SMC's Scottish Winter Climbs West
The Scottish Mountaineering Club and it’s publishing arm, Scottish Mountainering Press seem to be on an unstoppable roll. A continual stream of interesting and beautifully produced volumes seem to be pouring hot off the presses. The Fox of Glencoe, The Great Sea Cliffs of Scotland, Tears of the Dawn, The Munros and now a new winter climbs guide.
SMC/SMP have produced many books of a diverse nature but “Scottish Winter Climbs West” is a return to what they are best known for, a return to their roots (or should that be routes?) of publishing guide books.
All of their recent books have been of a new style. All are done in a very modern format, and the new winter climb book is no exception. Eye catching covers, brilliant photography and full colour route photo topos. No more old school black and white sketches, no more ultra minimalistic route descriptions.
Scottish Winter Climbs West is the first in a trilogy of guidebooks, the subsequent two will be “Winter Climbs East” and “Winter Climbs North,” to provide a comprehensive coverage of the whole country.
The book reflects the love and care put in by the author and publisher to say nothing of the input by the climbing community. It is a work of art that can be appreciated just by a glance at the front cover. Not just a slick, modern design, with simple fonts and the stylised SMC logo but, literally, a work of art. At first glance, it would be easy to think, the illustration is an amazing photo. Look closer because it’s actually a painting by the very talented Christopher Smith-Duque.
The cover sets the tone for the whole book which is a delight to flick through, to plan future routes, to be reminded of routes and epics in the past. The selection of photos is amazing with some fantastic shots
“With over 1300 routes and an abundance of new lines covering both familiar and lesser known crags, it’s scope and range offers options for climbing across all levels and styles and in almost all conditions. Crag and route information is accompanied by high resolution photographic topos, beautifully rendered maps and detailed advice on conditions to help you to be in the right place at the right time.”
It’s a big book with a huge amount of info but all well organised and arranged. A very user friendly guidebook (as all guides should be!), it’s great to see info on what conditions are required for a particular crag/mountain to be in condition. Typical is the conditions paragraph fro Beinn Udlaidh, famous for steep, easily accessed ice routes like Quartzvein Scoop; “the icefalls are fed by various springs near the top of the crag, so there is no need for freeze/thaw cycles. With a few days of hard freeze, these springs form copious amounts of pure water ice…..with heavy snow, the avalanche risk can rise very quickly, so careful route choice is required on the approach and descent.”
Each crag has a detailed map (although you’re still going to need/want to take an OS , Harvey etc map with you) then a series of info headings. Ben Nevis is going to be one of the most popular areas so let’s check what details are covered to give an idea of the comprehensive nature of the book.
First, there’s a bit of history, background blurb, then “Maps” which details the specific OS/Harvey sheets needed. “Public Transport” is self explanatory. “Amenities” covers the CIC Hut and associated web cam. “Bad Weather and Big Thaws” covers some options for less than optimal conditions. “Conditions” are divided into “Early Season”, “As the Ice Builds,” “Storms”, “Ice Season”, and “Fallback Options.”
Next, approaches are described as well as descents including pitfalls to beware of, such as “the infamous Five Finger Gully.” Then comes, the stuff every climber wants; the routes. The photo topos are fantastic. Clear photos, mostly taken from the aspect you’d approach the climbs, are annotated with the numbered route which tie in with the written descriptions.
The proof of the pudding will be using the book in winter but it’s been a joy to read through it and all winter climbers will revel in planning new routes and reliving memories of routes past, the epics, the victories, the good and the bad.
This is sure to become the go to volume/s for Scottish winter climbing especially when the two other books are available. It’s great to see such a diversity of areas covered rather than just honeypot locations like the Ben and the ‘Coe. Thus we have routes in not just the Southern Uplands but also Knoydart and Glen Shiel as well as the islands of Rum, Arran and Mull. Undoubtedly, most will buy it for the popular areas but it’s great not just to have such diverse coverage but good to see the SMP trying to encourage people to visit more out of the way places and take some of the pressure off the honeypot locations.
Congratulations if you’ve read this far and you may well be wondering what possible Cuillin connection there can be with this book! Browsing through the route descriptions, I came across this…
“Possibly the greatest ridge climb on the Scottish mainland….Tower Ridge is a justifiably popular route but should not be underestimated…epics and benightments are all too frequent.”
Back in the 1980s when I was just starting out as a climber, I set off to tackle Tower Ridge with an older, more experienced friend. It was a big route for me but I’d heard about it’s reputation for epics and went suitably equipped, assuming my more experienced partner would be similarly well equipped. Long story, short… we were benighted. My partner suffered with no warm clothes and a ripped orange plastic survival bag. I was snug in a goretex bivi bag wearing my brand new Mountain Equipment duvet. Just to round things off, I’d brought my Sony Walkman (remember them?) and listened to Bob Marley as I congratulated myself on my forethought.
Winter nights are long and we chatted away, my partner telling tales of the alps, Mount Kenya and the Cuillin. For some reason, the latter really grabbed my interest, the ferry across, the jagged black peaks poking up from the ocean.
Surprisingly, in a perverse way, I sort of enjoyed our epic but by morning my partner was close to hypothermic. His clothing had all got wet the previous day and with no spare things to put on and a perished orange bag for shelter, things weren’t looking good. In the end, we’d both squeezed into my bivi bag.
I knew things were bad when my partner handed me his rack with the words, “I don’t care what you leave behind, just get me down!” Him being notoriously tight with money, meant he was really in extremis. After a bunch of abseils and the serious depletion of my partner’s rack we were back on terra firma, well, at least gently sloping white stuff. He was on the verge of collapse as we struggled down to the CIC Hut. I’d heard horrific tales about unfriendly SMC members and how access to their citadel on the mountain was religiously guarded but still was gobsmacked by our reception.
Knocking on the door produced no response, so a gentle rap with my ice hammer followed and resulted in a head appearing around the edge of the slightly opened door. A quiet voice said, “Can I see your SMC membership cards?” He did have the grace to add, “please” but it seemed to cut little ice when I explained our epic and pointed to my partner who’d collapsed outside the door. “I’ve been waiting so many years to join and I’ve been told not to let anyone in whose not a member of the SMC.”
There was little empathy and even less help for my partner who was obviously suffering. Eventually after much pressure from me, the guy agreed to get a cup of hot water for my mate. We definitely weren’t being invited in as the door was slammed shut with force and locked. A while later, an arm appeared around the edge of the door proffering a single cup of tepid water.
On the walk out, I constantly relieved our epic, my thoughts turning to Skye, this fabled island of the Cuillin and knew I had to go there. Lower down, it was raining but it didn’t dampen my excitement for future adventures.
Things have obviously moved on now and it’s great to see the SMC/SMP being such a central part of the climbing community although I’m sure there’s some die hard SMCers who would regret such a good guide book being produced with so much useful information within.
Chapeau, as they say, to the whole team at SMP for producing such a superb guide book and I’m looking forward to the subsequent two volumes, especially the northern one that will include Skye. I’m not sure of the timescale but believe the SMP will be looking for crag photos taken from approaches to the climbs so this may well be something ATCers can help out on.
Many thanks to SMP for producing such a fantastic book and to main man, Robert Michell Lovell, for arranging delivery of the book. As always, it’s best for SMP if you buy direct from them rather than from well known internet big boys. That way, you’ll help fund future publications and any profits from SMP are reinvested in the mountaineering community and environment so everyone’s a winner.
https://scottishmountaineeringpress.com/product/scottish-winter-climbs-west-smc/
NB This guide book must be near the top of pile for design, usability and overall user interface. It’s pretty much faultless. One downside of it being such a wide ranging volume is it’s sheer size. It’s hefty and bulky and not really a book you’d want to take on the hill, or if you do then it’s going to be one that you want your mate to carry. Not sure if there will be a downloadable e book version but a photo or copy will work well