Valentines Day, Stunning weather, bad weather, great climbing and Pete refusing to let the Mountain rescue team in the hut…
Part 1 – The climbing
Between the 4 JMCS spaces booked and the 3 SMC ‘spaces’* booked by joint members we had a total of 10 members and potential members on the meet, which may be close to a record for the CIC meet.
*One SMC space is actually 2 bed spaces.
Friday and Saturday were forecasted to have great weather so Jeremy, Ole, Pete, Lee and Sean headed up Friday morning while the rest of us helped to support the UK economy.
Ole and Jeremy climbed Vanishing gully (V,5), reporting good climbing, while Pete, Lee and Sean opted for a bigger day on Glovers Chimney (III,4).
I arrived with Neil around 9.30 with Pete, Lee and Seam getting back to the hut not long after. Lee looked like he was about to fall asleep while Pete (who actually had no sleep the night before) seemed remarkably alert, obviously all those early mornings and long shifts getting to Edinburgh and back has trained Pete well. Sean seems to be able to match Lee’s enthusiasm remarkably well (which takes some doing!).
Dave and Tom arrived some time after I had gone to bed and Higgy delayed his arrival until Saturday morning due to work commitments.
Saturday, another stunning day and an early start by some to beat the crowds and a late start by others to recover from the adventures of Friday.
Ole and Jeremy set off to do Italian Right Hand (IV,4) before abseiling off after the first (crux) pitches and followed up by an ascent of Fawlty Towers (III). Neil and I traversed across to Compression Crack (V,5) which had good ice in the upper crux pitch (I’ve failed here before with poor ice despite the bottom pitched being superb steep blue ice). Dave and Tom followed Ole and Jeremy up Italian Right hand,,but opted to carry on up the route to Tower Ridge and the top of the mountain.
Lee, Pete and Sean wanted a shorter day so went to have a look at Tower Scoop, a great short IV,4 in Observatory Gully, but poor ice conditions forced a re-think and an ascent of Gardyloo Gully (II,5!)*
*it’s a II normally but the build-up was not enough to cover the chockstone which left a tricky steep & undercut ice pitch with which someone had previously commented on UKC was tech 5! (it looked about tech 4 from the photos, but I didn’t climb it!).
The shorter day turned into a much longer one when they got stuck behind a party of 4 struggling (for several hours) to overcome the tech 4 section.
Higgy had a great day on the stunning Carn Mor Dearg arete. I struggle to think of many better mountain days than this in good weather in a snowy winter.
Heavy overnight snow, high winds, a barely improved forecast for Sunday with a considerable (possible High) avalanche warning was enough to convince everyone a lie in and a walk out was the best option for Sunday.
Part 2 – the Mountain Rescue
Bang Bang Bang!
Someone was hammering on the fire exit door to the hut dorm room.
Two members of the Glasgow JMCS work-up with a start and contemplated who or what it was. Mr Laing went to the front door to see what was going on.
‘You can’t come in’. Mr Laing is reported to have told the Mountain Rescue team while standing arms folded in the door.
‘We’re Mountain Rescue and need to collect the stretcher from the hut’
‘Where’s your ID?’ Mr Laing allegedly demanded.
What happened next is unclear, but Mr Higgings is quoted as saying ‘Pete had the guy on a head lock’ another witness, Mr Rae reportedly heard Mr Laing saying ‘No the night Pal’ before wrestling the MRT member to the floor.
It would appear that, perhaps, the bright red jackets with ‘Mountain Rescue’ written on them in reflective writing could have provided sufficient ID to allow the CIC ‘security staff’ to let MRT into the hut, or perhaps Mr Laing was finally overpowered by the 15 strong team. Regardless, the Mountain Rescue team eventually gained access to the hut and the dorm room, where several occupants jumped to their assistance, while others slept peacefully and probably most others pretended they were asleep to avoid getting out of bed.
The MTR had been called to assist a team of three who were in need of assistance after one of them fell down number 4 gully on descent.
Mr Higgins is said to have provided a welcoming continuous supply of tea a freshly baked cakes to the heroic mountain rescue team and their casualties.
Later reports suggested that the team in difficulty had an earlier run in with Mr Laing on Gardlyloo Gully. Mr Laing and his hut security team had been climbing up the route and came across the team who were having difficulty surmounting an undercut section of the climb that had not formed properly. Waiting for several hours for the team to climb the difficult section and seeing the last member struggle with blunt ice axes Mr Laing had an apparently generous turn of heart when he offered the climber Mr Rae’s axes to help overcome the hard section.
Much swinging and kicking later with the assistance of several ice screws for direct aid the team made it up the hard section and to the top of the climb. Mr Laing, Mr Rea and Mr Norrie then proceeded to climb the route. My Laing reportedly removed all of the ice screws, although it is unclear if he returned these or kept them for himself. Which caused his companion Mr Rea some difficulty in following the route. This caused Mr Rea to fall, hanging on for dear life to the ice axes (that were not his) and were not secured by a lanyard.
According to witnesses the two teams made their way to number four gully for the descent. One report suggested that Mr Laing goaded the lesser experienced team into following them down the treacherous gully before leaving them behind, stranded.
Despite the challenging situation that team found themselves in all are reported to be recovering well from their harrowing experience.
It has not been possible to verify the accuracy of the above report, some (a very few) are based upon real lift events while others (most of them) have just been made up to create a good story (and make Pete look really bad). Some of the quotes are confirmed as genuine, however it is unclear as to the reliability of their sources.