winter Archives - The Climbing Company

Pembrokeshire Coast Path

By stu_mcinnes@hotmail.co.uk January 5, 2016 January 5, 2016 Adventures, Pembrokeshire

Running the Pembrokeshire Coast Path…

Despite not having been back long from India, this winter seems to have gone on forever! No-one will have escaped the fact that it’s been one of the wettest, windiest and miserable on record! It may mean that the Ski season in the Alps has been a slow starter, but it doesn’t have to stop you getting out and exploring, even closer to home.. During the first week of the New Year, we decided to get out on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, and combine some New Years (much needed) fitness training and some exploring the nooks and crannies of the area we live…

Hidden beaches on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path

Having lived in Pembrokeshire on and off for eight years, and spending most of my work and play time outdoors, I have been on most parts of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, and, without a hint of bias, honestly believe it to be one of the best, most scenic, most picturesque and rugged wild places in the British Isles…

Looking West on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path to St. David’s Head

In an attempt to be able to draw a line around the whole Pembrokeshire Coast Path on the Ordinance Survey map I have on my wall, we made a conscious effort to go out and explore some more of it. And it’s making this effort, especially at this time of year, that really enables you to discover new places, see amazing sights and not feel like a dire winters day is wasted! So, come rain or shine (usually more rain and wind!) we have been out running on the coastal path. The guides say the total distance is 186 miles, and climbs over 33,000ft, and given that you’re rarely likely to encounter another soul on certain parts of it, it feels pretty wild and remote.

Just a small part of the wild, rugged and remote Pembrokeshire Coast Path

During our exploration of the coastal path (which is a National Trail no less..) we’ve discovered beaches we had no idea existed, seen remote beaches full of lazing Seal and spied whole cliff faces with not a single established rock-climb on…

Some blue skies between all the recent storms of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path

It wont be long till the Springs here, daylight hours get longer, and with any luck the weather will be better. But on these dark, wet winter months, don’t stay inside and have unproductive days – the Pembrokeshire Coast Path should be explored all year round!

Get out there and explore the Pembrokeshire Coast Path!

More details on the coastal path can be found here…

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Avalanche O’clock on Meggy

By stu_mcinnes@hotmail.co.uk March 8, 2015 May 5, 2015 Adventures

Want to know what 2 days of warm weather and some torrential rain do to the snowpack? Then look on… 1 word – AVALANCHE!

We were heading out to Meggy in the hope of checking out some of the avalanche activity from the last 2 days. Knowing there would be some interesting conditions we had already decided on an easy day out and to avoid going onto any snowy sections. This decision was rightly backed up by the view from the carpark, a huge full depth avalanche on the hill above, almost 300m wide.. Plenty more were visible from the road too.

Large full depth just above the farm

We left the Meggy car park amid glorious sunshine, t-shirts and sunglasses were the order of the day, but not for long! To be fair, the weather was a vast improvement on the last couple of days – in that the winspeeds were under 100mph…. Once up in the Coire conditions got, well, pretty grim. People say the Cairngorms are the windiest place in Scotland, well I reckon it’s here! Windspeeds were definitely stronger than forecast, and I cast my mind back to my last visit to Meggy – having to resort to crawling on all fours following a bearing in a white out, the wind intent on not letting me stand…

Anyway, back to today. There were folk out, someone being overly optimistic with some skiis (ski-touring conditions it aint), 4 guys even coming down having been snow-holing – well, they are certainly “braver” men than me, it must have been dire in the thaw in a snow hole!

Have a look at the picture below of a couple walking into the debris zone of a huge, deep wet snow avalanche, from below you could clearly see the fracture lines and hundreds if not thoushands of tonnes of soaking wet soggy snow ready to go… You can see the couple outlined lower left for scale. Sensible decision?

Spot the people bottom left in the snow…..

It was everywhere, every aspect that had snow on and at most altitudes, there had been significant slides. We had it all, huge full-depth avalanches, massive wet snow avalanches, surface sloughs, monumental cornice collapse, smaller point release avalanches, even what looked like crevasses and seracs!

I like to think the fact we have had so little human involvement with avalanches this year is due to more information, better understanding, more people taking a more serious attitude into the hills, and being better equiped, certainly after the terrible winter we had a couple of years ago. It would be horrific if that happened year after year, and fortunately it does not, but there were definitely some people perhaps stepping over that line into the danger zone today. And why? There was nothing to climb, all slush and rubble, skiing would have been rubbish, and the weather on Meggy was at times awful….

Lots of people have been wondering what conditions for climbing would be at the minute, well the pictures below of the Post Face etc give you a bit of an example of how black it all is, and what the cornice collapses have done. The weather took a nose dive whilst in Coire Adhair, so sorry for the blurryness of the photos!

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Scotland so far….

By stu_mcinnes@hotmail.co.uk March 6, 2015 May 5, 2015 Adventures

Each Winter in Scotland seems to have certain characteristics, I remember a few years ago it was the “Windy Winter” a couple of years ago was it the “No Snow Winter”, this year it seems to be the “Winter of Giant Thaws”. Apparently this Saturdays staggering rise in temperatures, is due to a blast of air from the Caribbean coming in on the jet stream… Well it still doesn’t feel Caribbean up here in Aviemore right now!

Walking into the Northern Corries

There has been a big amount of snow fallen, but being Scotland these snow falls have coincided with strong winds, meaning snow cover on the East side is poor, though it is good in the West. That is until this Giant Thaw sets in! Why does the weather never play ball to our plans?! I guess it’s one of the reasons that leads to Scottish Winter Climbing being so rewarding, and being such a great training ground!

Carn Mor Dearg Arete on a winter skills week

The CIC hut on a winter skills week ascent of Ben Nevis

The fluctuating weather aside, we have made the most of the conditions with our Winter Mountaineering courses, as well as plenty of personal climbing and skiing…

Skiing in Scotland

In the month or so we’ve been up, there has literally been 2 properly great days of weather, this has led to some testing conditions for our clients! Fair enough the preceding month was staggeringly great, with no wind, perfect ice, sunshine (what’s that?!), it just so happened that we weren’t here then! (yes we were in the Himalaya so can’t complain too much..)

So, to keep us motivated whilst the weather does what it does up there (how much snow will we be left with on Sunday when the weather improves?!) – here are some pics of the last few weeks to inspire and remember… (and yes the weather IS going to get better – but were soon to depart to sunny Pembrokeshire!)