An Adventure in "The Gully" with the Fox

Twas in the Clachaig gully that young Murray rose to fame

On the slabs of the Great Cave Pitch

Where other men had failed his experience prevailed

And he crossed that fateful ditch -

On the Wall of Jericho, they shouted "Will it go"?

As he hung on hair trigger hold

He answered not a word and rose like a bird

Through the mud and the slime and the cold

           Tom Patey "The Ballad of Bill Murray"

Clachaig Gully with the Fox

I got some new boots from the rescue team. My old ones were left in the porch at the front entrance of Kingshouse after helping out on a winter rescue from Ravens Gully where sadly a young lad died. The victim was 17 and so was I.  Someone left one of my size eights and one of theirs size ten. Despite asking Jim Lees the owner and manager to ask around and waiting a few months the boot never turned up so Hamish had a pair of new ones sent up from George Fishers in Keswick. In between times I was on old worn out “Super Pros” that were bald and leaky and had toe caps stuck on with evo stick to cover the holes. The new boots that arrived were Lionel Terray “Fitzroy” which like the Galibier “SuperPro” were the winter climbers and alpinists boot of choice at that time. Heavy full leather, metal shank they took a bit of breaking in so off I went up the Pap of Glencoe in them one Saturday. The Pap wasn’t a popular hike back then. It was a rite of passage for local teens getting to the top, just to say they had done it but other than that you rarely saw anyone going up. The Pap has been a good training route for me over the years, both hiking it and running it many times once as a bet to the top and back to the church in Glencoe in under an hour. Even winter climbing it once up its North side on rock hard neve and ice up and over rock steps at about grade II/III with a stunning outlook for a smaller hill surrounded by giants.

The day of the new boots was a bit overcast but dry, and the up and down went quickly meeting no one else on the way. You would be hard pushed to find it that way now as it’s so popular. I was walking back down the road to the village and see Sandy Whellans a local police sergeant coming toward me in his van. He stops and suggests I jump in as there is someone injured in the Gully. Clachaig Gully was more simply known as “the Gully” to us. Not because there are no other gullies as there are plenty around Glencoe and Glen Etive such as the Buachaille Chasm, Dalness Chasm, and others but it was by far the most popular. “The Gully” has a lost world feel to it. Deep, gloomy, wet sometimes, although a heat trap in direct sun, and above the climber the walls hang with vegetation and loose tree lined rock, on vertical or overhanging deep side walls. The Gully is about 37 pitches in all with only 4 of real note. The Great Cave, The Ramp, Jericho Wall, and the Red Chimney. Jericho Wall and the Red Chimney are above the tree line. Jericho Wall so named as the walls of the gully are only 5 meters apart at this point and the pitch goes up the right (East) wall. W.H Murray likened Clachaig Gully to a “Monstrous beauty like the hindquarters of an Elephant” quoting Elroy Flecker. His first ascent with Marskell, MacAlpine and Dunn made famous in his classic book Mountaineering in Scotland. I grant you I was young, but I already had notched up a few harder climbs, had epics, been on a few rescues and been rescued myself. I could handle myself and was strong.

The lower gully pitches are short and escape easier but have nippy little bits for the unwary or those not used to climbing in boots. One pitch of note had disappeared after rock fall. Before this it was a bridge up using the gully sides below a short waterfall which could be dammed up and then burst to soak the second as a bit of fun.  It’s a short hard bouldery move to get over now. I did it just after the rock fall and reaching over the top felt a latex glove which was mine from a fatal accident two months earlier. The casualty on that occasion was climbing second on the rope several pitches past the Great Cave when his friend knocked off a large rock. This struck the casualty on the rucksack and hit an aluminium water bottle that broke ribs and punctured his lung causing a condition called a pneumothorax. Even though we were very quick to get there, by the time we had been called out, run up and abseiled in it had gone into tension, a serious and immediately life-threatening condition. Despite resuscitation efforts and advanced life support he did not survive. Those that deal with these medical emergencies know that a lot of kit gets left around, and even though you try and tidy up on the rocky bed of a gully stuff gets missed especially in the dark so that’s the gloves litter explained.

A Rescue in Lower Clachaig Gully

Several parties would climb the gully of a weekend back then. As a result it was well visited by the rescue team. An average roped time for the entire gully would be about 5 hours although one ascent for a party of four took two days. Hauling stuck folk out was a common event, but also sadly some nasty accidents and fatalities. Back then the gully was graded Hard Severe. It’s been soloed by many including my late wife Fiona with Cynthia Grindley, but back then when this story took place I had not met her.

I jump in the van with Sandy, and we park up at Clachaig where Hamish is waiting for the old green ex-army rescue truck to arrive. Huan Findlay is bringing it from the Elliots. Sandy mentions that someone has called the police worried as they have friends doing the Aonach Eagach and should have come back but have not. We meet up with the fellow who reported the gully accident. He had abseiled “The Great Cave” pitch leaving a fixed rope, then come out an escape route path on the West side and down to the hotel to phone for help. His friend had fallen off “The Ramp” pitch (crux), the technical crux of the gully (4b/c) and with no runners had fallen about 50ft onto the rocks at the top of the Great Cave.

Hamish and I set off up the path to the exit point of the escape path then scramble down into the gully. Hamish has some technical gear, a radio and first aid and I have nothing. We climb the Great Cave pitch solo. It’s not a hard pitch and goes up to a tree, then a step down, and a move across to a short corner then up to the ledge where the casualty is lying. The poor fellow is struggling when we arrive. He has a broken jaw, wrist and chest injury and scalp wounds but is conscious. And in pain.

Opiates for chest injuries can be controversial as they can depress the respiratory drive. However, if the casualty is in so much pain they can’t breathe and there is no sign of a lung injury like a pneumothorax then it’s a good thing to alleviate the pain. Hamish rummages about in his wee red stuff sack with the first aid kit and hands me a syrette of “Omnopom” which is an opiate like morphine. I inject it into the back of the casualties’ hand and then we bandage him up the best we can.

Sandy radios Hamish to say he is organising a helicopter to look for the folk on the Aonach Eagach and to help us out,  and also a new report has come in that shouts are being heard coming from around Ossians Cave. The helicopter was coming from 202 squadron then based at Lossiemouth and getting one was much less easy than now.

The rescue truck arrived as a base station and folks are asked to bring up a stretcher, casualty bag and a long static rope. Eventually this arrives in the gully below us and we use the rope left in place to get the static line attached to pull up to us with a big sling to make me a harness and a fig 8 descender for me. Hamish spies a good strong Rowan tree 15ft above us and takes the static line up and ties it to the spindly but apparently well rooted tree. We pull up the stretcher and casualty bag having also asked for another rope to be tied onto the foot end of the stretcher. The stretcher is hauled up and between us we get the casualty onto the stretcher after a lot of humping groaning and pain. Challenging work for just two of us and painful despite the analgesic for the casualty. Hamish gets out two swing cheek pulleys he’s made in his workshop. Rustic but functional pre Petzl he also had his own design rope jammers. We rig the stretcher with tape slings as the Mk 3/4 didn’t have wire strops pre fitted, we then put the pulleys on the static line and clip them to the top and bottom stretcher tapes and connect up our climbing rope as a back rope to the stretcher on a belay. Then get the bottom end of the static line taken up and out onto the path to the West side of the gully, where there is a group of rescuers. We ask them to tug of war the static rope tight and lock it off on a belay. The static rope is angled down so the end is much lower than us. This rope tension lifts the stretcher airborne above us and clear of all obstacles and we then lower it with our rope. Someone below grabs the rope at the feet end of the stretcher which hangs to below the pitch and walks it out of the gully, joins another rope on and pulling it as required to coax the stretcher out onto the West side. It goes well sky lining across the width of the gully airborne until our rope runs out, but the stretcher is almost there and has a good landing at the side. Its then carried over the short distance to the path and a flatter spot. A couple of hours have passed but timing was perfect as the helicopter arrived and flew up to where the stretcher was waiting. The “Whirlwind” only had a 60ft winch wire so not a lot of capability and certainly would not be able to winch from the gully. The “Wessex” from 137 Leuchars which replaced it a couple of years later had a 300ft winch and twin free gas turbine jet engines and could at a push take up to sixteen people although not in its SAR role where 7 plus crew was a load. The Wessex changed mountain rescue completely and RAF Leuchars SAR crews and MRT were all good friends.

Fiona Gunn in Clachaig Gully

The casualty is picked up and flown away to hospital. Hamish and I have to abseil off on the abandoned rope doubled and placed over a rock spike pulled down after us then get out onto the path and head down. 25 minutes later we are at the base vehicle to be told Sandy is up on the ridge on his own and has found the missing folk and guiding them down. We go up with the binoculars to see if anything is visible at Ossian's Cave. Sure enough there is a group of about 7 people, and they are waving an orange bivi bag. We ask for the helicopter to return, and it does so lifting up a couple of team members and winching them down near Ossian's Cave. One casualty with a broken leg is winched up quickly, and then the rest of the group guided back down to the bottom. There is a particularly good picture of the Pilot John Stirling landing on the A82 to pick up team members. A busy day. As we were near an excellent pub we made the most of what was left of the day and quite a lot of the night refreshing ourselves.

The Wessex last job before being replaced with the "Sea King" April 1993

Life No 6 of the 9

Winter 1986 was a good one if you liked traditional Scottish winter climbing pre torquey scratchings. February that year No 6 gully, normally a fun grade 4 water ice climb if lean, was well banked out and grade 3 with a short easy angled entry pitch, a couple of smaller steps and then final steep pitch which was normal height and good thick snow ice. Paul Mills a local climber was living in a little cottage just up the road and suggested we do it old fashioned style by step cutting and take a single rope. It’s an easy access route that you can do in the morning, pop down to Clachaig for a beer and pie, and then go up and do the Screen grade 4 for afters. I had done it many times but not In the style of its first ascentionists cutting steps.

We were in no great hurry so with crampons, a walking axe each and a 9mm x 45m rope we got a lift up from Fiona and set off up to do it. The initial pitches were easy enough to crampon up, a bit of post holing between pitches and a fair bit of spindrift, quite quickly we were below the almost final pitch. There is a more direct finish above or you can just exit up a short chimney right to get off and down the old fence, or go around into the Corrie and add another longer climb on Stob Coire nam Beith.

I led up the pitch and instead of keeping left and being near a corner that used to have old piton in it I headed up right as it was easier to stay in balance and not need to cut so may holds. Then a  bit moving back left towards the normal route. I was trying to follow the ices natural features and easiest angle. I had one sling around an ice column at the midpoint and the climbing was not very steep and I was always in balance with enough features to hold onto instead of chopping although some cutting was required.

The Last Main Pitch No 6 Gully Aonach Dubh

On reaching the top just below where there used to be a nest of pitons on the Left for a belay I felt very uneasy looking at the slope just above and around the exit fan, where you can go easily up to the terrace left and along a bit and into No 4 gully, or take the direct finish which I did in 1982 or the short chimney up right. Just a gut feeling of unease. That final slope was loaded with blown windslab and was continuing to load from above. 

I shouted down to Paul that I wasn’t happy and climbing down. I left a “Snarg” ice peg and then just back climbed down to an unhappy Paul. I persuaded him that the top slope wasn’t right, and it didn’t feel right. So we reverse climbed down the gully to its foot. There we met a group of four other climbers one of whom at that time was the boyfriend of a rescue team members daughter. They had come down from Kingshouse. They asked about the conditions to which I said ok ish. Paul commented that “the old boy here wimped out on the last bit.” I felt I had, as it was only short plod if I had pulled over and gone up to the rocks.

We went down, met Willie Elliot and he called Fiona who came and collected us. Later that evening I find out that all four topped out onto that slope, unroped moving up it had avalanched taking them all over that pitch and down the gully onto the thankfully filled in lower slope (sometimes there is a deep hole there). Very battered and bruised they were all surprisingly ok. The girlfriend dad asked why I didn’t warn them. I didn’t feel that saying it was my gut instinct was enough justification for saying something. That gut instinct is really no more than precognition or an unconscious taking in and analysis of subtle alerts to your senses. It’s worth listening to that inner voice. Its not infallible but most of the time its on mark. The mountains will be there another day. You need to be too.

That area of the West Face Aonach Dubh, like most of the lower altitude winter climbs has suffered from the recent winters being relatively frost free at valley level and higher winter temperatures. Such a shame as there are many very good winter climbs on the face. “Chaos Chimney” a short easy climb with one pitch can be a bit spicier if just water ice, like its neighbour No 6 Gully. No 5 gully right of “F” Buttress and “The Needle's Eye” rarely sees a visit, or if it does it’s via the direct entry via “Elliots Downfall”. No 4 gully in it lower reaches is rarely if ever climbable but after doing No 6 its possible to follow a ledge East down off “F” Buttress into the icefall start of “Christmas Couloir”. This goes up past “The Amphitheatre.” It loads up with blowing snow before exiting the final slope and can pose a considerable avalanche risk. Going further East comes “E” Buttress with its soaring classics in summer. Big Top, Trapeze and HeeHaw. Then comes “Amphitheatre Scoop” with its ice column tucked away in a chimney which if you’re lucky to find the condition has a long steep ice direct start saving climbing up and along the ledge above.  The gully between “C” and “D” or “CD Scoop” starts from the middle ledge and can be quite a good ice climb. No 3 is a shallow indefinite gully but has a good short ice route called “The Smear” which forms on the wall of “C” Buttress. Next comes the obvious ice smear of “The Screen” one of Glencoe’s classic ice routes. It’s a sort of direct start to CD Scoop.  January 1979, we splinted the broken leg of author Joe Simpson and stretchered him down. Later Joe had the epic of “Touching the Void”. Then comes the gulch of No2 with some modern mixed routes up its Buttress, and “Dinner time Buttress” named by early Scottish Mountaineering club pioneers who used it as a quick way down for the club dinner at Glencoe Hotel on meets there. No 1 Gully is on its East side and of no significance as a winter climb. However the final chimney of Dinner Time can be a bit of fun when snowed up. The final fan of No 2 is used to exit for going into Coire nan Lochan and can load up so some care required in certain conditions. The descent of Dinner Time is a bit of a knee wrecker but certainly for the competent a good way down if you pick your way.