Author Archives: Simon Richardson

About Simon Richardson

Simon Richardson is a passionate Scottish winter climber

Highway to Hell

“While on the subject of high, north facing and reliable crags in unreliable areas,” Andrew Fraser recalls, “we have been doing some routes on Arrochar’s highest crag – the north face of the North-East Ridge of Beinn Ime. Again this … Continue reading

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Grampian Club Buttress

On March 29, Forrest Templeton and Kevin Murphy visited Glen Clova and climbed the buttress between the initial gully of Wildcat Wall and Pinnacle Gully in Winter Corrie. “We started at the bottom of the compact area of buttress to … Continue reading

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More Arran Winter Exploration

“It was interesting to see you were on Arran on April 1,” Andrew Fraser writes. “At the time I was over on Arran dealing with the power related problems and all the other issues which went along with it. When … Continue reading

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Centre Post Right-Hand

Michael Barnard and Ewan Gourlay visited Creag Meagaidh on March 31 and climbed Centre Post, Right-Hand (V,5), the steep icefall on the right wall of Centre Post. “It makes a good alternative to the Direct, “ Michael explained. “Steep climbing … Continue reading

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Spring is Here

“When Spring is arriving, I can’t help thinking about a fantastic day I had climbing Spring Gully in April 1996,” Andy Nisbet recalls. “The gully is on the north face of Meall Dearg, an outlier of Liathach and I had … Continue reading

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Explorations in Cama’Choire

Martin Holland and Jonathan Foden made two enterprising exploratory visits to Cama’Choire (between Drumochter and The Gaick) over the Easter holiday period and added three new routes. “I haven’t heard of any climbing in there before,” Martin told me. “It’s … Continue reading

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Allt Coire nan Arr

“I had been out six days in a row, all to the West from home, so I needed somewhere near the road,” explains Andy Nisbet. “Just like the Bealach na Ba, where the road goes almost through the cliffs. Why … Continue reading

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Spaced Out on The Ben

Iain Small, Murdo Jamieson and Nick Bullock added a new direct route between Space Invaders and Journey into Space on the Orion headwall on April 6. “I’d spotted the line when climbing on the Ben with Doug the previous week,” … Continue reading

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Nevermore

On April 8, Nick Bullock and Guy Robertson put to bed one of the last great problems on Lochnagar with the first winter ascent of Nevermore on the Tough-Brown Face. This rarely climbed summer E2 was first climbed by Dougie … Continue reading

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After the Storm

Chance is a fine thing. A route on Arran was high on my list of objectives for the winter, but as the season progressed it was becoming an increasingly remote possibility. Then out of the blue Stuart McFarlane emailed me … Continue reading

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