Climbing in the Cairngorms

After a few days in the far north we woke up to two inches of snow at the Grampian caving hut. This was our indicator to pack up and run back south for hopefully some winter climbing in the Cairngorms, but not until after we had built a couple of snow men. 

Oli wasn’t super keen to go to the Cairngorms, she describes them as more rounded bumps than actual proper spiky mountains. However, below are a few fun facts about the Cairngorms:

• The Cairngorms is the largest national park in the UK, twice the size of the Lake District national park and bigger than Luxembourg.

• It contains four out of the top five highest mountains in the UK.

• The park contains 25% of Scotland’s native woodland.

• The national park covers 2% of the UKs land mass but 25% of the UKs most threatened species are found there including capercaillie, pine marten, osprey, Scottish wildcat, golden eagle, red squirrel, snow bunting, lapwing, crested tit, dotterel and black grouse.

• The aspen trees support some of the UKs rarest and most threatened lichens.

We arrived a few hours later and parked in a woodland car park. We were a little disappointed that the 2 inches of snow we had in Elphin appeared not to have fallen over most of where we drove through and there was only a small smattering of snow in the Cairngorms. However when we got up in the morning it appeared the snow had followed us!

The first route we had planned to do was the Fiacaill Ridge. We headed up the path and after a few misdirections we started up broad section of the ridge. We met a few other groups roping up for the steep section and had to do some waiting around before we set off “moving together”. It was here I should have put an extra layer on as I soon started to get very cold, but I decided I couldn’t take all the mountaineering coils and coats off. We started climbing along the steep sections but I quickly managed to work myself into a panic as I had started blindly following the rope and came to what seemed an impossible overhanging section. After a couple of failed attempts and wailing to Olly that I couldn’t climb it, I eventually realised that if I took two steps backwards there was and obvious step up that everyone else had taken. 

We carried along the ridge but I soon discovered I didn’t really like “moving together” as I was always left at the back and didn’t get to sociably chat at belay points. We ended waiting around again whilst we did some route finding at what looked like an impossible rock face. At this point I decided I was way out of my depth and didn’t want to climb the impossible looking rock face. Luckily this could be avoided by walking around the side. We then waited at the top for Oli and Chris in our bothy bag where I discovered that cucumber is a terrible winter mountaineering food as it freezes and you get an ice cream headache eating it.

There was a white out on top of the plateau but some good navigation by Chris lead us safely back down to the ski centre with a stop off on the way for Chris to demonstrate, then us to practice some ice axe arrests.

That evening we discovered a car park near-ish to the Pine Marten bar and stopped in for a few drinks whilst we planned the next days activities. I wanted to step down the climbing and with high winds forecast but clear skies we opted for a walk up to the Cairngorm summit.

The next morning we arrived at the ski centre car park and Oli asks me if we saw the reindeer being walked down the road. We hadn’t! And we didn’t see the reindeer in the lower car park the day previously either. Oli is just lucky in seeing all the wildlife. It was super windy but I got to try out my new snow goggles. We made it to the summit and were just in time to see the weather station pop out to take it’s measurements. Despite the strong winds it was pretty clear and we got some good views across the plateau.

It was Friday night and the Pine Marten bar was a little busier, however the 50 mountain rescue people had vacated by the time we arrived. The conditions were meant to be good the following day and we planned to attempt another day climbing this time in Coire an t-scheada.

We had a minor panic when we woke up and couldn't open the van door as it had frozen shut in the night. Luckily with managed to signal to Chris who could give it a good pull from the outside. Once freed, we drove to the ski car park and found every climber in Scotland had arrived to make the most of the first good weather Saturday of the year. On the way in to the Coire we spotted climbers on every face including queues for the routes we had planned to do. 

We began to debate whether we wanted to queue and whether the conditions were any good (due to lack of freeze thaw). However we concluded to join the queue as it appeared to have reduced to just one pair.  

We kitted up, headed up the snow slope to the start of the climb but quickly realised we actually we're pair numbers 3 and 4 of the queue. After a bit of a wait Olly set off. This time we climbed traditionally and I enjoyed the climb considerably more. Luckily the other pairs in front of us split off onto different routes and soon we were first in the queue.

I could hear the conversation of another group below us, the leader had got to the first belay point and was incredibly happy as this was the hardest winter climb he had lead. His happiness was quickly curtailed by his partner bellowing up that he had slipped and snapped his front tooth off. Seems like we were having a much better day.

We got to the top of our route with only minor route finding issues and were treated with stunning views including a distant cloud inversion.

It was great to see lots of people out enjoying the amazing weather. Back at the car park we decided to head into Aviemore to get Olly some power for his laptop so that we could complete our Indian visas.  

The previous day we had tried and failed due to the specific file sizes/types the application required. To add insult to injury we had just hit our allocated 3 hours free parking in Aldi car park when we noticed we had a flat tyre. Luckily a nice guy lent us a pump so we pumped up and limped to a free car park.

We then got out the van manual and managed to locate the jack and locking wheel nut. We struggled to loosen the wheel nuts especially the anti-theft one. After going back to the manual and scoffing at the seemingly obvious instructions on how to loosen nuts we actually followed them and succeeded in loosing all but the anti-theft  one. Roll on 1.5 hours and the AA man arrived. We did feel slightly better as he had to get out the extra long torque wrench to remove it. The good thing about living in your vehicle is that you can cook dinner and sit in bed whilst you wait.

After our stunning weather day it was predicted to be a bit windier with some snow. We picked a crag which would be sheltered from the wind. Unfortunately you had to descend onto crag which meant accurate navigation was needed to prevent us accidentally walking off the cliff edge. Due to the limited visibility in the snow we chose to walk on a single bearing for 1.4km. As I was the only person wearing contact lenses rather than glasses I was the allocated eyes. I was pretty pleased that we were only 10m off over the whole distance.

The scariest part of the day for me was climbing down the snow gully to get to the start of the climbs. This was called the "easy route" however the steps appeared to have been kicked in by a giraffe and the snow was worryingly unconsolidated. I wasn't helped by another experienced group descending above us and knock large chunks of snow on me.

I was going to wimp out half way down but the idea of going back up was just as bad. Oli shouted to me that I was almost at the bottom so I decided to keep going. We weren't near the bottom but apparently she really thought we were and she wasn't tricking me.  Also turns out there is a huge drop from the crag to the valley but it was shrouded in mist, which was probably good for me.

At the bottom we looked at the PDF guide and found our route. Olly started but quickly called down that it seemed a little hard. We then found that some other climbers 100m to our right thought they were doing the same route. Turns out we were in the wrong place so after some tricky down climbing for Olly we moved over and got in the queue. 

The climb was quite pleasant and we even had some clear views for a while. I had borrowed Chris's walking axe so I had a pair. It was good fun hitting axes into stuff but the problem with walking axes is my hands would slide off the ends. 

That evening Oli and Chris decided to go for a moonlit walk around Glenmore Lodge. I joined them as I was sure if I didn't they would see some can can dancing reindeer. There were not reindeer but we did see the biggest shooting star I have ever seen!

Strong winds were predicted for the following day so we had a late start and hung around at the visitor centre. We caved in and had a full Scottish breakfast which was delicious and even caught a glimpse of a red squirrel on a bird feeder. 

Oli and Chris were staying longer but it was time for us to head down to South Wales for the Wealden Cave and Mine Society annual dinner.