A 10 Star-Point weekend

Rob and Euan on Central Grooves. Did I ever mention how jealous I am?!!?

Being very poor and as weak as a kitten after so long away, I'm spending the next wee while in the UK. I say weak, my legs are still massive after carrying stupidly heavy bags and dragging sledges up to 4500m. Though this extra weight does make my arms feel even more matchstick-like. Back working at Rock Over Climbing in Manchester should hopefully remedy both of these problems! Saying that... I did manage to pop something in my wrist on my first coaching session back in November. 5 weeks of rest and rehab have sadly replaced my training plan! Important life lesson there: don't show off to teenagers when you're not warmed up!!

Busy day around Crest Route and Intruder.

After some gentle testing on day 24 of the 28 day rest period, I realised that I could probably manage to hold an ice axe, just not crank off it completely. No one arm lock offs yet but time to head north!! It was on the same day in fact that Rob messaged me to see if I was up to climbing Central Grooves with him. This is an amazing looking mixed route in Glen Coe and is very near the top of my wishlist! Sadly I decided not to give into temptation so turned him down for the route but joined him for the jaunt.

Last time Rob and I bivvied together, the mountain we wanted to climb fell down near us... This time the greatest danger that we faced was being locked in as the car froze solid, on the inside too!

Dave Brigham and I already had a day planned in the Lakes, and did the delightful scramble - Jack's Rake in the gopping wet. Didn't really feel like winter yet in England! Although there were patches of frozen turf in exposed areas I was very sceptical about winter climbing conditions up north. Fortunately I was totally wrong, there was loads of snow on Rannoch Moor and it was bloody freezing in Glen Coe! Just about had enough clothes to be comfortable...

Dave's photo of me enjoying the exposure on Jack's Rake.

Stob Coire nan Lochan... WINTER!!!

NC gully's cave...

After a delightful evening in the Clachaig (the night of their Christmas party no less) I followed my strict Alpine regime and woke up in the car at 11am... You don't 'have' to get an early start to go soloing! Even though there wasn't a track in it, I had a go at NC gully. The steep step out of the cave was a bit necky for my first route of the season and made me think that it wasn't quite in Grade II condition. I downclimbed it, shouted some abuse at Rob and Euan on Central Grooves and fired up Dorsal Arete instead, topping out just in time to see the sunset across Mull. Realising that the slabby path out of Stob Coire nan Lochan would be horrific as soon as the ice formed after dark, I legged it down without having to use my headtorch for too long.

Dorsal Arete... Why haven't I done it before? Worth the stars!

Sunset.

I've often questioned my decision to move to Chamonix, I'm significantly weaker at both bouldering and steep mixed climbing than when I left the UK and often feel like i'm just flailing about trying to climb. Last Saturday I realised how much I've grown to become a more rounded mountaineer throughout my time in Cham. I'm so much happier and braver on snow slopes and have more of an instinctive feel for their stability. My resting heart-rate is also a whopping half of what it was in my partying days, winning!

Sneaky peak of the north face of Ben Nevis

A quick jaunt up my favourite route on the Ben (Ledge Route), cups of tea in the CIC hut and pints in Glasgow completed an amazing weekend! I collected at least 10 star points for all the routes I completed, even though they weren't difficult they were all excellent and has just left me itching for more.

Back to Earth with a Bump

Mixed climbing on tied off terrible ice screws... My favourite!

Why my veins don't work.

Sometimes, I wish I were braver. Once again I find myself in an MRI scanner, fighting back the tears and trying not to hit the panic button. How can I handle my nerves on a high mountain and yet go to pieces during a routine hospital procedure?! It’s not the noise or claustrophobia that freaks me out but the canula and the feeling of cold liquid forcing it’s way through my tired veins. This year, the nurse and I both thought that my veins had recovered a bit. But apparently I still have chemo tracklines that would make a hardcore junkie proud! I guess my biannual round of hospital visits felt worse this time as exactly a week earlier I was carrying loads across a river in Kyrgyzstan. I felt too fit and well to deal with the idea of maybe being sick again. Luckily I don’t have to as I got the all clear for another year PHEW. All you budding doctors should note that telling a patient “Have your life back for another year” is not the most comforting bedside manner…

Bouldering on north wales' hardest V3 between hospital trips.

Gritstone cragging at the start of October - down Jacket obligatory

Since then the autumn has been a blur of exhaustion, cragging near home in Chester, attempts at training and trying to write formal trip reports. I hadn’t realized just how much the expedition had taken out of me until quite a few weeks after. Suddenly I felt like I had been on my feet for the whole summer, which actually I had! Being super well aclimatised to 4000+m obviously carried me through for a good long while though, suddenly running 10km and cycling 30 felt pretty easy. Having become used to carrying 30+kg bags means that 20kg of luggage allowance feels like nothing!

Dave Looning the Tube

Emma ready to place the next bit of gear!

Back in Chamonix for ten days, I found myself too tired to consider any hard climbing and rediscovered my love of bouldering instead. Not suffering for a bit is quite nice! I love the fact that I can have an ‘easy’ holiday in Chamonix and still get 4500m of ascent in. Now that I’m all signed up for the Vertical K race next June ascent is what I need! Doing ‘Shit Route’ off the Midi with Ally was good fun in spite of the floral smelling liquid at the top. Although I managed to forget my crampons and had to get the lift back down to fetch them, it’s nice to remember that I can still mixed climb… Sort of!

Ally heading up towards the top ice fall on Shit Route, I sand bagged us up this accidentally, telling Ally that 'it's easier than the Chere Couloir'. It isn't....

Heading towards Tower Gap in beautiful evening light.

Hands free rest for Jonnie on Arch Enemy

Winter has been pretty slow coming in Britain, which is sad. So far I’ve only managed one weekend in the Highlands. Fortunately it was amazing and brought winter psyche levels pretty high! Although at the time I cursed my enthusiasm for doing Tower Ridge on Ben Nevis as a ‘good little warm up’. Everyone I know of, who has attempted this route early season, has epiced hard. Tom, Marcus and I probably should have learnt from this! We found the conditions to be pretty hard, a bit sketchy and time consuming. It was actually a relief when the unconsolidated snow over rock slabs low down gave way to a couple of inches of thick verglas high up.  The conditions definitely made the day more memorable than we were expecting. Maybe we should have persevered to the top, with daylight fading fast and the wind picking up we decided to be sensible and abseil from the gap. Nevermind, the Ben definitely isn’t the Drus and ‘will still be there next year.’

Treacherous rock slabs on Tower Ridge.

Bill on Daylight Robbery, Creagan Coire Cha-No. It looked so much fun that we abbed down and climbed it too!

When conditions and weather aren't playing ball it's time for a bothy trip with your pals!