Ptarmigan gathering in the base of the Corrie
http://www.elements.gb.net 06th/11/2012
On Monday Gordon and I headed back into Coire an t-sneachda with the plan for Gordon to experience a tech 6 mixed climb. Gordan has climbed many good ice routes on the Ben up to grade 5, water ice out in Norway up to WI 5 and mixed routes up to grade 5. So with his list of routes and grades there was only one obvious way to go and that was up, grade 6 here we come!
Gordon going large on the top moves of the crux corner
What can I say other than he tackled the climbed with the usual consistent determination and even seemed to enjoy it at times, well once we topped out anyway!
Gordon on the ‘The Message’ IV-6***
Gordon is one of life’s genuine inspirations and not just for climbing The Message. Having only learnt to climb a few years ago he’s been out every winter since getting the bug. He puts most of us to shame being in his mid 60s, trains hard every week and all that on the back of having a life threatening illness thats effected his life for the last ten years.
A view to match the good feeling as we walked off the hill
It was a real winters day on Monday with some strong winds, snow falling and cold temperatures through out the day. Compared with the busy day on Sunday, we had the crag to ourselves and only saw a couple of teams off in the distance.
I was back working for the Glenmore Lodge today, running an MIA problems solving refresher day. We spent this day at Huntlys Cave coming up with solutions to many scenario based crag rescues. Got to admit that I was glad of the warmer conditions today, hanging about on the crag.
Scot and Andy mid rescue……
It’s proper turbo melt down now on the hill, winter has been and is now in the rivers and lochs around the hills. It looks colder again this coming weekend but not enough for any more white, shivering, suffer’fest, climbing missions. But the next round of winter suffering can’t be far away.
