Sometimes mixed conditions can make mountain day unforgettable.
Liathach in Torridon is a great castellated ridge that jumps to
well over 3,000 feet from sea level inside 1.5 kilometres. Its
steepness is given even more drama by its sandstone tiers and
pinnacled ridge. On Wednesday last week the day started cold and
misty with the cloud base at about 700m. After making it onto the
summit ridge we traversed west and by midday we could sense the
cloud getting thinner and breaking in gusts. By 1pm the sun was
occasionally slicing through the mist and, when the wind dropped,
conditions became warm and humid. As we tackled the scrambling on
the pinnacles (left) the cloud was tumbling over the summit ridge
in great white waves. It was an exhilarating spectacle as we
climbed over the last section of Am Fasarinen towards the second
munro.
This is the view of Meall Dearg - Liathach's northern pinnacled
ridge - taken from the main ridge about one kilometre East of
Mullach an Rathain.
Here you can see the cloud breaking over the Eastern section of the
main ridge. On the right of the picture you can just make out
another party emerging from the mist onto the summit ridge.
This picture looks north down to the floor of Coire na Caime some
400m below.
Check our our pages on Torridon and Scrambling for options for guiding. Janet
(pictured above) and Stuart chose our 'Torridon Munros' course - six munros and
eight 'tops' over three days including Liathach.
Karen, Judy, Mel and Karen proving it is possible to have fun in
torrential rain in the Cuillin. This picture was taken in late June
at the summit of Bruach Na Frithe.
This is usually a straight-forward peak manageable from the
Sligachan but at the end of this day the burns you can normally
skip over were raging after seven hours of downpour.
The gofurther team has enjoyed bright and
dry conditions on most days on Skye over the past few weeks. The
top picture shows Paul with Christine, Rory, James, Gair, Calum,
Alistair and Pat after an ascent of the Inaccessible Pinnacle on
Sgurr Dearg. Here, the group has descended down the steep slabs
from the Pinnacle for a breather on an airy outcrop before we
climbed back onto the main ridge for an ascent of Sgurr Mhic
Choinnich.
The other picture shows Colin with the same group on the Western
Buttress of Sgurr nan Gillean. This section is the most technical
part of the buttress with scrambling over, and between, a series of
small pinnacles. The group went on to the summit of Am Basteir
which you can seen in the distance.
With hardly any rain now since mid-april the ground is parched and
dusty. This picture shows how dry the peat is in the notorious
'bog' between Larachantivore and Shenevall in the Fisherfield
Wilderness. The picture was taken in mid-May.
With the weather perfect for long mountain routes and cimbing
gofurther has had a busy May. This
picture was taken in the middle of the month during a walk through
the Fisherfield Wilderness following the route of the Great
Wilderness Challenge (GWC). The GWC
is an annual sponsored walk and run held in August organised to
raise money for local charities. The longest GWC route leaves
Dundonnell in the north and ends 25 miles later at Poolewe in the
south. Here Clive and Jan are enjoying the stunning view from the
path above the Dubh Loch.
This walk normally takes around nine to ten hours. See our pages on
guided walking for more.
With the weather perfect for coastal walks and sea-cliff climbing
the gofurther team took themselves to the
magic of Sandwood bay on the North West of Sutherland. About 30
minutes to the south along the coast stands one of the UK's most
impressive sea stacks - a 65m tower of sandstone which you can just
make out in this picture.
This climb includes everything: a beautiful walk to a stunning and
remote location; a walk around a rugged coast; a swim out to the
stack; a exhilarating climb; a 50m abseil; and, some breathtaking
views. But words can't paint the picture, so we've put together a
small video of the trip we made on Friday 9th May. Just click on
the embedded movie below. Three days on and the weather hasn't
changed.
If you're interested in guided sea stack climbing click here for our dedicated page.
The settled spring conditions have given way to .....settled hot
weather with temperatures well above 20c for the past two days and
a high pressure system set in to the East. This picture was taken
looking North West towards the mouth of Little Loch Broom at just
after 9pm on Wednesday.
April has brought some of the best mountaineering and climbing
conditions we've seen for a few years. The month started cold and
dry with a few frosts down to sea level. As the days turned
increasingly sunny, a sharp easterly breeze with very low humidity
meant the North West Highlands had the best weather in the UK. All
of these pictures were taken in the last two weeks.
The first shows the snow-capped Torridon mountains taken
from the Melvaig peninsula; the second is action at the sheltered
south-facing Kuhjo Crag near Gairloch; the third is An
Teallach taken on a guided day out to the summits.
A
very early Easter. Two weeks of bitterly cold northerly weather
which has left the hills of Wester Ross plastered in snow. Forecast
is for it to stay cold for a few more days. Views of Loch Toll an
Lochain from the SE ridge of Bidean a' Ghlas Thuill, the highest
summit ofAn
Teallachat 1062m, taken
on Wednesday 19th March.
Loch
Tollaidh Crags, Wester Ross, is the best single pitch trad venue
around Gairloch. The climbing is always technical and sustained. To
get a real appreciation of the quality of the climbing here you
need to be operating at HVS and up.
Hidden Crag has the longest routes and the rock is truly immaculate
clean, rough Lewisian Gneiss. Water Lily, E2 5b, and Buena Vista,
also E2 5b, are classics. It is very hard to decide which is the
better of the two so it is best just to do both!
Paul Tattersall and Jim Buchanan are hard at work updating the Loch
Tollaidh Crags topo forwildwesttopos.comwith over sixty
new routes to add since the original topo was published, it will be
ready for this spring.
Over winter we've decided to profile some of the best routes in the
North
West - so thanks to Jim Buchanan of Wild West Topos for these
awesome pictures of Michael Lee on Superblue - graded 7b+. This
line follows an overhanging curving crack line on a bulge of
perfect gneiss at Creag Nan Luch (Crag of the Mouse) at the West
end of Loch Maree near Poolewe and Gairloch. Strenuous moves lead
to a tricky and powerful crux at the top of the crack.
This route was bolted by gofurther's Paul
Tattersall just after the first clutch of routes were equipped in
the middle section of the crag. Several more routes have since been
added on the upper and lower tier starting at around 6a.
The range of routes available make this a perfect venue if you are
moving from indoor cragging to sport routes or if you looking to
push your grade with coaching on technique. See our rock
climbing pages for more.
Wild West
Topos produce a range of easy-to-use photo-topos of the best
rock venues in the area.
Apamapa is a really useful guide to Gaelic place-names in Wester
Ross. Written by local Gaelic expert Nevis Hulme, the online and
map-based guide lists many of the Gaelic hill and mountain names in
some of the most popular mountain-walking areas. The Northern
Ross-shire pack for example, covers the An Teallach, Fisherfield
Six, Slioch, Torridon, Beinn Dearg, Fannich and Ben Wyvis areas.
Click on the Apamapa logo for more.
Although forecast for broken sunshine, December 29th brought a long
spell of miserable horizontal hail and sleet. Winter days like this
present their own challenges such as difficult navigation while
staying out of the worst winds. For example, on Thursday Helen,
Simon and Tom were undaunted by the early conditions and wanted to
stick to our plan of a winter skills day on An
Teallach. After reaching the top of Mac is Mathair in a howling
gale we crossed the plateau north of the main summits well above
the cloud level to the coll just north of Bidein a' Ghlas Thuill -
one of the two An Teallach munros. The wind was far less fierce
here and the cloud broke for us long enough to get a view of the
vast Glass Tholl corrie. As the weather eased we reached that top
before descending back to the coll (pictured). After practising
some ice axe arrests, we then dropped down the long path North East
to Dundonnell. The whole day took about nine hours. Check out our
winter pages for more options.
The recent spell of incredible weather saw some new sport routes
added over the Christmas period. After Murdo, Paul and Colin first
equipped a series of 7s on the main wall a few other lines are now
established on Goat Crag. Most recently, Paul Tattersall finished a
line left of Teepee - Tom Paine's Bones at 6c. Nearby, Am Fasgadh
finally has a sensible warm up thanks to Ian Taylor - The Groove
6b+, the right hand line of bolts following the groove -
vaguely.
Right of The Crack (7b) Paul has also bolted The Shield at 7a+
which has rapidly become a classic. Left of The Crack, Ian Taylor
and Lawrence Hughes equipped Primo - 7c - which goes all the way up
the headwall of perfect rock above the quartz band to a lower-off
at 25m. Thanks also to Murdo for sorting out several of the
lower-offs at this crag before he was injured. More on
Goat crag and Am Fasgadh soon.
The picture shows Jenny Cunningham and Paul 'Storkey' getting to
grips with Mac Talla and The Prow respectively at Goat Crag.
The settled spell clung on until Christmas day before it broke down
completely on Boxing day. This picture was taken at about 1.30pm on
Christmas day looking North East to Beinn Ghoblach. Again, it was
taken from close to the summit of Carn na Glaic Buidhe where we
stumbled on this promising sandstone erratic. It doesn't look like
there are any decent vertical problems but, as it overhangs on
three sides, it may be worth a visit to train on the 360 degree
traverse.
Winter Solstice in the North West Hightlands was spectacular this
year. Not a breath of wind, wall to wall sunshine and bitterly cold
in the shade. It was a stunning end to a long, dry, cold and sunny
spell of fantastic rock climbing weather. In the picture (which was
taken at about 1pm on Winter Solstice) Colin is standing on one of
the many gneiss boulders that are a feature of the Gruinard,
Poolewe and Gairloch area. Very often these large boulders are
found on, or near to, the summits of small hills near the major
rivers or near other natural features. Some of us find it difficult
to believe that these boulders are simply the result of natural
erosion. It's almost as if they were carefully positioned for
reasons long forgotten. The one above is near the summit of Carn na
Glaic Buidhe above Badlurach and the one below is found on the
knoll just south of the Carnmore bothy.
The gofurther team were hoping to bring
you some news about new routes on some of the best sports crags in
Scotland; but that will have to wait. Instead we have some bad news
at the end of the year....This is a picture of Murdo on Mac Talla
(7b) at Goat Crag. Taken the day before he had a serious accident
in Torridon. While we're assured he will be fine, he's expecting to
be out of action for at least six months and probably around a
year. We all wish him as fast a recovery as is possible and a
complication-free 'rest'.
Murdo will be sorely missed at the crag, on the mountain and around
the table afterwards.
The weather has suddenly turned much
milder but the sunrises are no less dramatic. Forecast is for a
long spell of settled sunny weather for the far north.
A spell of more settled, frosty
weather has brought with it a series of stunning sunrises and
sunsets in the North West. This picture was taken today looking
South East along Little Loch Broom, Dundonnell. The peak on the
right is Mac is Mathair which is part of the An
Teallach massif - the most dramatic mountain on the Scottish
mainland. Sometimes spelt Mac 'us Mathair this unusual Gaelic name
means 'Son and Mother' in English. Some local people think this
explains the title 'An Teallach' because 'teallach' may derive from
the Gaelic word 'teaghlach' which means 'family'. Nearly all
mountain guide books, however, reckon An Teallach means the
'forge'.
This weekend saw some stormy cold
weather sweep over the North West bringing some wild winter
conditions to the higher tops. This picture, taken yesterday, is
from the summit of Sgurr Fiona onAn Teallachlooking south to Gleann Na Muice.The strong south
westerly brought significant snow showers that settled above 800
meters.
The picture below was taken from near the summit of Sgurr Creag an
Eich along the North West Ridge of An Teallach. The furthest point
on this ridge that you can see is the 760 meter summit - Sgurr
Ruadh. Half way along the ridge you can make out the Coastguard
Rescue helicopter which set down to drop off members ofDundonnell Mountain Rescue Team. These pictures were taken during a training
exercise with DMRT.
Apamapa is a really useful guide to Gaelic place-names in Wester
Ross. Written by local Gaelic expert Nevis Hulme, the online and
map-based guide lists many of the Gaelic hill and mountain names in
some of the most popular mountain-walking areas. The Northern
Ross-shire pack for example, covers the An Teallach, Fisherfield
Six, Slioch, Torridon, Beinn Dearg, Fannich and Ben Wyvis areas.
Click on the Apamapa logo for more.
