North Gully - Lurcher's Crag

Me, Robbie and Owen had made plans to climb this weekend a few weeks ago, the forecast looked predictably similar to what the rest of this winter has offered, low clouds, gale force winds and heavy snow. After us all being prepared for a properly grim Scottish day out, we were fortunately surprised by mainly calm, sunny weather as we took in North Gully (III, 4) on Lurcher's crag.

Stunning morning in the Northern Corries

On the way round to the crag

We opted to park at the ski centre car park, and head up the ridge of Creag an Leth-choin before contouring round to Lurcher's crag. We arrived at the crag just shy of 10am after a knee crunching traverse of some steep heather. As the crag came into view it became obvious we weren't the only ones who thought Lurcher's would be a good idea, as several other parties were already on Central and North gully. With only one team on North gully and the potential to take a different fork at the top we opted to go for it.

Chillin' in the Lairig Ghru

Robbie led P1 and 4, Owen took the 2nd pitch and I took the 3rd. The first 3 pitches were mediocre, roughly 180m of climbing cruddy, hollow ice with about 6 bits of gear in 3 pitches and some rather inventive belays involving bulldog's, pegs and tied off stubby screws. I made the belay in a rather awkward place at the end of my pitch, so after a quick reshuffle ( sorry Robbie! ;) ) Robbie was lucky enough to get the best pitch of the day.

Robbie setting off on P4

Finally enjoying some good ice!

Tackling the ice umbrella

The 4th pitch more than made up for the cruddy lower pitches and Robbie climbed a nice line up the steepest section at about III/IV, 4. P4 was particularly interesting for me after breaking the tips off both my picks on the lower pitches, resulting in me having to swing like he-man to get reasonable placements. The angle eased back considerably after P4 so we just simul-climbed/soloed to the top whilst enjoying the lovely sunny conditions.

Robbie catchin' some rays

Sorting out the spaghetti ropes!

We topped out at around 1pm and had a very windy walk up to Creag an Leth-choin before enjoying some glissading down the sides of Lurcher's gully.

Owen stacking it like a pro'

Robbie with Coire an Lochain behind

Spindrift on the way down

Ethereal light on the way back to the car park

Sometimes the forecasts are wrong!

Quality day out

Overall I think we all had a great day out after expecting to not even make it out to the crag, I suppose sometimes it's worth just going for it even if the forecast isn't great. Sometimes it won't work out, but occasionally you can sneak in a quality day out in good company when the odds are stacked against you!

Poacher's Fall - Liathach

After what seemed like an eternity of winter climbing trips being cancelled due to crap weather, closed roads and every other problem imaginable, patience was finally rewarded and me and Tim had a cracking day out on Liathach climbing the uber classic 'Poacher's Fall' (V,5)

Where else would you rather be at 6am on a Saturday?

The forecast suggested the weather would be best in the morning, deteriorating into the afternoon, so we opted for an early start and left Inverness just before 4am, setting off from the Ling Hut car park at around 5:30am.

Poacher's Fall follows the right hand side of the prominent icefall

The early start paid off as we were the first to arrive below the route, we briskly geared up and then romped up the crag apron which was stable albeit with a few small patches of wind slab. After setting up a belay I tackled the first pitch, which was roughly 50m of steady ice with a steep move right, through an icey bulge just before reaching the belay.

Me climbing pitch 1 (Photo taken by Tim)

As Tim set off up pitch 2 the sun crept out over the northwest highland's and we were treated to some rather wonderful sunny weather. At this point a steady trail of people worked there way up the coire to enjoy some stunning ice conditions and we were joined at the belay by a trio from Aberdeen who provided some good chat.

Tim pulling over the bulge on P1

The Aberdonian trio enjoying the sun (Photo by Tim)

Scottish winter climbing - When it's good, it's really good...

...Except for the spindrift maybe

Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures of P2 as the weather clagged in a bit and there was a bit of rope untangling to be done mid-pitch, however it was a great lead by Tim on some pretty steep ice and probably the crux of the day. I got the pleasure of leading the 3rd pitch which was a steep icey chimney/runnel that looks suspiciously similar to pictures of the rogue pitch on Point Five Gully.

Me looking psyched for P3. (Photo by Tim)

Posing for pictures... (Photo by Tim)

Just about to pull over the final section of steep ice. (Photo by Tim)

The third pitch was superb with first time placements almost all the way to the top and **** star climbing. Unfortunately the weather took a bit of a turn for the worst and the last 10 meters or so had to be climbed in some relentless spindrift avalanches. All that was left now was 120 meters or so of easy ground to reach the ridge of Liathach. Tim lead one more small pitch to a rock band (and had an unfortunate encounter with a wire placement ...) and then we moved together for a further 100 meters to the top out. Needless to say by this point the weather was completely heinous with no vis and wild wind's so we got outta there pretty quick!

Ah Scottish winter climbing back to normal ...

We opted to descend down the south side of Liathach back to the road which is a bit of a knee destroying descent (A stark reminder than I need to purchase some walking poles if I want to still be able to walk when i'm 30!)

Destroying my knee's (Photo by Tim)

Just a short walk back to the car!

All in all an epic route that more than deserves it **** reputation and a good grade V to cut our teeth on. Definitely worth the 5 hour drive back to Dundee on Saturday night! Hopefully this signals the start of some better weather and more amazing ice conditions.

P.S - Many thanks to my uncle and auntie for letting us crash at their place in Inverness on Friday night.