Today was one of those days in Scotland that only happens once on a while – mandatory sunglasses and sun tan cream. I’m not joking, honest!
It was an alpine feeling this morning with blue skies and not a breath of wind. Unfortunately I had no climbing partner for the day and had been planning on a rest day and general chores. But after a morning of laundry and kit repairs I’d had enough of being inside on such a good day so I drove over to the Bridge of Orchy and along the snowy road to Beinn Udlaidh.
This crag has to be one of the most accessible in Scotland, being about an hours walk from the car, which was handy because by the time I got there it was almost two o’clock which only gave me three hours of day light left for a walk and a climb of something in the corrie.
Nearly all the good climbs at Beinn Udlaidh are ice climbs and they are all water ice rather than the usual snow-ice found on other crags such as Ben Nevis. I got a funny few looks as I was walking into the crag just as most people were heading in the opposite direction!
Quartzvien Scoop is a little grade IV ice climb that I had been wanting to do for a while so I geared up at the bottom of that hoping that it would be in good condition for a solo ascent. I was pretty wary today, as it was my first ice route of the season, and it’s been quite a while since I had been soloing in winter so I did a few laps around the bottom of the climb going up and down to get a feel for the ice. It became quickly apparent that my new ice tools weren’t behaving themselves, as they were quite hard to remove from the deeper placements. I had left my mixed picks on them as I had been in a rush to get out and the teeth on the reverse side of the tools were digging into the ice as I tried to free the axe from each placement.
I decided to have a go anyway and got about halfway up the climb before large area’s of hollow detached ice put me off, some sections being quite large enough to knock me off if they came away so I put my down climbing skills to a test and retreated to leave the climb for another day.
It was a good leg stretch though, and I’ll be back for another climb at Beinn Udlaidh soon.
Beinn Udlaidh on the approach, looks like a european venue I reckon.
Quartzvein Scoop at Beinn Udlaidh, a classic grade IV ice climb.
