17 Aug 2007 - My name
is Neil Smith and I live in the western
highlands of Scotland and have a passion
for Ice Climbing. Over the past 27 years
I have observed a dramatic change in the
ice conditions through out the Scottish
highlands. I find the warming winter trend
that I have been observing, disturbing.
Scottish Ice Climbing has a strong historical
link to the roots of ice climbing and has
some of the most challenging and adventurous
winter climbs in the world. Tom Patey, Robin
Smith, Dougal haston and Dave Cuthbertson
are some of Scotland’s great climbers who
learned their skills on Scotland’s mountains
and carried them on to the greater ranges
around the world.
During the mid eighties we in Scotland
experienced the coldest temperatures recorded,
great low lying water falls were frozen
solid, Greymares tail and The Falls of Glomach
to name but two. Both of these waterfalls
are amongst the highest in Britain but are
both about 300 metres above sea level, when
frozen solid they are beautiful climbs.
Very cold winters also occurred in the 1960’s
and 1970’s but have not occurred again since
1986.
The Scottish mountains, although small
compared with other mountain ranges, can
produce real arctic conditions. The Scottish
Highlands are 60 degrees north of the equator
and historically used to having regular
harsh winters. I certainly remember the
abundant frost and it would arrive much
earlier than recent winters. Milder winters
are driving snow elevations higher and producing
more rain.
Since the mid 11000’s the lower mountains
have yielded very little ice climbing. It
may snow, and then freeze, but exceptionally
mild weather would arrive and strip the
mountain bare again. More often now I find
myself rock climbing on the Isle of Skye
soaking up the sun in February! But I would
rather be ice climbing. The mountains between
2500 feet up to 3500 feet height are spread
across the northern half of Scotland and
contain a large number of classic ice climbs.
These routes where popular and climbed usually
from early in the winter season, which starts
in early December and ends in late April.
I have worked two weeks away from home
and two weeks at home for several years.
Usually when I am at home, I would expect
to find a route I particularly wanted to
climb, build up sufficient layers of snow
and ice to make it climbable. You would
expect to find sufficient ice build up at
some time during the five-month winter climbing
season. Scottish winter climbing depends
on a combination of both cold and warm weather
fronts. Heavy dumps of snow cover the mountains,
this is usually followed by a warm weather
front bringing about a slow thaw, a cold
front will then arrive and the ice will
begin to form where the thawing snow was
draining.
The winter of 2006/7 was another poor winter
for the lower mountains even the mid-height
mountains suffered. I climbed exclusively
on Ben Nevis (western isles of Scotland)
Scotland’s highest mountain and one of the
only mountains to offer guaranteed ice climbing.
Although some climbs were in perfect condition
a great many other climbs were not. I waited
patiently for ice climbing conditions to
form on the lower mountains but yet again
it didn’t arrive, instead we received the
warmest spring since records began! I would
hate to see Scottish Ice climbing becoming
confined to the history books it would be
such a shame, but it looks like a real possibility
and with in a relatively short time period.
