{"id":1304,"date":"2011-01-14T22:15:21","date_gmt":"2011-01-14T22:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/?p=1304"},"modified":"2011-01-14T22:15:21","modified_gmt":"2011-01-14T22:15:21","slug":"hidden-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/?p=1304","title":{"rendered":"Hidden Ice"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1305\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/07Jan2011_Creag-Dhubh001.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1305\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1305\" title=\"07Jan2011_Creag Dhubh001\" src=\"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/07Jan2011_Creag-Dhubh001.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"434\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/07Jan2011_Creag-Dhubh001.jpg 600w, http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/07Jan2011_Creag-Dhubh001-300x217.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1305\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Lyall looking relaxed and composed on first ascent of Merlin (IV,4) on Creag Dhubh above Loch Ericht in the Central Highlands. (Photo John Lyall Collection)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>On January 7 John Lyall visited Creag Dhubh, overlooking Loch Ericht with Jonathan Preston, where they climbed two new lines.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The first one, Merlin (IV,4), I had been on before in 2001 with two clients,&#8221; John told me. &#8221; But we abseiled off to go to the aid of a team of three who were avalanched close by and needed our assistance. The second line, Hidden Gem (IV,4), does what it says on the tin &#8211; it follows a hidden chimney behind a steep wall about 150m to the left of Neapolitan.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Creag Dhubh can be approached from the A9 near Drumochter in about an hour or so, and is one of the best mid-level ice venues in Scotland.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The big lines of Swordfish, Neapolitan and The Hex Factor were all in good, thick condition,&#8221; John concluded, &#8220;but some of the other lines were thinner than normal.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On January 7 John Lyall visited Creag Dhubh, overlooking Loch Ericht with Jonathan Preston, where they climbed two new lines. &#8220;The first one, Merlin (IV,4), I had been on before in 2001 with two clients,&#8221; John told me. &#8221; But &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/?p=1304\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[75,124,175],"class_list":["post-1304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-route","tag-john-lyall","tag-jonathan-preston","tag-loch-ericht"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1304"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1338,"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304\/revisions\/1338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scottishwinter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}