Tuesday 16 January 2024

Avalanche Jenga Season

Recco Training at Glencoe Mountain
 Nevis Range and Glencoe Professional Ski Patrols











These musings by a now almost, but not quite, burnt out arm chair pundit who has been buried  and also weilded a shovel too many times in avalanche recovery, should not be taken as gospel, just my personal opinion. Always seek out other opinions. 

Forecasting and local avalanche risk assessment is about prediction based on past and future weather forecasts, therefore it will always be uncertain, and a game of probability. Especially when what is an area forecast is  applied more locally. Local topographic effects, and slight weather variations will make a difference. 

As an example. There may be a difference between the Glencoe Mountain ski area weather and snowpack at the East end of Glencoe, and the Ballachulish Horseshoe circuit at the West end. Interpretation and application of forecast information to a trip is a process of increasing or decreasing uncertainty. Its rarely 100% certain. That's why a degree of flexibility in decisions and dynamic risk assessment is essential during a day out in the mountains. Conditions might be quite different to what you thought, and plans will need revised. Mountaineers and skiers who reach pensionable age have become good observer's of small and subtle weather and snow pack detail, and possess a spatial awareness while also being very respectful of the mountains while  journeying among them. Its not required to achieve an objective some days, and quite enough to listen to what the mountains are saying to you. This may be go home, or it might be todays the day, so get the rope/ski's on and enjoy.

In off piste skiing and touring, you couple uncertainty with risk homeostasis from airbags, carrying the three avalanche rescue essentials of transceiver, shovel and probe. Have a ponder that its a recipe for feeding the white room spin cycle if you don't stop and think. The decisions you make with the presence of consequence reduction kit such as these should be no different to that ones you would make if you left them behind. The idea is not to get avalanched and need them. Acknowledging human fallability and uncertainty, they are there of the unforseen "Black Swan Event", a phrase nore commonly used in the world of finance, for an extremely negative event or occurrence that is impossibly difficult to predict.



The top graphic is pretty obvious. Its pretty certain that natural and human triggered avalanches are predicted above 650m on North to South Eeast aspects, and a localised avalanche risk is present below this altitude from the North West through South. Most folk with a brain will avoid the areas above 500m (allowing a bit of leeway!). RED is the colour of danger (obviously) and folk will choose to go to safer aspects, which in the above is green, which as a colour the colour of greater certainty of safety. Things become less certain on yellow, and very uncertain at orange. This uncertainty especially at Orange is where the risks are, as the risks are localised. Yellow the probability of getting caught is less, but still uncertain, stick a localised considerable orange strip in there and you have a mine field of uncertainty lying in wait.

How do you mange or minimise risk if you have to travel on these aspects, or choose to ski them? Well you don't manage the risk with any degree of certainty as you just don't know for sure where weak spots are, and you will for sure not know the true propagation risk from a trigger. You can't minimise a risk you don't know.  For the inexperienced person there is a temptation to look at these localised hot spots in the graphic and think you can avoid them, thinking, surely I will recognise these weak areas and can ski/walk/climb around them. Folk dont though, which is wahy folk still die in Scottish avalanches.

So my take on why it is that most folk get whacked when the risk is considerable or localised, is that being outdoor optimists (as we all are), and perhaps having got knackered climbing up a mountain or skinning into a valley, or maybe having a bluebird pow day, folk get used to that middle risk level, as it's used the most representing the most common and therefore familiar avalanche conditions that occur for the longest periods.  That  risk level has the most uncertainty and therefore is the most dangerous for the winter sports person IMHO

I suppose if you were to roughly put a % chance of probability of being avalanched on the European avalanche scale you could say that:

Black 100% chance of getting whacked while either minding your own business, in Galtur or being suicidal side piste in Tignes

Red   98% chance of getting whacked on an aspect with that high level of risk. The Scottish highest level of risk. 
 Apart from the Gaick Lodge avalanche, our main roads and villages are not in avalanche run out zones so Black does not apply. If an aspect is RED in the forecast then go to the pub or climbing wall or find a nice safe low level walk or ski run.

Orange   If the rose is all orange then in my view its just the same as red, just a tad less obvious. You have a very high chance of getting whacked. Stick some localised Orange risk in among yellow, then it becomes 50/50 and that's scary uncertainty, as some folk think they can recognise the danger hot spots and avoid them. Maybe they can, but then maybe not. Its certainly dicing with the big white avalanche room. This would be
 low angled slope day for me, well away from run out areas. The more times you roll the dice in the orange/considerable risk zone then the more chance you won't be needing your old age pension. 50/50 isn't odds, its worse than Russian Roulette!

Yellow maybe a 40% of getting away with it, but victim triggered death is still very likely if you hit a hot spot and it propagates into something bigger. Even if smaller avalnches can be lethal especially if it takes you into a terrain trap. This is true of all terrain features you can end up in if avalanched.

Green Well, either its the best of Scottish neve and you should be climbing with the axe and crampons in blue skies, or be getting the lawn mower out. If its the best of Scottish neve and its a sunless aspect then watch out next time it snows as there's could to be something growing on the top surface like hoar or faceting that will give a higher avalanche risk when it next snows fi its early winter especially.

Piss or get off the pot
Only one thing is for sure, we can only manage uncertainty up to a point. We live in a chaotic universe, bad things happen to good people, and a lot of good things happen to good people as a reward for getting out there making the effort. I think we have to accept that the line between the best day skiing of your life, and getting taken out by a slide is pretty close if you want to ride the powder days on higher angled slopes. If you don't accept that take up another sport.  We can reduce risk by managing uncertainty, and reduce consequences by equipment and terrain choices. Avalanche prediction and avoidance will never be 100% accurate. I am told knitting is pretty safe, if you prefer a more sedate pastime with a surer risk assessment.

Avalanche Types and Uncertainty
Some types of avalanche are more predictable i.e "certain" and some less so and some types of avalanche risk can be more easily seen in tests and observations. The ones that concern us the most are the least predictable with the greatest uncertainty so require extreme caution. Windlsab is the biggest enemy. Have a think about the following:

  • Aspects that might be affected from a weather forecast, and very importantly observed wind direction 
  • Angle of slope based on contours, precipitation type and deposition 
  • Altitude, and what the precipitation is, and its likely rate of deposition 
  • Anchored to. Whts under the snow,  based on summer knowledge of your ski patrol/local area.  Or avalanche forecasts that mention  surface or deeper instabilities within the snow pack.

Wet snow release triggering a weakly anchored slope
















Powerful wet snow glide avalanche that takes everything in its path. Buachaille Etive above Lagangarbh. You don't want to be in here if its raining during a thaw just after a big snowfall.

Persistent slab, skier triggered slab March 30th 2013 Glencoe Mountain Ski Area - Fatal


Organised rescue teams use RECCO which is harmonic radar that can also be used from a helicopter. RECCO is a standard search tool by mountain rescue in Europe. Three Scottish mountain rescue teams, and threes ski patrol's use it. No search and rescue helicopters have adopted it in the UK for avalanche rescue to date, but the hand held can be used from a helicopter with an adaptor system from a 3rd party manufacturer. I have one here in Glencoe as I am also the UK trainer for Recco.

A skier going off piste or touring in the mountains should carry three essential items. A transceiver to be located, or to locate a buried companion, a collapsible snow probe to confirm the victim’s location, and a strong aluminium shovel to dig them out quickly.

Recovery of buried companions in an avalanche is time critical with a 90% survival if victims are located and dug out within less than 15 minutes. After this time survival is very poor. It follows that practise in locating and digging out a victim is critical. 

Killin Mountain Rescue and a group of Freeride skiers using the  Glencoe Mountain Avalanche training park


Recco is another important part of the organised rescue strategy. Education and avalanche avoidance is primary, being found early by companions if it goes wrong is vital, and prior practice makes this work. Organised rescue requires a triple response: Dogs, Recco and Probe Lines. Survival is time critical. Much has been made of trauma being the main factor in poor survival in Scottish avalanches. Largely based on a few tragic avalanche incidents where trauma has been the dominant factor.

Anecdotal observations and opinions make easy to forget the victims where triple"H"syndrome has been the killer, of which there have been many over the last decades. Anecdote is not enough, and there is no data from coronial studies in Scotland to support the Trauma versus Triple H debate.

Being searchable and located quickly increases survival. Some Scottish MR teams already have Recco as part of their search strategy (Tayside, Glencoe, Cairngorm MRT's) and Glencoe Ski Patrol. There has been a demand for buying two single Recco reflectors to carry by mountaineers. One in a front pocket and one in back (on the person. never the rucksack or ski). Reflectors are light, passive requiring no battery and small. For the burdened winter mountaineer already with a heavy pack it provides a cheaper and lighter option than shovel, probe and beacon.

I can imagine nothing worse than a victim recovery delayed because a search team did not have a Recco detector and the victim when recovered is found to have either a Recco reflector or a harmonic like a mobile phone on them. Recco detectors are of course for "organised rescue". Recco and the many clothing manufacturers who sew in the Recco relflectors, endorse the view that not getting avalanched through education and training is best. However, in the real world shit still happens, and unless someone is "searchable" a rescuer cannot find them quickly. Even if the poor victim has bottomed out of the survival curve a vistim recovered quickly reduces rescuer risk exposure, and provides some closure to waiting family. 

How does a Recco Reflector work?

  • Professional rescuers can quickly pinpoint a buried reflector-equipped person’s precise location using harmonic radar. Often quicker than a transceiver.

  • This two-part system consists of a RECCO R9 detector used by professional rescue groups, and RECCO reflectors that are attached to clothing, helmets, protection gear, and boots worn by skiers, mountaineers and riders and other outdoor users.
  • When used in conjunction with a RECCO Detector, the reflector's diode mixer acts as a harmonic generator to produce multiples of the frequencies received from the detectors.
  • The returned signal is translated into an audio tone whose volume is proportional to the returned signal, and by means of volume control, a trained rescue operator can literally go straight to the buried reflector once a signal is detected.
  • It is a non-powered device meaning that it never needs to be switched on, will never lose signal strength and needs no batteries to function. It is maintenance free and has a virtually unlimited life.
  • In total more than 900+ search & rescue organizations in the world endorse it.

The Recco Rescue System is different from an Avalanche Transceiver because its a small band-aid size sticky transponder which is not powered, the reflector can be applied to your boots or helmet, the Recco detector does not contain any antennas and cannot be picked up by an avalanche beacon, the Recco detector has a range of over 200 metres which professional mountain rescue teams can pick up in the case of an avalanche.

Due to it not being a passive device the reflector will not lose signal strength and no battery to malfunction. 

We should not forget Robert Burnett's remarkable twenty two hour survival in the Southern Cairngorms. All victims surely deserve the benefit of the doubt, with  rescuers throwing all resources at an attempt at a a live recovery.
Robert Burnett - 22 hours Buried.  Pic courtesy of Hamish MacInnes

A really good summary of this pretty miraculous survival on the web site 


The hand held R9  Recco detector is the size and weight of a hard back book and easy for rescuers to get to the scene and search with.

The underslung Recco SAR pod picture right. Searches 200x200m in a minute and the above Austrian crew hadsjust recovered a victim located with it.

Recco Helicopter based SAR is based at these sites, with more added including a prospective private North of England site soon:


  • Switzerland – Zermatt, Sion
  • Italy – Aosta, Bozen, Trento
  • Austria  – Hohenems, Innsbruck, Linz, Graz
  • Norway – Alesund, Hastad, 
  • Sweden – Ostersund 
  • Canada – Snohomish Helicopter Rescue Team, Snohomish, WA
  • United States – Alpine Helicopters, Canmore AB

Live recovery of a victim located by her Recco reflector
 
Glencoe Ski Patrol doing a precautionary combined 457mhz transceiver search and Recco harmonic search on the "Fly Paper". The R9 detector searches both, and at close range can find many other harmonic devices such as mobile phones.




Tuesday 28 November 2023

A Slightly Tongue in Cheek Guide to Snow

Snow science seems to be in vogue and nothing wrong with that. But - most folk are not avalanche forecasters just Joe average trying to make good decisions. I like to simplify it when discussing so here’s a white board session based on a  picture taken on an avy course I ran some time ago when the PowerPoint projector failed and I had to cuff it. A good whiteboard session is good as an instructor as you need to know your subject and cant hide behind pictures:

Mountaineers are seldom "searchable"
Above "The Gate"  below Summit Gully Glencoe
Spot Probe Finds x 2 Fatal
 ðŸ˜¢

  • The avalanche forecast is an area forecast. The local risk may be different + or –
  • Read the forecast and its nuances, snow pack history and snow profile – and the blog. They have done 80% of the work for you. You decide the rest
  • Terrain choice is a big deal, Angle, Aspect and Altitude, Complexity, Commitment and Consequences
  • Water becomes ice or something along a continuum
  • Snow flakes have branches which break up if transported by the wind
  • More wind more break up, denser snow pack i.e Slab
  • Graupel is not hail which is a laminate, but it is a ball of softish ice. Graupel are ball bearings with similar effects with new snow laying on top. They eddy into rock features causing local weakness. Rocks can be Islands of safety or a landmine.
  • The deeper you go down the snow pack the less cold it gets until at ground level its zero or just above. Mice shrews and invertebrates live there. 
  • Water vapour rises through the snowpack.
  • Crystals can grow/regrow in cold conditions either on the surface as hoar or within the snowpack as hoar/crystal regrowth.
  • Early season shallow snowpacks can be just as lethal as big deep snowpacks as water vapour causes surface hoar which if snowed on become lethal, graupel can be trapped around prominent rocks causing trigger points, or crystal re growth/faceting can occur and get buried. Shallow is just as lethal as deep.
  • Avalanche forecasters measure the snow temperature every 10cm. If the temperature is greater than 1c in 10cm going up the snowpack then the snowpack is getting weaker. Less than 1c in 10cm then overtime the snow pack will eventually get stronger, Strong gradients grow facets, weak gradients make rounds.
  • In rain, thaw and warmer weather crystals round off sometimes joining to each other
  • Wet snow is Water logged snow and can flow like a concrete river down gullies, corries and obvious slide paths. Beware spring thaws or after heavy rain.
  • Wind blown slab snow shears or collapses on a layer underneath and just like rice crispie's there's a snap, crackle and pop
  • Whump is the sound of air escape from under the slab, the snap.  If it doesn’t pop go buy a lottery ticket as your lucks in.
  • Windslab most often requires a trigger. You are the trigger and in the poop!
  • Snow pits should be kept simple. The SAIS and other forecasting services in alpine countries do the heavy lifting. Snow pits and profiles are only relevant for the couple of  square meters where you dig. They are good places to take stock, talk and communicate. The data might confirm what you see but also might not. Its just a hole in the snow. The armpit test is fast and repeatable but not definitive. Dig out a small hole and above cut out as deep a column as you can with a ski end, pole or shovel. Pull on it to see if the surface slab is bonded to the underlying snow pack.
  • The progression of survival probability such as % survival at a given time is a statistic. You could survive a couple of hours if in the miracle headline survivor group, but more likely dead from hypoxia unless companions dig you out fast. Bear in mind ski patrollers who can get to fully buried victims in alpine resorts fast, give BLS with fast helicopter access and ALS from dedicated SAR Docs taking the victims to specialist centre's and even then victims do not survive to discharge. Your companions are your saviours.
  • A shovel is an airway opening device
  • If you are not searchable your fucked 
  • That's about it really




Wednesday 25 October 2023

Snow and Avalanche Safety Equipment from Ortovox


I Sell Ortovox Avalanche Safety Equipment. UK RECCO Representative and Trainer

It’s that time of year again. We anticipate winter and its many false starts before we finally get going on the skins, ice tools or uplift. Backcountry/Side country skiing has grown its market share as folk want to earn their turns or be away exploring. Uplift and ski resorts are the slingshot getting folks high and fast before skinning away to summits or dropping into bowls or gullies. Some stay ski area inbound and some folk go outbound.  A lot of the “side country” skiers are resort skiers who may have acquired few mountain skills and may not be “searchable” (Recco Strip and/or Beacon). Serious backcountry tourers tend to be mountaineers, be more avalanche aware, and will be more likely have the essential three items of shovel, probe, and avalanche beacon, and so be searchable and rescue capable. No matter how you play it, more and more folk are exploring all aspects of the ski areas, not just frontside. With that comes the inevitable consequence of the aspect, angle and precipitation posing a risk to the less mountain aware, less experienced folks who are not avalanche aware and so perhaps more incidents. Be it near misses or unfortunately sad events.

Now is the time to dig out the search tools. Check your avy beacon, fit new batteries and get familiar with it again (use three antenna beacons only – bin the two antenna or old analog). Even consider upgrading older three antenna ones that have had daily seasonal use for more than five years. If you upgrade don’t go too fancy. You can’t go wrong with something like the Ortovox 3+ or "Diract".  Avalanche beacons like all technology evolve. In the last year some of the new beacons coming on the market have much faster signal acquisition and processing. Newer models have much better signal separation, GPS to keep you going forward and the “flag/mark” feature is much more reliable if it’s a multiple burial. This makes locating multiple victims easier. But they still need dug out, and unless you have many hands with shovels then you may be better excavating the first one found fast rather than all of them slow. Personally my take is that unless you have more than four folk with shovels on the surface don’t spread your resources until you have the first located victims face exposed, some of the chest clear and started resuscitation. Some research has shown that airway management with ventilation and if possible, chest compressions should begin immediately, even when the victim is still partially buried. See link to Scandinavian Journal of Trauma Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine paper below.

New avalanche beacons such as the Ortovox “Diract” are now coming with useful features such as voice prompts, re chargeable Li Ion batteries, hardware checking via a phone app and via the app software updates to future proof them. The curse of the “auto revert” from an inactive rescuer during training or during the real deal is now less of a problem with a beacon standby mode prompt when you go back from search to transmit, or if searching when a light sensor on the display gets covered it puts the beacon back to transmit.

Its sensible to have a longer probe if you can fit it in your pack. Most ski specific day rucksack sleeves only take a 240cm probe, although touring rucksacks are bigger. I find a 280cm carbon probe in my day sack a good compromise. MRT and Ski Patrol should have some 3m+ probes for when the companion rescue phase is taken over by rescuers. It used to be assumed that folk buried deeper than the 240cm had a poorer chance of survival. In fact, it’s only poor as it depends how fast they are dug out and with less people and fatigue that remains partially true. Ski patrol, mountain rescue should be able to have lots of diggers available. With strategic digging methods and enough rescuers folks are now getting dug out alive from 4m+. 

Avalanche rescue is also a logistics issue requiring delegation and leadership as well as regular training and skills practice. Realistic scenarios get teams or groups working together and well drilled. If the victim has no beacon transmitting, or Recco reflectors then its avalanche dogs early on scene, or probe searching. Probing the slowest of all methods to find a victim. Probing requires more rescuers and good line discipline. Initially it may be members of the public co-opted (if deemed safe) spot probing while rescuers carry out beacon and Recco sweeps. MRT and SARDA should be on the way ASAP. Survival is best with the “all in” approach where every search method is called in and deployed as soon as possible. Formal probe lines are like herding cats. Fail to practice this and you plan to fail. It’s a neglected area which is why rescuers need to practice.

It remains that the most effective airway opening device is a good shovel in the hands of someone who’s not work shy. A memorable example was local builder Brian MacDermott a member of Lochaber Mountain Rescue who I witnessed shift more snow in a short space of time than 4 other rescuers in a multiple victim event in the Great Gully of Buachaille Etive. We normal folk can achieve similar as a group by employing a conveyor and using a more strategic organised approach to digging. The tool needs to be an alu shovel with a wide blade and extendable handle such as the Ortovox Pro Alu III. It’s also useful if it can convert to a hoe as sometimes those in a conveyor behind the front person are better to be pulling the snow away from the front digger.

While we wait for the snow to arrive there is plenty for us to train and probably not enough time to do it all. But it can be a sociable time and a good mental preparation for a season that’s not just going to be unpredictable for its weather, but also from a snow hungry public with time to make up and perhaps less risk averse. The pieces to be picked up by rescuers.




For all you mountaineers out there. "Be Searchable" if your pushed for money or carrying the full winter climbing kit and no space for more kit then at least consider a couple of RECCO reflectors. £40 that might either save your life, or a rescuers life as they are not exposed for longer than necessary to avalanche risk - and they may actually find you. Several Scottish MRT's and Ski Patrol have Recco R9 detectors as this is part of the standard "all available search tools" immediately deployed to an avalanche scene as per International Alpine Rescue protocols. A Helicopter airborne Recco search capablity is currently under way in the North of England as it can search huge areas very fast as the detector looks down from the sky. Also drone technolgy for deployment is also now possible. If you require any information on RECCO please contact me as I am the UK Trainer and rep.

Friday 8 September 2023

Peter Pan and A Lost Boy

The philosopher and author Jordan Peterson a contentious writer who I seldom agree with on some issues but aptly describes a "Peter Pan" effect when boys don't grow into men by their mid 20's and take personal responsibility for the direction of their lives. He's quite a contentious philosopher but there is much truth in what he says of boys to men. He hints that when men do come out of being a "lost boy" (some of us had to grow into manhood much, much quicker than that) its ok to rediscover the freewheeling attitude of youth, try different new things or throw yourself back into old things with gusto. Basically get some youth back into your old bones and soul. I guess I'm a bit like that now much to the amusement of my family.

Cloughs Cleft E25b 
Climbing re-discovered for me was and is my late life Peter Pan effect, I think. I have been among the mountains and trying to be a climber since I was maybe 13 years old. Not always very successfully as an early rescue of myself and friends proved when at 16 years old Hamish and the team rescued us from the icy North Face of Aonach Dubh when I was left at the end of the frozen rope in an icy gully. Mountain Rescue involvement was long part of that growing as a person as at that time it was a small rescue team very strapped for cash. It was where all active local mountaineers migrated to or were co opted to help out. Rescues were a moral obligation and often there just were not enough team members, and it was the only way someone was going to be recovered. This only really changed in the mid 1980's. The only way it could happen was if the local or visiting mountaineers went out and made up a rescue team. Folk were called up by phone, grabbed out the bar or co opted when up staying with a friend on a climbing trip. Often these were among the best mountaineers of their generation and from Glencoe School of Winter Mountaineering. It was in effect also a climbing club. As a young lad  learning to become a mountaineer and having a love of the mountains could be overshadowed by tragedy and a normalisation of dealing with that. Putting somebody in a body bag at the foot of a route then climbing the same route at some future point and with a smile on your face because you had enjoyed it seemed ok. So I suppose like other lads in Highland Glens who took to climbing, the two things, MR and Climbing ran in parallel and were a little bit firewalled from each other. Although making the same mistake on "Big Top" as a climber who we knew was killed by not extending the runner on the bulge and step on the last pitch was thought provoking, as was the fact it had started raining hard while literally hauling the rope a bit at a time to the top. Character building. 

I always thought that was ok as it never stopped me exploring and climbing some of the hardest routes of that time. Over that forty five or so years, forest work, falls and accidents took its toll a bit. Crippling back injuries, chainsaw cuts and broken bones, a debilitating chronic illness and also some mental health issues from trauma and tragedy, not all MR related all at one point came to a head and I turned my back to the mountains and hated them. When an old back injury came back to haunt me and I couldn't walk I sold all my climbing gear. That was it over with the mountains as places that take too much - or that was how it seemed.

I was on my first rescue at 15 years old and on reflection the early years were a golden period where  tragedy was never permitted mentors to interfere with the climbing as they were climbers and mountaineers above all else and that was just the price for fucking up or bad luck. I would be very wary of allowing my son even now who is a good climber in his mid 20's to be involved in what is now a more organized but not necessarily a better mountain rescue service. I think firstly team members need to become good climber/mountaineers for themselves before allowing the mountains to show you the dark side on a regular basis. It's too easy to become an addicted rescuer trauma junkie rather than mountaineer who rescues, as it was back when obligated by a small population with few mountaineers and a local necessity to form a rescue party.
A bit of sport fun at Glen Lednock

These musing are leading somewhere. Its maybe a bit of stream of consciousness stuff. After selling my kit and hating the mountains, five years later and after much rehab I could run again despite a hip impingement picked up on an MRI on my spine and raced my bike and then really got back into ski touring.  Due to my son getting the bug again for climbing it got me back up to the wall and training and ending up having to buy some climbing gear. I was really well supported by lifelong friends especially Sean MacNeil who donated his old climbing rack to me. In just about everything I do I try and apply myself to be the best I can. Be it self taught spey casting for salmon, to sport climbing or skiing. If you work hard at it you improve. 

Currently I do some core work, yoga stretches and conditioning and follow a basic "climbstrong" plan, and despite the years I see progress. There is lot I can't do from old broken bones. I have broken lots of bits and in particular had a head injury and spinal trauma, but I am blessed with strong fingers and arms and I am maintaining and even seeing progress despite the years. Self improvement doesn't stop when you get a free bus pass. Climbing and the mountains re discovered give back that feeling of being part of a unique tribe of wanderers and seekers among or over the high tops, and meeting like minded folk.  But also, since Fiona's passing a new perspective and a grace allowing the mountain obsession to not rule as other good people come into your life and share gentler pastimes.

It's not always about grades although for me, that merely provides a measure of indoor success at the walls and being goal focused it provides a measurable result. While at a wall folk chat about what they have done, where they have been or life in general and its good social. The same is true out at the crags. It's great to enjoy the mountains again and to have forgiven them. They are in the end benign lumps of rock but they allow us space to be free. This quote sums it up better than I can:

“The secret of the mountain is that the mountains simply exist, as I do myself: the mountains exist simply, which I do not....I ring with life, and the mountains ring, and when I can hear it, there is a ringing that we share” Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard


Sunday 16 July 2023

A Guides Tale

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

I summon up remembrance of things past,

I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,

And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste …

Shakespeare Sonnet 30


Back in the day ..........

Guiding was as yet confined to few within the Glen and these few mostly in the employ of the old fox or his 2ic Ian Nicholson. Many were on an ad hoc basis recruited when business was brisk. Notables being the likes of Fyffe or Spence or maybe Dave Knowles when he was about.

At that time I was a mere youth as yet not tempered by attempting hard men’s climbs and harder drinking in the wee snug after hours.  One climb above all was revered by us fresh youths, both from behind and in front of the bar. This was partly out of convenience. Like the hindquarters of an elephant as eloquently described by Bill Murray, it started only 10 minutes from the bar door. “The Gully” could be accomplished either solo before twelve thirty Sunday opening, or roped between two thirty and six thirty, usually by a mixed company of barman/maid and customer. It is fair to say “the gully” was well known to us.

Walking down the village one Saturday a passing car stopped and wound down its window with the driver asking if I knew of a local guide for hire.  A couple of names were passed to him and the chosen route asked.  When the reply came that it was none other than “the gully” I felt compelled to offer my services – for a reasonable fee of course.

So it was that I was hired, but not before my clients revealed that they were a professional couple, betrothed, and in addition they belonged to a “socialist mountaineering club” (The Red Rope) and as such were happy to support the local proletariat but not at excessive cost. We settled on a less than princely sum, perhaps due to my obvious youth and assumed lack of experience.  I went home to collect my climbing gear.

My kit at that time was by modern standards very meagre, but at 17 years old, dances, Ceilidhs and girls took priority. So it was that I as a junior bergfuhrer assembled my rack at the foot of the gully.  200’ No 2 Viking nylon donated by Robin Turner after an abseil lesson of his cottage roof, a pair of new Lionel Terray boots from Hamish, as the originals had been stolen from Kingshouse after a rescue in Ravens Gully that winter when I took them off to go in the lounge bar (under the watchful eye of the proprietor Jim Lee), and the most modern harness of its age – the ubiquitous Whillans. This along with a set of nuts made by clog attached to wire hawser, a selection of pegs and several slings in bright pink tape concluded the ironmongery for the ascent.

It had not rained for a month but never the less it would not have occurred to me to wear rock boots, even though I had a pair of EB’s donated to me by Sandy Whillans a local policeman.  The gully is a boot climb.  That’s how Bill Murray did it and you always follow in the footsteps of the master, don’t you?

We started the gully at its root via a pitch shown to me only the Sunday before by one of the barmen. This pitch is walked passed by most but I thought that as I was getting paid for the job in hand then a refund might be requested should all available rock not be included in the ascent. It went very well, with the pair climbing very fast and alarmingly competently in parallel on the twin No 2 weight Nylon ropes. During conversation it became apparent that proper guides were hired on a regular basis by the couple – indeed the previous weekend a “proper” guide had been secured in the Llanberis pass for the same rate as I, and three of the classics of the pass, including the renowned “Wrinkle” had been successfully ascended.

By now the haze of morning had becoming a black menacing shroud of afternoon, and soon the occasional very large plop of rain fell.  By this time we had passed the lower greenery and were in the more austere surroundings of the crux slab above the “Great Cave”. The atmosphere was oppressive and clearly it was going to become very wet. We passed a road sign saying  “ice” complete with metal post, put there the previous year by some pranksters on a fresher’s weekend.  The slab was climbed and soon we were at the redoubtable “Jericho Wall” which at that time was pitch 7 or 8 of the roped pitches if you include the lowest pitch. I regaled them with stories of daring doo and an account of the early history of the gully, plus of course a few rescue stories to enhance the atmosphere. It clearly had the desired effect as they were keen to push on and seemed apprehensive to say the least. This was further heightened when the rain started and they realised we were in for a deluge.

The pressure was on, but could the aspirant bergfurher pull it out the bag without needing the services of the rescue team?  Absolutely - afterburners on it was all go with each subsequent pitch dispatched at full speed with a full blown thunderstorm breaking around us.  With drowning and falling as a combined incentive the pair climbed well despite being visibly terrified, so all credit to them as I was feeling a burden of responsibility beyond my years.  We topped out after a 5 hour ascent, 30 odd pitches, over 1,700 feet of climbing and in a reasonable time for  a roped party of three.  Some parties have taken upwards of 14 hours and in one case 2 full days. For us all that remained was the knee wrecker down to the pub and a beer by the fire.

Two hours later as a bedraggled crew we arrived at the pub. They reluctantly bought me a beer as I was underage but  complemented me on a fine though short day.  As the day was shorter than they had in the famous Llanberis pass, and the climbing deemed inferior they had discussed the fee and felt that it should be halved.  So it was that barely enough cash for an evening “session” was handed over to the naive bergfurher, who there and then decided that the peoples flag was brightest pink and not as red as he might think. Guiding might not be for him after all.