Today was a first for me, the first time I have been involved with a Munro round completion. Ian and Sarah, after many years of dedication completed their ‘Munro Tops’ on Meal Dearg on Liathach. Having just passed half way on my own Munro round I realise just how much it must mean to be finished.
We had reasonable weather heading into Corie Na Caime, with snow arriving just as we summited.
Blog By Ian Stewart
As the title suggests we had two fantastic, but very different days at the weekend:
On Saturday Peter and I explored the wild corrie around the back of the main Beinn Eighe ridge. Our route took in the seldom visited quartzite slabs up to the north ridge of Spidean Coire nan Clach. The slabs gave a scramble of about 150m followed by a very wintery traverse of the north ridge. We completed the day by heading east along the main ridge and down The Black Carls to our starting point at the SNH visitor centre.
On Sunday John joined us for a trip across Loch Torridon in a RIB from Torridon Sea Tours. Kenny put us ashore and left us to navigate to Creag Alligin. This was done using a variety of modern, traditional and ‘memory-based’ techniques! The three of us did four or five routes on ‘velcro-like’ Lewisian Gneiss. The crag provided us with a great days climbing which ended with Peter getting back on the sharp end again. John and I timed our descent to the shore to perfection as Kenny came in to collect us. For the return journey to Shieldaig we were then transferred to The Seaflower.
blog by Jim Sutherland
My friends Paul and Angela from GoFurther Scotland organised the fourth Tollaidh Triathlon on Saturday.
‘The country’s most unusual triathlon combines a 5 mile hill run with a 16 mile bike ride. After that, all the entrants had to complete at least one roped climb at Creag Nan Luch – one of Scotland’s best sport climbing venues.’ – easy according to Paul!
I took part for the first time. Everyone had a great day, the weather was kind to us, the hill track wasn’t too muddy. There was a great headwind to stop you overheating on the bike ride and the crag was dry too.
No doubt Paul and Angela will post more photos and words on their site, click here for Tollaidh Triathlon.
I’ve put another photo and a short movie on the nineonesix-guiding twitter and facebook feeds.
Jim Sutherland
Today my wife Rachel, Ian & Laura and Paul were assisting Luke from Locate Productions with a photo shoot for Land Rover.
The Wester Ross weather did not let them down…
Checking out another great route for guided mountain biking today. This one required a ‘bit of pushing’ to get to the Bealach but the total of 700m of descent made it worthwhile. Check out the route on TrailZilla
Check out our guided mountain biking page here.
Thanks to Des at Lodge Cycles and Steve at KHS Bikes for getting me sorted again.
Jim Sutherland
The sun hit Stone Valley about 10.00am, so did me and Dunc. Once hunger got the better of us we managed to drag ourselves from the velcro-like delights of Lewisian Gneiss to The Harbour Lights cafe. Grass Crag had already been in the sun for a couple of hours when we got there in the afternoon. Three trad routes and three sport routes each in spectacular settings.
nineonesix-guiding is now taking bookings for all of their rock climbing courses, all led by SPA supervisors, or Mountaineering Instructors.
Jim at nineonesix-guiding
The new edition of the SYHA magazine ‘The Hosteller’ arrived through my door last week. As well as being packed full of great articles and interesting ideas the SYHA activity holidays are advertised.
Once again nineoneisx-guiding are delighted to be providing the Leaders & Mountain Instructors for the Classic Torridon Munros holiday as well as the new, exciting ‘An Teallach and further Torridon Munros’. Here are the dates:
27 May – 2 June Classic Torridon Munros
29 July – 4 August Classic Torridon Munros
26 August – 1 September An Teallach and further Torridon Munros
All holidays include accommodation are cost £594 per person. Book direct through SYHA by following this hyperlink.
This page also provides details for our SYHA Toridon WInter Skills weekends for 2013. After such a disappointing winter this year it is never too early to start thinking about next year. Surely there will be better conditions..?
Finally, I was working for Ian Stewart of Stewart Mountain Skills at the weekend. I went to Kingussie Crag with Abby, Rob and Mark on Easter Sunday. They wanted to develop their indoor climbing skills to allow them to start climbing outside. By the end of the day Abby has made her first ever lead and all three of them had become more independent in building their own anchors, belaying, abseiling and choosing equipment.
More photos on the nineonesix-guiding twitter and facebook pages.
This amazing spring weather has meant an early start to the rock climbing season. The photo above is the route ‘Archie Gemmell’, near Shieldaig.
Whether you are a beginner wanting to get out for the first time, move from the indoor wall to rock routes or even want to learn to lead get in touch with us here at nineonesix-guiding. Our Mountaineering Instructors or SPA supervisors always work with small ratios for client safety and enjoyment.
Click here to see our rock climbing page.
Jim Sutherland
Today we headed to Cnap Coire na Spreidhe to build bucket seat & buried axe belays.
All 12 of the students had the chance to belay one another and even hold some falls (see the movies on our movie link) as well as finally abseil off a snow bollard.
Everyone had a great two days and back at the hostel there was already talk about alpine preparation, mountain rock routes and other jinks with nineonesix-guiding.
Thanks to all the students for their great spirit and attitude. Ian and I wish them all well for their future adventures on the crags, mountains and glaciers.
all the best,
Ian and Jim nineonesix-guiding
Cambridge University Mountaineering Club were back up in Scotland for their second year of winter skills with nineonesix-guiding. Thanks to Iain’s local knowledge we made the decision to visit Coire an Lochain to practice winter skills near the ‘Twin Burns’ area. Both teams covered moving on snow using their boots to make steps, self-belay, self arrest and climbing up/down and across steep snow slopes. After lunch we then put the crampons on and headed over towards the corrie. A nice wee bonus to the day was the snow/ice bouldering at the exit to the burns.
Check out the gallery for some photos or the website for movies.
blog by Jim Sutherland
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