Posts for category: Private Guiding

West Ridge Of Sgorr Choinnich

                                                                        Yesterday the forecast was for strong winds and so I was looking for a scramble for myself and Steve […]...

Douglas Traverse

  Hunter Mountaineering – Private Guiding Today Jo wanted to do some more Grade I gullies, and yesterday she liked the look of the West Gully leading to the Douglas Boulder Gap. Jo made light work of swimming/wading up the gully through deep fresh snow. There were a couple of climbing teams about, a team […]...

Spring Glen Nevis Climbing

                    Today I met up again with Davy, who wants to get into summer trad climbing. To date he had done 2 trad climbs – they were in winter, in the rain/snow, in Glen Nevis – Pinnacle Ridge and The Gutter – so it was time […]...

2 Remote Grahams

                    On Thursday, working for West Coast Mountain Guides, I met up with Lynn at the Lochailort Inn. Lynn has done a fair bit of walking. She has nearly completed her 3rd round of munros. She is on her 2nd round of Corbetts and 1st or […]...

Raeburn’s Route

                  Hunter Mountaineering Yesterday I met up with David, who is here for the weekend to get in a little winter climbing. He specifically wanted to do a route in Glencoe, so this morning we headed to the Glencoe car parks, and we managed to get the […]...

Twisting Gully

                  Today I met up with Paul and Guy at the Clachaig. They were looking for a revision for their winter climbing, and also a taste of what grade IV climbing might be like. We headed up into a busy Stob Coire nan Lochan. There were a […]...

Dorsal Arete In The Wind

                    Yesterday Stuart and I headed off to the Ice Factor . We got a long session on the ice first thing in the morning before the crowds arrived. After a good lunch from the cafe, we moved onto indoor rock climbing and looking at a […]...

Climbing During The Lull

                    Stuart has joined me for 3 days of climbing this weekend. I initially thought that the 3 days were all going to be storm bound, so I was really happy to read about the lull between last nights storm and tonights storm – long enough […]...

Ledge Route

  Today I was out with Bryn on Ben Nevis. The plan was to enjoy a grade II, and also do as much learning as possible to help him and Tess get out on the winter hills enjoying some mountaineering safely. We chose Ledge Route, because it is varied and fun. We postponed the day […]...

Ben Nevis – Mountain Path

                      On Tuesday with a great forecast Tom and I set out for a walk up the mountain path on Ben Nevis. We were happy to find the sky clearer than was perhaps forecast, with only high level local clouds, and slight winds, and no […]...

Zig-Zags And Heavy Snow

                    Today was my last day with Sara and and Gustav. I wanted to show them somewhere new, and give them a scramble and a journey, and find somewhere where we would need the axe and crampons. Sara also wanted to practice using emergency rope ascending […]...

Coire an t-Sneachda, Twin Ribs, Dry

                    Today Gustav and Sara were keen to see a different mountain area, and also keen to have some fine weather, so we headed off to Coire an t- Sneachda, and Twin Ribs. I didn’t know how much snow there would be, but was pleased to […]...

Ice Factor For Sara And Gustav

              Sara and Gustav have been looking forward to visiting the Ice Factor since they planned their trip to Scotland. Sara bought her crampons a while ago, eagerly anticipating trying some steep ice climbing, so today was the day for a trip to the Ice Factor. We spent pretty […]...

Winter – Ledge Route

                    Today I was out with Sara and Gustav who have come to Scotland for a few days for a little mountaineering. We hired winter equipment yesterday, not really knowing how much we would use it, but made our way up towards Ledge Route today, hoping […]...

Ropework and Ice

              Last Tuesday I met up with Doug MacDonald. He has recently done his SPA training, and is soon to attend his assessment, later this month. He wanted to spend half a day ‘fine tuning’ his ropework, and work on ideas of how to become more efficient. We met […]...

End Of Course At Kingussie

                    On Wednesday Jordan and Danny wanted to lead their first trad climbs, so we headed to Kingussie. The day was always going to be a little short, because everybody had to get back to Cameron Barracks early to do lots of kit admin, and do […]...

Polldubh In October

                    On Tuesday, I was again out with Danny and Jordan, who are on their ATCS Climbing course, which included the Foundation course last week. They wanted a little more guided climbing as well as continuing the process of learning to lead. We started on The […]...

Kingussie – Developing Climbing Skills

                    On Friday I was working with the first year students (Rob, Scott, Iain, Rosie and Cameron) from the college (WHC, UHI). We went off to Kingussie to develop their leading. Some of them had been climbing through last year, but had never got around to […]...

North Wales Climbing

                  Lena and I went on a quick holiday to North Wales last week for a bit of awesome dry weather rock climbing. As it turned out due to the weather, we could have gone climbing just about anywhere in the UK. The weather was warm, dry […]...

North Buttress, Buachaille Etive Mor

                    On Saturday I was working for Abacus Mountain Guides. I met up with Neal and Tim in the morning and we headed off to Glenoce. They have already climbed Tower Ridge, Ledge Route, Castle Ridge and Curved Ridge. On Saturday we planned to climb North […]...

Aonach Eagach – Friday

                    On Friday I was working for Abacus Mountain Guides. The forecast for Friday was better than Thursday, we were set for a mostly dry day with only a few light showers. In the morning I met up with Ewen, Rebecca and their sons, Rory (14) […]...

Aonach Eagach – Thursday

                    On Thursday I was working for Abacus Mountain Guides. Thursday did not have a great forecast! It was set to be a wet day with initially prolonged heavy rain spells, decreasing in the afternoon to just rain showers – a day for waterproofs! Paul wasn’t […]...

Savage Slit After Rain

                    Last Monday Lena and I wanted to make the best of possible dry weather. We drove over to the Northern Corries in the Cairngorms and walked into Coire an Lochain to climb Savage Slit and the VS climbs there-abouts. The forecast was for ‘possible passing […]...

Castle Ridge

                    On Thursday I went to Ben Nevis with Wayne to climb Castle Ridge. Lena came along for the day to do some observation. It was another scorcher of a day – we were almost getting used to this weather! As we got closer to Ben […]...

Duntelchaig, Drum

                    On Tuesday I went to Duntelchaig, to introduce the team to easy multi-pitch-climbing. We had Drum (VD*) in mind. It was my first visit to the crag and it took me a few minutes to find an easy access route to the climb, so after […]...

Afterthought Arete With Gurkhas

                    Last Monday I joined the staff team (Matt and Dusty) at ATC Scotland, to support their final phase of their 2 week climbing course. There had already been a lot of drop outs from the original course line up, due to injuries, but there were […]...

Reserves At Moy Rock

                    With the Reserves last weekend, we went to Moy Rock, in the Northern Highlands, just North of Inverness. This is a great little sport crag, close to the road. This is a relatively recently developed sport crag, and a great deal of forestry has been […]...

Reserves At Kingussie

                Over the last weekend I was working at ATC-Scotland, with a group of Reserves (used to be known as the T.A.). It was an intro weekend to the sport of climbing, with a focus on fun,challenge, and possibly identifying who had sufficient interest to go on to […]...

Loch Tollaidh Crags – Raven’s Nest

                    On Thursday last week, I took the army climbing foundation course to the Loch Tollaidh Crags, and Raven’s Nest. We used the venue to do a mass climbing ascent of Assault Slab, a personal abseil for the whole group, and looking at being a competent […]...

Car Park Slabs – Gruinard Crags

                    On Wednesday last week, Lawrie and I took the army RSF group to the Gruinard Crags to initially coach their movement skills, before moving onto top roping, abseiling and rope management. The weather was great in the morning, but a band of rain moved in […]...