Happy Happy Happy

This week I decided to visit what would normally be one of my regular winter haunts, but which recently I have actually been neglecting. As is always the case with Coire an Lochain, no matter how long it has been since you last visited, it never fails to deliver. This trip was no different.

A 4am start on Wednesday morning saw me meeting Mike Tweedley at Bridge of Earn where we proceeded to head north for an early start in the corries. At 7:30 we started the walk in, this could never be described as a trudge when there’s the anticipation of a great days climbing ahead of you. And this day proved to be no exception.

As we grew closer it was evident that all the routes in the corrie were in perfect mixed condition. Amongst them was our intended route for the day, the ludicrously steep “Happy Tyroleans”. The perfect conditions certainly did not provide any form scapegoat; the only option would be to make an attempt at this well known test piece with a notorious reputation. It was at this point that the butterflies in my stomach felt like they were on steroids!

We ascended the bullet hard neve to arrive at the base of the line, from this perspective the routes steepness was even more apparent. I could see that the recent training on the overhanging “Fast and Furious” was going to pay off. 

We suited and booted while trying to suppress the ever increasing nerves and build the necessary psych which is always the key factor to being successful on a route that’s at your limit. There was no doubt that this route would be in this category.

After moving past the initial thin moves followed by a small bold section it was obvious that I had reached the poor stopping place which, according to the guide book, signified the start of the difficulties.  It was in this precarious position that the dark thoughts of potential failure crept into my mind, as the onset of fatigue from my last week of training gradually weakened my arms. This was the first time this season that I had truly doubted my ability to finish a route. The placing of a solid piece of gear gave me the mental and physical reassurance to continue. I decided to ignore the thoughts in my head and accept that you can’t be successful on every route but it’s always worth a try.

To my surprise, and relief of not yet falling, I found myself ascending the steep crack which leads to the desperate rock over. As anyone who has knowledge of the history behind this route knows, this is the point at which all previous onsight attempts have failed. As I progressed through this final hard section I could see why. Thankfully the adrenaline that always seems to kick in at the crucial point carried me through these powerful moves onto the slab. Normally at this point you would be home safe with the belay a mere move away. This was not the case for me, however, as my axe was well jammed in its previous placement. Never a good situation to be in, but made even worse by the fact that the rock over move had taken me full stretch away from my axe, with the last piece of gear out of sight below me. This led to a teetering retrieval mission which involved me utilising every limb and I was eventually successful by using my foot to work the axe free.

To great elation I was finely at the belay.  All that was left to do was to give out the necessary whoops of joy that were reciprocated by Mike and set up the belay for his ascent. He made a swift and clean second of the pitch except for the repeated glitch of a stuck axe in exactly in the same place. However, after a similar retrieval he was at the belay with me.

It was then mikes turn to lead the easier second pitch to finish the route. Easier, however, does not mean easy! The pitch was extremely icy and the protection was hard to find under the thick layer of verglass. Mike put in a sterling effort to complete the pitch despite his earlier comments of being tired from the pumpy first pitch. Once he had shouted to me that he was safe, it was just a case of me seconding to success.

We rapped back down the line to our bags, sorted