Weather, weather on the wall....

I'm up in Edinburgh with Hutch the 20 yr old cat (my father and step-mother are away)...I was intending to go to Braemar and do some ski-mountaineering; however the fact that I could walk to the shops in Edinburgh in just a coat and t-shirt and FEEL WARM shows what conditions are like at the moment....just mad....

Am going off for a run later - my next break is the very long Easter break; however Easter is late this year and I am wondering if there will be any snow left on the Cairngorms even when it arrives....

NE ridge of Stob Ban (II/III)

so half-term finally arrived...it had been a long term and with Claire working the 4.00 - midnight shift the last week I was totally shattered and not really looking forward to driving all the way to Scotland....

the weather forecasts and conditions reports had also been all over the place - in the end Ben and I decided to try the NE ridge of Stob Ban in the Mamores; which seemed a sensible choice although it was a bit of a gambel (although to be honest any choice of route would have been a gamble and it was doubtful I could have handled the Ben Nevis walk in at the moment). Having a really easy journey up north helped no end and a nice pint made me feel nicely tired and able to sleep well in the car.

The 5am alarm was not met with any kind of enthusiasm at all - a VERY groggy Simon crawled out of his pit to find weather that was actually somewhat warmer than ideal..........however by 6.40 am we were heading uphill in the dark. There are actually several advantages to walking in whilst half-asleep - the first being that by the time you have woken up you are halfway there....and this walk-in was not that bad at all. The ridge appeared after a while and then we slogged up towards the route - often in deep snow; occasionally following footprints - the ridge has clearly become quite a popular route. We geared up and then soloed up an easy gully onto the ridge proper. We put the rope on at this point and Ben led off towards the first tricky section. Ben has been doing lots of winter climbing this season and therefore decided to take a harder variation to the left of where the route actually goes....me, having not done much winter climbing at all, elected not to when seconding!!! Another easy section brought us to the crux of the route; a steep wall with a possible escape to the left again (where the party in front had gone). Ben elected to have a go at the steep wall and, after a prolonged struggle and lots of Elvis (shaking legs) got over it......following this pitch I was SERIOUSLY impressed; I would say its probably the hardest winter climbing I have ever done and I would guess it was round about grade IV - although I don't claim to be an expert on this.......being leashless would definetly help, although even with leashless axes there is no way that I could have lead that pitch at the moment. Cresting the main arete - where the climbing gets a lot easier, we encountered the wind...I was actually reduced to crawling a few feet on a narrow section...nothing like stylish climbing!!!! From there to the top was simple; unfortunately the descent was a bit of a grind, the top 100m of the North Ridge being a little tricky and the last 1000' being on steep heather - some of which I avoided with a neat bum slide!!

Another benefit of the early start was an early finish - good for me as I got back to Cumbria in plenty of time and good for Ben as he is spending the week in the north......a great route and a trip I feel MUCH better for making...

pix at: https://picasaweb.google.com/simon.bigair/NERidgeOfStobBanIIIII#

Running the in the rain...

well could have been; might have been singing in the rain instead!!

After a miserable week of gales and rain Claire and I decided to go for a run/walk on the lower fells today...after all you get wet fell running anyway!!

The Latrigg circuit was agreed on and Claire amazed herself by jogging the 2 miles (gently uphill) to where one leaves the riverside path and heads onto Latrigg.....hopefully the value of pacing has also been learnt!! Once fortified by a country slice we slogged uphill into the wind and rain to gain the summit of Latrigg....running the last bit of that as well!

As we were wearing trail shoes as opposed to pure fell running shoes we stayed on the main path all the way down which was run in entirety; 16mins to the road in Keswick...before a stretch out walk through Fitz Park and back to the car........a very good way to spend a rainy day; our first run (for either of us) in quite some time and a good way to build a base fitness level.

High Street via Kidsty Pike....

Claire and I went for a lovely walk today on High Street and Kidsty Pike....descending over Mardale Ill Bell and down the Nan Bield Pass....

dets to follow - pix on Picassa

http://picasaweb.google.com/simon.bigair/HighStreetViaKidstyPike#

So, we got not quite as early start as we would have liked due to having hard weeks at work couple with the fun and games of moving....nevertheless the glorious morning got us out by 8.15am and driving on still icy roads to Mardale Head.

The original plan was to go up Rough Crag ridge to High Street and thence down to Nan Bield Pass....giving us plenty of time in the afternoon to do some sorting out and Claire's portfolio. However it seemed that everyone who was parked down at Mardale (and there were a LOT more cars than at xmas eve) was going that way so we carried on a little further and climbed onto Kidsty Pike. By this simple ploy we had the whole of the first part of the walk to ourselves.....being a grumpy old bugger who likes the company of other mountaineers in the pub not on the hill this was a good thing.....

Anyway; we climbed up the ridge and got to the top of Kidsty Pike before joining the main High Street ridge....the closer we got to the top the more people we saw....not surprising given the amazing views over all of Lakeland. The mist was swirling around slightly (as you can see from the pictures) but it stayed away from High Street. The summit view was superb; Ingleborough rising from a sea of cloud as was the Cross Fell range to our East. Lunch (very tasty too) was sampled before we wandered off over Mardale Ill Bell to the head of the Nan Bield Pass. There was a deep frost on the hills and some ice in places..we took crampons (although we didn't end up using them) but no ice axes. Taking the heavier boots was a decided advantage on the first part of the Nan Bield descent...which was not surprisingly quite icy. The top of the Nan Bield Pass is deep and enclosed on its Mardale side (a total contrast to the Kentmere side) and thus gets very little sun. The warm temperatures of the past couple of weeks meant that Smallwater was not as frozen solid as it could have been....and we were soon back at the car.

Today was about a good a day as I have had in the Lakes for a while...very different to the days under deep snow of pre-xmas and last January; but with the whole of the Lakes diffused in amazing conditions with the bare minimum of snow....the temperature has plummeted again tonight and tomorrow looks good...however a thaw is forecast for Scotland this week...really hope not.

The trip that never was.....Morocco at xmas...

given that I am still sitting here racked with a gruesome cold it might be time to review what didn't happen at xmas when snow stopped play on the Mt. Toubkal expedition...

Having broken up from school at 18th December, I headed up to Claire's and we did the final packing so we could get away early for the drive to near Gatwick airport...mindful of the roads in the south east and the weather....coupled with personal knowledge that a snowflake in the south east means that the world is going to end.....

The first 3 1/2hrs of the trip were totally uneventful - until we got to just above Milton Keynes where everything ground to a halt...suffice to say that the next stage of the trip (at a guess a journey of about 50miles) took nearly 9 hrs. Admittedly we did stop for a meal in St.Albans (I think!!) but that was after a journey down the motorway during which I would have been much faster in ski's...

We had gone in Claire's car so that we could have two drivers; however the snow meant that I drove pretty much all of this...which was very trying on pretty bad roads - which for reasons that pass understanding where reducing people to about 4mph, despite being eminently driveable to anyone with experience of driving in Cumbria or Scotland...

We finally got to our hotel at about 9.30 - very tired and stiff.....unbeknownst to us the fun was only just beginning....

Where has winter gone...

not though it matters too much at the moment given I am off work today feeling utterly awful and in no state to teach anyone anything.....

It has got a bit colder in the last couple of days and the incessant rain of last week has stopped....can it really be a little over a month since (so it seemed) the whole country was ground to a halt by the deep snows......

Then again - it is still mid/late Jan, hopefully there is still some time left for some more snow and half-term is 4 weeks away.

The end of winter already...

in Cumbria at least with 4 days of pretty much non-stop rain and spring like temperatures that will have stripped any vestiges of snow off the hills....and to think 6 days ago Ben and I were descending St. Sunday Crag in shin deep snow....

The forecast is for the weather to abate tomorrow...thus allowing Claire and I to get out for a walk - today we are focused on moving with a load going to storage and having purchased a flat pack wardrobe which we'll take back to the flat and assemble in a minute.....