F(l)ailing Upwards

As my first trip climbing outside of Europe, and especially to high altitude, I had been very worried about the kit needed. Any research I did would only confuse me more, with some sources saying I would need double boots and a borderline down suit whilst others said I could run up in B2s and t-shirt. I ended up taking a beefed up version of my Scottish winter kit which proved more than enough and, for what we did, a cold summer alpine kit would have been sufficient. My partner for the trip was Alex (why are so many of my climbing partners called Alex) who was my boss when I was working in London the year prior. We had never climbed with each other and had barely interacted outside of work. We had gone to the Alps for a week, with a good forecast and high psych, but Alex had injured his ankle a few weeks previously. After approaching Contamine-Grisole (for the third time!), it caused him too much discomfort. So we decided to prioritise his healing and just hiked for the week.  Neva...

Coming back to Scotland in April and the mountains were fully in ‘summer’ condition. There was an optimistic attempt at some gully bashing but walking into sneachdta and the lack of any complete gully meant we did a summer ascent of the esoteric Fiacaill Buttress (diff), whilst not a great summer climb it is a decent winter climb and I was able to collect some crag swag. Confirming that anything winter was well and truly out of the way I committed my spring to capitalising on my fitness and doing some long days out on the hills. Here are my highlights  (Pre) Cuillin Practise runs Before doing the Cuillin Ridge we had wanted to get a practice run in on similar terrain, so I headed north to the Beinn Eighe national park with Bri. First on the list of the linkup was Long Stroll Slab; an exposed, steep, and smeary (you guessed it) slab. Unfortunately, the wind was about 30mph higher than forecasted so we bailed after that.  Heading down after Long Stroll Slab.  Logistics prev...

After chamonix I still had the climbing itch so decided to take a gap year before finding a permanent job. I lived at home, working odd jobs 5 or 6 days a week to save up some money. I was able to get a van and spent November converting it (whilst working full time) and then moved to Scotland come December. I found a part time job, working weekends to cover the bills, and my UKC logbook says I climbed 37 winter routes between December 9th and March 18th. But that doesn’t tell the full story. This winter season was an especially bad one with multiple big thaws happening throughout the season. I did get out almost every day I had free and if something was in condition I would climb it, otherwise I would go for a long hike/scramble/run by myself.  The state of the van before I even left London. I never ended up cutting the mattress to size or plugging the electrics in.  Here are a few of my highlights across the winter. Haston Line: Get busy living or get busy dying  My firs...