Some Glencoe Trad and Stuff

As Summer has gone, Autumn a Covid shit show, and bike hire closed because we don't want to risk folk bringing the virus into our community, not much else to do but Blog. The two local walls are open but being old gits we have to pick our time when we go, and be extra careful. I am quite strong from training and a fairly good summer working my way through the 7a Max book list of top routes as the goal. Its given me a good progression, but mostly harder routes left, I know I can project some 7a and send on sight most but not all 6c's but the odd 7b indoor and out is past it seems as I just don't have the power or maybe they were just easy for the grade. Another year older next year, so even more training just to stand still as it gets harder each year. 

We are lucky with two quite different but equally good local walls. I like the social at 3WM and bouldering and the new training room is superb, but more college students use it and a smaller space makes us circumspect about when we go. Ice Factor, I particularly like the harder routes as projects or just because its nearer to climbing hard sport outside. 

7A Max ***

No Respect for your Elders" 6c+ and "High Voltage" 6b+ Robs Reed, a cracking route and venue with boulder fingery starts.

The training pays off more leading routes at Ice Factor, a  bit like Ratho does for Kalymnos but shorter and punchy so needs power. Training the "pump out" is the easy bit if your a lifelong trad climber and Ratho does this by route length so a 6b might just be a long 6a. Anyone can crush a dozen or more leads in the 6a/b - but for me I like the IF route setting (its particularly good at the moment) that uses my training and pushes my "power out" so better for harder routes. It's what I like about hard sport. I have done my share of A/E time with injuries some quite debilitating, and I suffer from a long term chronic illness that's a bugger but doesn't stop me trying - at least until it hits hard most often when tired and the bugs invade. Gone is the gallus youth, so sport offers achievable goals, technical challenge and relative safety. Crushing hard is satisfying, and even some easier routes catch you unawares as they need thought out. A long winter is ahead so these walls to me are an important part of my mental health management, and probably to some of the folk reading this. It's not like it was pre Covid, but it can be ok if we follow the rules.

Clachaig Gully 1973  16 years old. Single Rope, hardly any gear, big boots and the then ubiquitous "Compton Climber" Helmet. More like a motor bike helmet!  Niave and ended up rescued in November off the N. Face Aonach Dubh by the cave when rope ran out, denims froze to legs and in a blizzard. Hypothermia, but walked off after Walter, Hamish and Wull came up and sorted us out.

Polldubh 1978 (guess the route - later went back and FA climbed the awfully named "Dying Crutchman" up over the middle of the overlap to join it. At least some gear, but it wasn't great. Whillans ball wrecker harness that caused some serious injuries to the groin. The MOACS however were brilliant. EB's and Levi or Wrangler flares were the thing then ......

Dunkeld 1976. The Needle in the early doors, 4 pints in Newtonmore then a wee solo of Ivy Crack in big boots before heading down to Wales for a week to meet Fell and Rock climbers in the pass at Ynys Ettws Hut. Bonkers - soloing and after beer. Soloing a mugs game as  eventually you die on something easy.

1980's sticky rubber - not! Chouinard "Canyons" and the original Friends from Wild Country. On "Cayman Grooves E15a/b. An excellent first pitch but the top up the side of the chimney a bit run out although easy. For two great pitches "Walk with Destiny" E2 5b/c is one of the best evening routes in the Glen.  Watch out in spring as there is often a Peregrine Falcon nesting behind the tree that can be used to abseil. Its good fun to do the first pitch of Piranah VS, Cayman and Walk with Destiny and rap off for an evening hit. 

Carnivore pitch 1. One of Glencoe's classic routes when combined with the "Villains Finish" an airy pull out right above the Whillans peg and then  a runout up steep ground to the top. A 500ft route on a 150ft crag.

Line Up pitch 1

On "Line Up" about 1983. (Pictures Alan Thompson). One of the best HVS routes on BEM and Glencoe, F.A local Ian Nicholson. Rannoch Wall delivers a mountain feel in spades, there are no duff routes (well maybe route 1 but its good in winter). The left side higher up the gully is a bit neglected as its a bit steeper and shorter. Give "Wappenshaw Wall" a go, its steep with lots of thank god holds, and "Peasants Passage" is amazing and quite technical for a VS. Spare a thought for the guys who ran them out on the F.A's way back. Imagine Ogilvy & Speakman in plimsoles pre WW2 putting up "Red Slab" with the quite intimidating crux on pitch 2. To enjoy many of these locations its worth knowing a bit of the history. Ken Crockets "A History of Scottish Mountaineering" is a good place to start.

Line Up pitch 2

As Tom Patey remarked about the Scottish climber: "How does he climb, solo and briskly, on 20 fags a day and Scotlands good malt whisky".  "big Ian" having a tipple on an ascent of Valkyrie E2 Etive slabs. Picture scan from slide taken on an OM1 by Fiona Gunn 

Finishing up "Wappenshaw Wall" VS  Then I was climbing on twin 9mm ropes but they were 45m (150ft) long a far cry from todays ropes and often pulled up short if used to build a belay.

Andy Macdonald on "Bludgers/Revelation" HVS, a classic outing skirting the left edge of slime wall. We did "Shibboleth" E2 that day then Bludgers Revelation the next weekend which was late September and unusually hot and dry. "Bloody Crack"  is IMHO (as well as "Pontoon" pitch 2) the best crack lines in Glencoe. Bloody Crack has good pro but its a fight to the finish as thuggy. Patsy Walsh was a strong man! As good as Shibboleth is "Apparition" E2 and Lechers/Superstition is tremendous. "Ravens Edge" is a well worthwhile adventure with unique situations. Great Gully buttress upper and lower can be climbed after doing a slime wall route. All the upper routes are tremendous with Yam, Yamay and May cracks particularly good. June and July cracks are the better of the lower buttress routes, and "The Whip" is a sandbag and quite serious. August crack isn't a patch on the others IMHO

Not to forget the lower Glen which is another post. "Rainmaker" is a fantastic VS mountain route with a bit of an adventure to get to but well worth it. climber Dave Hannah with a big smile on a fine route that for once was dry. Going over the top get the excellent and not so often climbed "Nirvana Wall" in on the way down.

The Strath of Glencoe

It's been quite some time since my last blog post.  It's been reasonably busy with bike hire and repairs despite the awful weather and late spring.  We have also had family commitments not least of which was attending my sons graduation from Aberdeen University.

I am having a year off the bike racing as I need to re balance my time and health.  I am however re kindling my lifelong affair with fishing.  I have fished since I was maybe about six years old and remember my mother having to put a worm on a hook for me as I didn't like them, and epic frustrations from my dad with tangled line at the tidal pool. Those who knew his patience level can imagine the expletives!

Blackbirds nest next to a place I fish.  We meet every day. She flew back in and was obviously not bothered

Pink Hawthorn or "Mayflower" which is where the saying "nere cast a cloot till may is oot" comes from.  Only this year your cloot shouldnt have been cast even in June!

Early trips up to Loch Ba with Jock MacDonald and his boat, and many future boys own expeditions wandering over Rannoch moor, losing wellies in bottomless bogs and using the sound of the train at Rannoch so we knew we had walked 180deg in the wrong direction and would miss Andrew the local bus driver waiting for us on the A82 if we didnt run were all character forming, especially when still only 10 years old. My mother was worried sick. 

Later trips to Bealach and even out to exotic locations like over the hill to Lundavra and a shot of the good boat if it wasn't out.  My early rod was a split cane 9ft with a level taper line and small flies bought from rare trips on the bus over the ferry to the excellent Rod and Gun shop next to the bus station in Fort William.  There was always good advice and help form the two older gents who ran the shop, and later when I had a few quid saved from working the "Grotto" petrol pumps they set me up with a nice hollow glass 9'6 fly rod and reel which I still have.  It was a very soft action rod and later nearly broke at the lower brass ferrule with a small grilse from the "Doctors Pool" on the Duror. There wasn't a puddle with fish in it that I didn't explore, and some rock climbing was required on occasion to reach hidden pools  I revisited one last year and the pool which would have given me a half dozen big sea trout  up to 3lbs and maybe a grilse, was absent of fish including the many small brownies that would come to the fly.  Banks of Sitka spruce have probably made the water too acidic.

Lower Coe falls and its water worn rocks.  There are intials from the ealy 19th century chipped into the rock from when Strathcona removed the arch that spanned the river to improve Salmon access.  You need to know where to look .....

It's fair to say in some ways that these explorations were among and a part of the mountains. As a teen when introduced to the heady mix of mountaineering, climbing, alcohol, women, and exotic places (but not many exotic women sadly) to pursue the mountain addiction. I suppose I became quite good at climbing, and climbed many of the classic hard routes and test pieces.  I was also lucky to be a very young member of the local rescue team at only 16, having already been going on rescues with a neighbour since I was younger.  These were the days of shepherds, stalkers and forestry workers with only a few climbers.  Money was scarce, politics of rescue non existent, and only the needs of the victims was at the forefront.  The reward was good craic, a plate of soup and a few free drams and maybe a "lock in" at Clachaig or Kingshouse.  A once a year issue of socks and thermal underwear was a bonus, but no one was without a good "Cag" and boots, the essentials.  There was no parading about like a shops dummy with overpriced Arcterxc.

Lucky for me I met Fiona who was to be my wife and climbing partner and who kicked me from manual labour as a wood cutter (my excuse - it kept me strong for climbing) to using a brain neglected from being kicked out of school.  She liked the bad boy rebel bit in me which was really nothing more than being pissed at a crap secondary school with dysfunctional teachers.Without her I would never have achieved professional level medical and mountain qualifications.

The Hump Bridge and still waters below

The thread throughout all my life in one way or another has been fishing and in particular the River Coe, who's flow has served as a metaphor for much of my life. Steady, placid, reflective, angry, raging, unclear.  I always liked Neil Gunn's book "Highland River" but only in later life when reading it again did I truly understand it as a "Quest" and how much it resembled my own life.  

Looking up "The Strath"

I had a truly lovely walk up the river today following a salmon which has a very distinguishing mark on it's nebb (nose).  Having watched it from the sea pool weeks ago, it was good to see it again having moved upriver again to another pool.  It was sitting quietly in a spot where an old local poacher "Willie the Bridge" would show me fish.  Willie is gone and so is his Rabbit snare and the need to take a fish, so it was safe lying there just waiting.  It will wait until the next fish comes to that spot then will move upriver again to another lay up. Up river there are places where a fish might lay for two months conserving its precious fat and red carotenoid energy supply until the next and final urge to reach home kicks in.  Marvellous resilient creatures that we should respect and take from only with care.

The Celtic symbol of knowledge and inheritor of Solomons wisdom lays waiting

If I might borrow again from Neil Gunn, who by the way is no relation, just imagine a nice day ambling up the river with a camera thinking of "The Atom of Delight".

House Martins? or Swifts?  have made burrows for nesting in the fallen river bank

The ever changing river course

Click the images for a larger size

Top to Bottom on Central Grooves

Mid 1980’s in Glencoe Scotland. As a young rescuer under the wing of “the old fox” mountain and rescue legend Hamish MacInnes, sometime all we learned as his apprentices were put to good use. This is just such as tale.

Fiona my wife and I had recently moved back into Glencoe village from Duror, a small village 7 miles down the road. A summer day and Fiona is away and most of the climbing stars of Glencoe Mountain Rescue are away in the Swiss alps with the local rescue team leader and legend “The Fox” Hamish MacInnes, working safety cover on a big film project called “5 Days One Summer” starring Sean Connery.  Many of the same folk from the Glen who worked with him on “The Eiger Sanction”. Ian Nicholson and Dave Bathgate two Scottish climbing legends had recently bought the Kingshouse Hotel a famous mountaineering base. Lochaber Mountain Rescue stalwart Willie Anderson is painting walls for beer at the hotel. The hotel is old and needs a bit of work.

The house phone rings at about 2pm on a nice sunny August day.  "Its Doris here Davy, there is a rescue call out on Stob Coire nan Lochan for a fallen climber". I can’t get many folk as a lot are away”. I ask her to keep trying to get together enough for a rescue party while I get some technical and medical gear together.  A Police 4x4 pulls up outside my house and toots its siren and Stewart Obree one of the local constables is there to offer me a lift to the pipers lay bye a place where helicopters can land and a guy with bagpipes busks for cash. Stewart has already asked for a helicopter and Search and Rescue 134 - a Wessex from RAF Leuchars is on its way.

We arrive at the pipers lay bye and I get information from a witness that someone is hanging free, half way up the cliff and a woman holding the rope is screaming.  I get news that the main rescue vehicle has been picked up and Richard Greive and Hughie MacNicoll who owned Mountain Technology are on the way. Ian Nicholson isn’t at the Kingshouse as he’s away with Hamish, but Willie Anderson is coming down to help. So, we have enough to do the job, but only just.  150 metre rope’s and technical kit is sorted out and a recently landed helicopter crew agree to take 3 of us up the mountain to fly over the scene.

We lift off, and slowly gaining height over Aonach Dubh, circle and see the climber is hanging via a single rope from a running belay 20 metres above him two pitches up in “Central Grooves” (very severe 4c or 5.9). He is hanging upside down just below his belayer and about 2 metres out, free hanging in space. So its at least a 40-metre lead fall and judging by the roll of the harness down off his pelvis and that he’s upside down and not moving it doesn’t look good for him, or easy for us. A fall factor of about 0.75 and hitting the cliff with no helmet the consequences are pretty devastating. The woman belaying appears to be held by a single nut anchor behind a very big single block of rock which looks loose and precarious, even from the air.

The aircrew and I talk over the radio and we hatch a plan. Drop Richard, Willie and I on the top of the buttress and I will get lowered down the route, make the belayer safe and get her out of the rope system for the SAR crew to winch up. We will get the climber lowered to the bottom. While we are doing rope tricks they will pick up any extra rescuers and bring them up so they can hike to the foot of the climb with a stretcher and take the fallen climber down to a good helicopter landing pick up point.

Good belays are sorted and with the difficult task of managing the unwieldy static rope Willie and Richard lower me down the shitty loose broken ground to the top of the corner and then lower me down the 60 or so meters to the incident. Loose rock, pinnacles of blocks stacked like dinner plates and lots of debris fly past me.  A few climbs up and down to get the rope directional and stop pulling rocks onto me are needed, so it’s not a quick job or safe. Some of the rocks are paving slab sized. On the way down the route I see a watch caught by its strap in a small bucket hold in the vertical corner which the climbers hand must have slid from. I see that the single running belay is an old rock peg and pretty rotten, but it held. The climbers rope is a single 9mm stretched so tight it looks like boot cord. I arrive at the belay and a very upset woman with a belay rope at its end in a Stich plate. She’s held by a single large wire nut which she is holding in place by pushing the block back as its loose. I have to spend a lot of time searching out and clearing cracks for rock pegs to hold her at a single releasable point to cut loose to  get her into the helicopter winch strop safely. Separately I have to isolate the active rope going to the fallen climber and anchor it.

Top to Bottom Lower

As it turns out I know the fallen climber who runs a climbing instruction and guiding business. She’s a client on a rock climbing course it seems. He’s dead, its messy but that can be revisited later. I get her safe and rigged for easy release. I have his rope isolated and anchored so move down to him and make another belay for me to clip into with an adjustable sling. I come off the lowering rope, lean out and hook his rope with my hammer spike and pull him in, put a sling on him at the chest and to the harness to level him out and attach the long static lowering rope I was lowered down on, onto him. Then holding his rope against the rock face I bash it with my peg hammer. One hard blow is all it takes. He gets lowered about 60 metres to the foot of the corner where rescuers and a couple of co-opted climbers have come to help. They get him off the rope and the body bagged, and I get the rope pulled back up to me and I get lowered down to the bottom and clear of the corner. Sounds easy. None of it was. Rockfall, an upset belayer who is at risk, the victims trauma and the hard physical work takes its toll.

The helicopter comes in at a hover and ever so slowly gets closer to the corner dropping the winch-man slowly down and inching into the cliff. They get to her, put her in the winch strop, knife cut my big sling that's anchored to some pegs and take her up. Very impressive close mountain flying and crag rescue by the winch-man. She gets flown down to the base and they come back up and take us all down to our base at the Pipers Lay bye in a couple of lifts. Its surreal as there are cars and tourists blocking the valley road and hundreds of folks, some with binoculars have been watching the whole rescue. Meanwhile the piper skirls away his plaintive notes and takes his coin.

Police statements are taken later. He’s being paid so an accident inquiry (FAI) is likely. Chats and a brew then down to Hamish’s barn to sort out kit and then home for the usual ponder at another person you know killed in the mountains, thinking over many “what the fuck moments” of the rescue and what you might do different another time. And many others were to come for me in the years that followed.  It takes days to come down and get rescues like that out of your head. Often the best thing is to go climbing next day. So that’s what I did. With a hangover though.

As post script. Dennis Barclay the Glencoe rescue team’s treasurer gave me a roasting for buying seven new rock pegs and half a dozen slings from the recently opened “Glencoe Guides and Gear” shop run by Paul and Ros Moore’s and charging it to the mountain rescue account. This was to replace what I had used on the rescue. As the team didn’t have much cash he wasn’t sure if there was enough money to cover it. How things have changed in Scottish mountain rescue. I often ponder that rescue was about climbers helping climbers and even had these items not been replaced (and sometimes they couldn’t be) the job would get done regardless. There was an inquiry, and someone put me up for a bravery award which I respectfully declined. The local constable being quick off the mark, good rope handling from the team above and the skill level of the aircrew (never bettered IMHO) and also climbers abandoning their days climbing to lend assistance made it all work. Climbing is about the community of the mountains and mountain rescue is just another part of looking after your own. Even with Covid 19 that shouldn't change. Am I my brothers keeper? as a human and mountaineer the answer is always yes.

Dennis the treasurer on right. Hughie kneeling by the woman. The pair either side of Hamish were lost skiers on Sron a Creise and Wull (arms akimbo) and I saw them get Avalanched into Cam Glen. Picture circa 1980

Tales From the Debris Pile - Again!

Skier triggered avalanche on a popular off piste run with extensive crown wall.
West aspect of Glencoe Mountain

I wouldn't say I am risk averse, but this weekend when faced with crossing an open slope on ski's above the Cam Glen Gulch I bottled it. It felt so dodgy and with that gaping below me after having done a stability test and seen the results I thought it a turn too far. It made me feel like a chicken shit though. On my first MTB XC race back in December I ko'd myself on a practice lap and didn't remember the the first lap until my bruises hurt, and on the second race of the season I tore the labrum of my femoral head clambering over windblown tree's with the red mist of battle  I didn't feel a thing and finished quite well up the field. My total of fractures is quite impressive and most folk I road race with will tell you I will mix it up in the pack.  All good excuses for being a chickenshit! This last two months has been quite reflective though with my disc prolapse, as at one point I thought maybe I couldn't ski again. I looked back at all the friends who I have lost to the mountains. As Tom Patey once said "never underestimate the importance of staying alive". A maxim he didn't do too well with himself having abseiled of a plain gate krab that Hamish had discarded as the gate was fecked. All good excuses for me backing off, but there you are.

137 landing on.  The debris had turned 90 deg right and traveled along the valley floor into the gulch.
Even with an airbag above such a massive terrain trap was no go for me!

Avalanches torque and squeeze and I guess I have seen too much and having been on the wrong end I am twitchy. My winter business of avalanche safety gear is not about making money as I am sure many will attest to as I sell at rock bottom prices. Prevention is a key component as is learning lessons and sharing thoughts and information. The prevention side didn't work this weekend sadly, with the loss of someone else who I new (but not well).  The causes and circumstances are too close to home and tragic and the loss is grievously felt among the folk I help in the ski patrol and their friends.   I will put some general pictures up in the manner of which I have done before and hope that we all continue to celebrate those who live life at full tilt going to meet their maker with the perfect carving turn on the fantastic snow we have this spring, while also making sure the candle of those who live life to the full burns for longer if we can learn from it.

50cm  Avalanche JENGA

I feel a bit like an old sage at times issuing warnings of avalanches and sometimes feel like some old sage in an alpine valley warning that over the next ridge there are demons, or if you trip trap over the rickety bridge the Troll will get you. Maybe I am Billy Goat Grough!

Snow pit site Sunday with the sad recovery of the victim in the background

The Black Swan

After a good training weekend with an excellent lecture by Dr Stephen Hearns on EMRS and Peak Performance Under Pressure I thought it might be useful to re-post this blog article from 2016:

I am reading a philosophy book, The Black Swan. I like philosophy and it runs in the family. This particular book was one highly recommended to folk working in avalanche education which I do a little. Much is currently made of the human thinking traps with heuristics being the topic in vogue among professionals. Clearly there are thinking traps. And if we are aware of them maybe we can change our actions. 20:20 hindsight it's easy to see the mistakes. Thinking forward is not so easy. Do we only learn backwards...............

"Before the discovery of Australia, people in the Old World were convinced that all swans were white, an unassailable belief as it seemed completely confirmed by empirical evidence. The sighting of the first black swan might have been an interesting surprise for a few ornithologists (and others extremely concerned with the colouring of birds), but that is not where the significance of the story lies. It illustrates a severe limitation to our learning from observations or experience and the fragility of our knowledge. One single observation can invalidate a general statement derived from millenia of confirmatory sightings of millions of white swans. All you need is one single (and, I am told, quite ugly) black bird" 

We humans have a bias for the anecdotal rather than empirical and as the book above challenges, even empirical data can be wrong. But, in science its all about proof and the requires research and if its from more than one source then these empirical "black swans" are less likely as we increase certainty. Everything including travelling in avalanche terrain is managing uncertainty. As the cause of death in avalanches is researched by many alpine nations there is a lot of good data to support the statistic that folk mostly die because they either cant breath, or what they are breathing is not rich in oxygen.

I wouldn't say the book is to every body's taste but much like "Thinking Fast- Thinking Slow" and "Managing Risk in Extreme Environments" and even "The Checklist Manifesto" it's another take on how we think and how we learn from our mistakes. If we learn from our mistakes? may well be the take home from the above book, as when we change how we think with hindsight, we maybe just move the uncertainty somewhere else. You probably need a good strong hash cookie with your' coffee for this book.

I have re bought an old favourite book which is one of the few that rivalled "The Avalanche Enigma" it's called "The Avalanche Hunters". I am enjoying going back to these old books and realising that our knowledge of the subject has not had a quantum leap and these old tomes still teach lots. These books were all important to me as way back early to mid 1970's there was little formal training. We were fortunate in GMRT that Hamish was well connected and brought folk across to run training from Europe, and as early adopters had the first transceivers, but on understanding the subject a lot of self learning was needed.

I reflect back and realise we never really applied much of it to ourselves and skied off piste with total bravado ignoring things that happened to other people. Skiing back to Verbier off piste with Fiona's dad and a group after coming off Mont Gele, then the group of three strangers behind gets killed later is just one example, and it horrifies me to look back at the sheer stupidity and randomness. As we were with friends in a group it was total group think and feeling safety in numbers. Another example in Switzerland was saying nothing when Fiona skied the back route down to Rougment off the Videmanette with a high risk with Roger Clair and then getting lost in the dark. These were mere tasters to ducking the ropes later trips and bollockings from pisteurs. One time they even stopped the cable car above us as we ducked into a 45deg horror fest. If on ski patrol now, I would arrest myself ! These trips were not package tours but often two or three week stays in Chalets of lifelong friends of Fiona's parents, so the skiing was pretty immersive and full on with a lot of group bravado. All bad stuff in avalanche terrain.

I often wondered if it was MR that made me interested in the subject of risk, but looking back its the sum of lots of parts that all add up, and ski near misses and realisation that your were an ignorant fool - that's probably the biggest one! Thankfully, leading rescue parties and leading guiding/climbing these lessons were learnt. However, as a climber pushing towards the limits is all part of the game - within reason. As Don Whillans said, never underestimate the importance of staying alive.