Mountain CV

I'm going to Skye at the weekend, to spend some time with my parents and to do a section of the Cuillin with a couple of friends. We're going to try and link a couple of the cruxes (the Inaccessible Pinnacle and the TD Gap) in a day - the full traverse is apparently better attempted as a two-day trip. My Dad offered to hire us a guide, which struck us as both generous and sensible. Said guide asked us to fill in a form detailing our levels of mountain experience, and I thought I'd share:

( If you're still alive at the end, it was mountain experience )

It was quite a fun exercise, writing it all out like that, and (like all such exercises) it's helped me to see both how much I've done and how much further there is to go. I've been consciously trying to push my grade a bit this summer, hence the A'Chir traverse and Curved Ridge, both quite challenging scrambles. I really enjoyed the winter climb I did back in February (a colleague took Michael and I up Ledge Route on Ben Nevis - great conditions, and lots of fun), and would like to be more au fait with technical terrain, ropework and general mountaineering skillz so I can get the most out of the coming winter climbing season. Sadly, the thesis (or rather, my inability to get anywhere with the thesis) keeps getting in the way.

By the way, I have a question of terminology: what counts as "mountaineering" to you? Any activity in the hills? Climbing hills whose summits are greater than a certain height above sea level? Anything involving a rope? Anything involving crampons? The intersection of the above? I veer towards the "intersection of the above" definition myself, and hence don't count what I do as mountaineering: it's either hillwalking, or it's rock-climbing. Stuff like Curved Ridge (where we were roped together, and mostly climbing with hands and feet) might count, I suppose. And what about the title "mountaineer"? I certainly wouldn't describe myself as a mountaineer - at best, I'm a hillwalker with ambitions to better myself. Maybe when I've done a guideless Alpine four-thousander or two.

My Munro-count has gone up by one this weekend, after a ( trip to Beinn Fhionnlaidh and Sgor na h'Ulaidh on Sunday )

You can see our route here: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2100666 . Total distance a bit over 22km, in just under 10 hours.

Returning briefly to the subject of the dreaded thesis, I added an index this evening, and managed to add four pages with a couple of hours' work (bringing me up to 108 pages). I think it's a worthwhile activity: it's given me another pass over the whole thing, so I have a better handle on what's there; it'll be easier to find definitions when I'm looking at a printout; it should help the examiners; it'll help me to identify gaps; and it'll make it easier for me to demonstrate to my supervisor that yes, I do deal with that issue :-)

¹ A col (also called a saddle, bealach or pass) is the lowest point on the ridge between two mountains, or, from the valley-dweller's point of view, the highest point you need to travel over to get from one valley to another.

Mountaineering terminology

I'd like to clarify the question in my last post, namely "what is mountaineering?". Let's start by introducing some standard terminology so we've got something to work with. ( Fun things to do in the mountains )

Clearly, a given mountaineering trip may involve some or all of these, and in addition may involve skiing, snowshoeing or abseiling (rappelling). But how many of the ingredients need to be present for a given trip to count as mountaineering? Let's consider some scenarios:

1. An ascent of a classic face in the Alps or Greater Ranges. Multi-day, involving technical rock and mixed climbing, gaining a major summit at the end.
2. An ascent of an Alpine 4000m peak by its easiest route.
3. An ascent of a lesser Alpine peak by its easiest route.
4. A multi-day "big wall" climb in Yosemite.
5. A single-day, multi-pitch rock climb on a roadside crag or sea stack.
6. A single-day, multi-pitch rock climb on a mountainside.
7. A single-pitch climb on a crag.
8. A single-pitch crag on a mountainside.
9. A boulder problem on a mountainside.
10. A sustained scramble up a Scottish hillside in summer.
11. A walk up a hill of 1000m or so in summer.
12. A walk up a hill of 600m or so in summer.
13. A sustained scramble up a Scottish hillside in winter.
14. A walk up a hill of 1000m or so in winter.
15. A walk up a hill of 600m or so in winter.

I think I'd count 1, 2, 6, and 13 as mountaineering, and possibly 3, 4, 10 and 14. How about the rest of you? I've never done any walking or climbing in the Alps (though I have skied there), so I'm unclear on the level of difficulty involved: my vague understanding is that the high Alpine peaks require little technical ice- or rock-climbing by their easiest routes, but involve plenty of movement over snow and ice, and may involve some scrambling on icy rock and movement over glaciers. They also have much greater objective dangers (avalanche and rockfall) than are encountered in the UK. Perhaps the experts can give us the benefit of their experience :-)