Climbing an icy 0.5 Gully with Cairngorm in the background
With a strong team we carried on where we left off with a solo ascent of 0.5 Gully in icy conditions. Having shown the students footage of Ueli Steck on his record Eiger Norwand speed solo the night before it proved to be a very quick ascent! The weather was absolutely stunning on the plateau and we spent a few hours enjoying the sun as we looked at bucket seats, buried axe belays, dynamic belaying and all the other fundamental building blocks for winter climbing. With a spectacular sunset in store we finished by paying a quick visit to the summit of Cairngorm. Today I was working for the University of Cumbria.
A wee rest before the rocky exit slopes
Topping out into the sunshine on 0.5 Gully
Building a buried axe belay
An ungainly top tip to get the length of your anchor rope right first time!
Traditional mountaineering skills and a solid foundation for winter climbing
The Cairngorm weather instruments which come out every 30 minutes
Sunset from the summit of Cairngorm
