SPORTS DEVELOPMENT NEWS
Scottish Winter Climbing Performance Seminars
At Glenmore Lodge (The National Outdoor Centre)
February 2004 - Report
By George McEwan
Given the poor winter climbing conditions that existed during the preceding week of the seminar, there were very real doubts as to whether we would be able to go ahead.
Checking every known website for weather info, synoptic charts and clairvoyants to see what the winter climbing outlook was, showed little in the way of precipitation but that it was due to be very cold. On the Tuesday there was a flurry of wet snow, which gave the Corries a distinctly wintry appearance. Joy was unconfined! Even better, the Met Office was now forecasting northerly winds and more snow.
As Saturday loomed climbing conditions were those you would expect around early season, i.e. no consolidated build up, but the crags were rimed up, and at least there were climbing conditions for the forty-two students and seventeen instructors.
On the Friday night, to fire everyone up, Jules Cartwright described his hard won apprenticeship through Scottish winter climbing and how these lessons were taken to the challenging, and frustrating activity of alpine winter climbing and culminating in the superb achievement of an ascent of the NW ridge of Ama Dablam.
On Saturday, local knowledge and a good eye for routes in condition saw teams make the most of the lean conditions. Overall it was a great day for mixed climbing with enough snow showers to rime up the rock, and for that oh! So essential Scottish blast effect; yet it had been cold and dry enough for cracks to be clear allowing easy gear/tool placement.
Most of the action was confined to Sneachda where ascents were made of climbs such as Pot of Gold V.6, Frozen Assets IV.6, Salvation V.7, Fingers Ridge IV.4, Wachacha VI.7 and Mariella VI.7. Several other teams headed into Lochan and climbed the hidden gems of Appetite for Destruction V.6, and Demolition Man IV.5. After an excellent and challenging day, all the teams made it back to the Lodge for the legendary tea and cake.
For the weary climbers there was a spot of evening’s entertainment from Kenton Cool. Kenton is one of that elite band of British alpinists’ operating at the cutting edge of lightweight alpinism. He described his first trip, which focused on climbing single push style ascents of Moonflower, Mini Moonflower and a 46hr push on a new route on Denali, Alaska.
Sunday saw ‘full Scottish conditions’. By now the climbing teams were well-oiled machines and were speeding away from the Lodge in transit vans into gale force winds and driving snow, adding a spicy element to the days climbing. Still, this did not deter the climbers with some notable ascents of classic test pieces such as White Magic VII.7, Edgewood VII.7, Deep Throat V.6, and Hoarmaster V.6.
The strong winds and blasting snow produced many cases of ‘Cairngorm suntan’ (windburn) with Andy Perkins sporting a particularly interesting example caused by looking down into blasting spindrift on Savage Slit for an extended period.
The icy approach road to the Lodge was blocked by a van just as the Lodge vans were heading off to pick up returning teams. It gave the teams up the hill a chance to practice emergency bivvies in the Coire Cas car park, but meant they all drifted back at various times and it was impossible to do a formal close to the weekend.
So a huge thank you to all those who attended and who’s enthusiasm and desire to be ‘stretched’ made the weekend the success it was. An equally deserved thank you to all the instructors, for their hard work – John Armstrong, Kenton Cool, Rich Cross, Andy Cunningham, Rosie Goolden, Carl Haberl, Dave Hollinger, Jon Jones, John Lyall, Scott Muir, Andy Nisbet, Andy Perkins, Jonathan Preston, Phil Sanderson, Ollie Saunders, Owen Samuel, and Mike ‘Twid’ Turner.
Thanks also to the Mountaineering Council of Scotland and The Association Of Mountaineering Instructors for both their financial support of places on the event, and helping to publicise the seminar. In addition thanks to The British Mountaineering Council for assistance in publicising the weekend.
2004-2005 Series (The 5th Season)
Get Tooled Up For Winter!
Two Events each side of Xmas
Hooking and Psyching
22nd – 24th October 2004
A full weekend of coaching and winter ‘crack’
Friday Night:
Open Dry-Tooling Competition organised by Scott Muir
Clubbing at Glenmore with DJ Scott Muir
Saturday Night:
‘Hot Aches’ by Kevin Neal & Kirk Watson – World Premier of the first full Scottish winter climbing film
‘Great Ass Shots’ by Neal & Watson – better winter photography
‘Always a Little Harder’ by Guy Robertson – from bumbly to grade VIII.
Sessions include:
‘Mental Skills for Winter’ with Dr Tony Westbury (Napier University)
‘Physical Training’ with Jaz Hepburn
‘Technical Weirdness for Living with Gnarl’ with Andy Kirkpatrick & Ian Parnell
‘Performance Mixed’ with Scott Muir & Dave Macleod
‘Water Ice Primer’ by George McEwan
Winter Performance Seminar
25th – 27th February 2005
A hands-on, hill based weekend
Get advice and guidance from some of the most experienced winter climbers in the UK while actually out on the hill. See the report above. Further details in next issue of Scottish Mountaineer.
For full details and booking forms contact George McEwan Tel: 01479 861256 or Email: george.mcewan@glenmorelodge.org.uk
Or see the website: www.glenmorelodge.org.uk/events/winterseminar.html
The MCofS Expedition Grant Award
By Kevin Howett
(National Officer)
There has been a lot of recent talk on websites about the validity of these awards. As the MCofS tries to be as fair and transparent as possible in all its activities the following explanation of the main objectives of the awards should help allay any misconceptions. However, we always welcome member’s comments, which in this case should be directed to the National Officer.
Members should remember that the money comes from sportscotland as a dedicated (ring-fenced) grant towards developing the sport. When it was instigated in 1987, the MCofS Executive chose to spend it on supporting Scottish expeditions. As the sport diversified, it was recognised by the Executive that the many different disciplines are equally worthy of support and changes were made to the criteria and were accepted at an AGM. These changes were recently looked at again by the Sports Development Committee who reiterated that the ‘International significance of the ascent’ was important, as was the ‘recognition that Scottish climbers receive in the world arena’ if they complete their objective.
The Criteria:
“The MCofS will award grants to expeditions whose objective is one of excellence and adventure, whether they be first ascents or first free ascents of routes in the greater ranges and little or unexplored mountain areas of the world, or similar pure rock or pure ice climbs in less remote settings but which are nonetheless worthy of international recognition. The minimum number of expedition members will be 2 (two).”
Our Guidelines:
We feel it is inappropriate to ‘means test’ applicants or make any comment on their means of support. The objective is the most important aspect as follows-
1. The Scottish ‘character’ of an expedition, indicated by the at least some members having full-time Scottish addresses; a Scottish bank account; character references predominantly Scottish based; the commitment of the expedition members to Scottish climbing through past climbing experience (routes climbed, first or important ascents), through work or other activities (writings, social comment, voluntary work); and the length of time they have been in membership of the MCofS (Scottish club or IM).
2. The importance of the objective, taking account of the difficulty, remoteness and commitment (making relative comparisons between different kinds of expedition such as a 7,000m peak and a 3,000 ft rock wall and their different but equally important hazards); the relative experience of the expedition members; the status of the climb in a world context (a free ascent of an old aid route on a rock wall at, for example Mount Zion USA, may be just as important as the first ascent of a sub 6,000m Himalayan peak); the relative importance of various forms of ascent - concentrating on excellence in whatever field of climbing; whether it is a first ascent, a repeat ascent or an ascent in different conditions; the environmental commitments made by the expedition; and the general ethos of the expedition in the way it will tackle the climb compared with generally accepted ethos in the country of origin as well as the ethos held in Scotland.
2004 AWARDS:
This year we had a total of 10 applications either directly to MCofS or through the Mount Everest Foundation. Some did not meet the criteria of the award, but those that did were diverse. We also had a little extra money as one of last year’s expeditions returned the grant as its Scottish members pulled out.
Scottish Cordillera Huayhuash Expedition
Ian Rudkin, Dr Neil Stewart, Andrew McIntyre, Gareth Hughes, Alistair Buchanan and Chris Gudgeon will attempt to climb the unclimbed West Face of Rondoy in Peru. Their secondary objective is the first British ascent of a recently established route on the South Face of Siula Grande (Southern Discomfort).
Anglo-Scottish Vilcanota Expedition
SMC members David Wilkinson, Geoff Cohen, Des Rubens and Steve Kennedy are to attempt unclimbed faces on the western side of the Colque Cruz group of mountains in Peru, Alpine style.Tre Cima
Tre Cima
SMC Members Dave Macleod and Scott Muir attempt the 3rd ascent and 1st British ascent of the Alex Huber route ‘Bellavista’ on the North Face of the Cima Orest, Italian Dolomites. The route is traditional style protected by pegs with pitches up to F8c making it possibly the hardest Alpine Rock Route in the world.
Scottish Kyzyl Asker Expedition
Es Tressider, Guy Robertson and Pete Benson will make a repeat attempt on the S.E. face of Kyzyl Asker, Kyrgyzstan. Last year they were thwarted by thawing ice.
International Kalanka North Face
Old Scottish Stalwarts Sandy Allan and John Lyall will team up with Canadian Will Gad and an American (!) to attempt to climb the North Face of Kalanka, India, in Alpine style.
