses and strains should help it rather than the formal exercises I've been doing.