Friday, December 11, 2009

The Runnell






Carlos & Paul lead The Runnell (II) in Sneachda today whilst I climbed alongside and offered advice on gear placements, belays and time saving tips. It has been a beautiful sunny day with stunning air clarity and bullet hard snow - hard to get any better at this time of year! It was -7c in Aviemore this morning but hovering around freezing in the Corrie. The overnight frost has meant that the ground is rock hard frozen giving great climbing conditions in the gullies.

We were overtaken by a death roping pair in the Runnell today. Death roping is where two people climb at the same time tied to either end of a rope. Its totally pointless as it means that if one person falls then both climbers fall - worse still in a busy gully it means they clothes line all the other climbers off on their way down. My top tip for all death ropers is this - solo. Its safer. If you don't want to solo then pitch. Moving together is something totally different and should not be necessary in the Runnell. Rant over!

A great day and Scotland has given my clients a wonderful intro to winter climbing.

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