Adventures in the Terskey Ala-Too, Kyrgyzstan Part 2 – the expedition Having got all our kit to the camp, we started eying up the mountains nearby. Most were only identified by the spot-heights on our old Soviet military maps, but the 4356m peak immediately next to our camp actually… Continue reading
Adventures in the Terskey Ala-Too, Kyrgyzstan Part 1 – getting there, logistics & acclimatisation John & Claire took a bit longer to get there than the rest of us… Having set out from York in mid-March, driving their trusty ex Glasgow Police Mercedes Sprinter (now converted into a campervan… Continue reading
The journey to Switzerland The news during the latter part of July had terrible reports of nightmare journeys and day long queues on the approach to Dover. Well Dave and I missed this debacle it would appear by a matter of minutes (following a bold decision to hit the B… Continue reading
Scratch the surface of Beauty, and Terror may lie , not very far below. High in the Appenines, Lago Santo Parmenese sits at 1500 metres. The Rifugio Mariotti stands at the waters edge, gazing across to 300 metre cliffs and the Appenine crest…… an idyllic scene which echoed for me… Continue reading
A Six-Pack for Dolly After one of the wettest Highland summers ever, there came a dry interlude. It was still raining heavily in Glen Coe, but over east in Glen Shee, Dolly and I found – at last – a clear dry day. We started up Carn an Tuirc, and… Continue reading
Northern Delights The Chief Delight of Scotland’s Far North must be Foinaven, one of the best mountains in Britain. (However the distance from York to Ben Hope is rather further than Paris, thus affirming Mike Spence’s dictum that doing the Munros is a great feat of motoring). Having managed a… Continue reading
Muir Cottage Trip, Braemar May Bank Holiday Club Trip, 30 April – 2 May 2016 Although the forecast had initially looked doubtful, we ended up having good luck with the weather, making this a fantastic trip. The Muir Hut (owned by the Cairngorm Club) was a perfect base and members… Continue reading
Maria and I have had Tower Ridge on the ‘to do’ list for a long time. Winter climbing on the North face of the Ben is always an amazing experience, and Tower Ridge has quite a reputation – the description in the SMC guide starts by saying it is ‘one… Continue reading
I was ambling along daggering the snow with my axes, and noticed that the rope seemed to have got rather long. “How’s rope ?” I called to Paul…… getting “2 metres left” for an answer. A trifle unsatisfactory. That meant there would be rather more than 40 metres of rope… Continue reading
I concentrated quite hard, keeping my weight directly over the fine edge of snow, and carefully planting axe, pole, left foot, right foot…….. repeat. As snow aretes go, Sron nan Guibhas was definitely “narrow”. There’s over 800 metres of it altogether, sometimes comfortably a few metres wide, but several times… Continue reading
