Fantastic day, great route and great company! I headed out with Graham to do Number 6 Gully on Aonach Dubh today but turned out he was unable to climb, so at the carpark I asked Al 'The Hoff' Halewood and his client if I could jump on the end of their ropes. They were both more than happy to do this and it was great for me as I could just sit back and enjoy the ride. Andy climbed very well and fast which meant we got to the route nice and early but we also topped out quickly and got back to the car before 1pm. The route is in good condition, plenty of fat ice. Some of the ice under the snow is soft but it just sucks in the axes! It was great. Some sections are quite thin but plenty of kicked in foot holds to make the most of. Couple of other teams behind us and a couple of teams up in Stob Coire Nam Beith. Snow falling down to about 300m ish.

Today and yesterday were spent walking in the hills around Ben Alder. Lorenzo and I spent last night in the Culra Bothie which is quite a nice place to sleep. We walked in from Gallovie and along River Pattack to Loch Pattach and then on to the bothie. This 15km trek took us just under 5 hours with the deep snow we had to walk through, it seemed like it was never going to end. We got to the bothie, recharged our batteries and decided to only walk up Beinn Bheoil (1019m), we didn't have the energy or the daylight to do Ben Alder, we arrived back at the bothie in darkness for dinner. In the morning we had an early start and shot up Carn Dearg (1034m) before taking the 15km trek back out. The snow was coming in hard at some points but we walked out fast and hard in just over 4 hours. A long couple of days, I think I will head back out in summer on the bike next time.

Today Al and I headed up to Ben an Dothaidh for a bit of mixed action only to find that the buttress was black and just not in condition. We popped around the corner and climbed a short section of ice to save the day which went at about IV. We headed back to the car as Al decided to take his wife up Steall Falls so I left them too it. So another rest day kind of . . .

Today I took a day off a headed out for a low level morning walk up near Glenfinnan. We were hoping to find some low level ice falls but no luck. Anyway it was nice to have a very light rucksack for a couple of hours. Back to the house now with no running water as all the pipes have frozen! :-(

Today Jamie and I made the First Ascent of Hidden Streak, it required a sharp eye for the belays as well as turf protection. The rock is very broken in the gully so hard to find rock gear. Still good variations to be had some at grade III and a couple of good grade V ice pillars! The ice was nice and thick and was totally bomber. I have more photo's if needed.

East Race, Sgorr Bhan, Beinn a' Bheithir - Hidden Streak IV/4 - 210m

Two short steep ice falls lead into a narrow gully which curves round left, follow easy angled snow slopes to pass below a steep ribbon of ice on the right (looks about grade 3) and climb the main ice fall further along. There's a belay half-way up on the rocky ridge, just below and right of the upper ice apron (and a good spot for photos). Climb the upper ice fall (crux) to easier ground. Definitely worth a star or two.

Guy Steven and Jamie Hageman - 08/01/2010

Today Rich P and I headed up to the South Flank of The Aonach Eagach for Blue Riband (V,5). On approach we saw head torches ahead but were way off to the right. As we got level with them they said they were looking for Blue Riband too. Thanks to them for letting us go first, especially as they drove over from Glenmore Lodge. Rich led up the first pitch, finding lots of hollow ice and water running down behind, however plenty of ice for screws. I took the second pitch which was a great 50m of climbing. We proceeded onto the final steep pitch which was definitely the crux today. It was very thin and weighed in with a technical 6 we thought. As we got higher on the route it was rapidly moving out of condition. It was very warm in the sun, melting alot of the ice away. The first two pitches are definitely worth doing.

I hit the slopes today as I had family up who don't climb. We headed out for Glencoe today, somewhere I had never skied, only walked and done winter skills courses. There was plenty of snow up there, still with a few rocks sticking out here and there. It was cloud free almost as far as the eye could see, some summit cloud over Ben Nevis for a couple of hours. Temps were very low today, good thing there was a cafe to get a hot chocolate! I also managed to ride all the way back to the car park, a rare occurrence. Anyway back to climbing tomorrow!

Today Dan and I headed up to Beinn Udlaidh to climb Peter Pan Direct. As we got to the crag there was a team on it, so we headed up Quartzvein Scoop (IV,4) instead. This was Dan's first grade 4, he has only ever climbed grade 1 gullies so he found this rather exciting. When we got back to the bags, Peter Pan Direct (V,5) was free, so we jumped on it. Another big step up for Dan, he loved the route despite him taking a fall, no harm done though. Conditions were great, the routes were nice and fat with good ice, the route exits were fine, however in the afternoon the wind picked up and it snowed, so lots of snow getting blown around above the routes! As we drove back, very heavy snow through Glencoe with strong winds! Unfortunatly no pics of Peter Pan Direct.